The third issue of 2026 features articles on Illinois, “The Prairie State”. Digging History Magazine is a bi-monthly digital publication which combines the disciplines of history and genealogy, our philosophy being that in order to be adept at one discipline (genealogy) one must be well-versed in the other (history). The latest issue is available by individual purchase here or by subscription (three options). Subscribers are entitled to 20% off all services, including custom-designed family history charts.
This issue, like all issues in this continuing series, features the state’s history, including how to find great historical and genealogical records and more:
● Mining Genealogical Gold: Finding Historical Illinois Records (and the stories behind them). Nature has bounteously spread her gifts before the sons of men in the “country of the Illinois.” The location of the land as well as its fertility has shaped its destiny. The territory of the state touches the watershed of the Great Lakes on the north, is washed on the west by the Mississippi river, and extends to the Ohio on the south. Resting in the heart of the Mississippi valley, the Illinois country has been shaken by every great force stirring the continent; the north and the south, the east and the west have exercised formative influences on its destiny. . . . the history of Illinois in a very real sense typifies the development of the American west.
● Citizen Soldiers: The Prairie State’s Legacy of Service . Illinois, the “Prairie State”, has a long and distinguished legacy of sending its citizen soldiers into conflicts near and far. This article discusses the state’s involvement in four nineteenth century conflicts, beginning with the War of 1812 through the Civil War.
● New Discovery vs. Deepening Mystery: A Tale of Two Illinois Civil War Pensions. I’ve recently had the opportunity to review two sets of Civil War pension files for Illinois veterans, one yielding new discoveries and the other a deepening mystery. It seemed a great opportunity to highlight what I found (and what I didn’t find) and turn it into a feature article for this issue.
● The Dash: Mary Ann Bickerdyke (1817-1901). General William Tecumseh Sherman declared at one point during the Civil War that she outranked him. She was not a push-over and wasn’t about to be pushed aside by Army regulations either. The Union soldiers she tended called her “Mother Bickerdyke” and they cheered her presence as they would their commanding generals.
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