Here's a list of a few sites to help make your research simpler.
Please let me know if you find any links not working.

Interment.net
Assorted Cemetery listings by Country, State, County, plus information on funeral homes and a lot more.
I've found several "lost" family members using the "global" search of all available cemeteries.

Birthdate Calculator
Will calculate date of birth based upon age and date at time of death.  Very handy for those "died age 27y, 3m, 13d" tombstone transcriptions.

Soundex Machine
Nifty tool from the National Archives--plug in your surname, it gives you the Soundex code for that name

Charts for Reference in Genealogy Research
This site has charts defining genealogical terms, old time occupations, disease names and dates of assorted wars all in one place.

Land Survey on the Great Plains
Confused by Section, Township, Range, Baseline, Meridian, and all those other land survey terms? Try this site.  Makes it all so SIMPLE!

Ancestors Free Charts and Forms
Forms including Pedigree Charts, Family Group Records, Research and Source Logs and more from the folks who bought you the PBS television series "Ancestors".  These forms are in PDF format so you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to print them, but it is available for download from the same page.

National Archives and Trust Fund (NATF) Forms by E-Mail

While this page indicates that the form can be used to order Form 80, the form needed to obtain copies of Civil War records, I have found that the same e-mail form may also be used to order these forms as well:
Form 80: To obtain records regarding Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Civil War and Spanish American War
                 military, pension or other related records
Form 81: Passenger Arrival Information
Form 82: Copies of Census Records
Form 83: Eastern Cherokeee Applications
Form 180 Military Service Records for WWI or later

THIS SOURCE DOES NOT PROVIDE THE ABOVE INFORMATION ONLINE.  IT IS ONLY THE E-MAIL INSTRUCTIONS FOR ORDERING THE FORMS YOU NEED TO FILL OUT TO ORDER THE INFORMATION FROM THE ARCHIVES.

Cyndi's Illinois Genealogy Links
Cyndi Howells has probably the most comprehensive list of genealogy links on the Internet, updated almost every day.
We'll link you directly to her Illinois section, but do also visit her main page for the complete list!

Treasure Maps 'How To' Genealogy
Treasure Maps is one of the "hidden" genealogy sites on the net..it should be tops on your list of places to visit. This is not a surname list as such, but is a HOW TO site, with great instructional tutorials (many with beautiful color photos) focusing on the actual mechanics of genealogical research. Currently online is an extremely well done piece on making tombstone rubbings. Instructions for all tutorials here are simple and easy to follow. A must see site-bookmark it!!

GenCircles
Probably the best "GEDCOM" submittal site of all.  This one has a little thing called "Smart Matching" which will compare your submittal to others and provide you with a list of matching individuals in a "side by side" comparison.
The site also has message boards, the ability to "block" the living folks data as you upload, automatic listing of your submitted names with "GENDEX" and a lot more.  Your gedcom is NOT for resale here, and is laid out nicely in website form.

GENDEX
A very popular and well-respected genealogy search engine which indexes thousands of databases containing genealogical data allowing you to find and view data on any of these databases without having visit each of the databases separately.

World Connect Project
Another Rootsweb production...similar to GenCircles except without the "Smart Matching"...tons of submittals and no fret of them selling your data.

Surnames Springboard
Surnames Springboard has emassed a giant listing of all sites with searchable SURNAME INDEXES. I highly recommend their services!  The only drawback is the annoying geocities popups....
 

Kindred Konnections
Although some data on this site is "pay for view", it does offer various ways of gaining free access to that data so you can quickly check for your family.  Most of the data here is supplied by GEDCOM submittals.

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