The settlers also left documentary evidence behind, for
example the probate records and inventories generated as the
older generations died.Bottles and crockery ... abandoned buildings ... courthouse records ... these are all results and records of the ebb and flow of rural population. But they are also part of a much larger phenomenon of American history, or even human history, the frontier.
One useful set of documents pertaining to the initial stage of settlement in Illinois are the Public Domain Records.