On 20 February 2010 17:21, Suzanne Walker <swalker7736@yahoo.com> wrote: > Hi Ray.  You may already be aware of the following, but the State of Illinois has a pretty robust set of databases available online.  It might be worth scouting around a bit to see if there's anything that would help you narrow down what became of your James BISHOP (or at least eliminate some other James Bishops from consideration). > > http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/databases.html > > Regards, Suzanne Walker ------------------------------------- Thanks Suzanne. I did scan through the records a few years ago but the database has grown a bit since then. I've had a look through the Illinois death record indexes but unfortunately none of them look very likely. After 1916 the age is mostly "unknown" so isn't very helpful. Before 1916 one James BISHOP died in 1894 aged 58 so would have been a not unreasonable age when ours married [38]. There is another who died in 1878 who would have been 19 at the marriage date while Mary Ann MELDRUM was about 30. Not impossible but a bit unlikely as she returned in the late 1870s saying she had "left her husband" for personal reasons. If he had died in 1878, we think she would have said so. Still we will be going to Chicago later this year and will try to get hold of copies of the relevant certificates. Thanks again for sending the URL. I'll try the Census records too when we get there but the relevant ones aren't indexed so it may be too much for a flying visit. -- Best wishes Ray ********************************************************** >From Ray Hennessy Forenames website: www.whatsinaname.net Preferred Email address: ray@whatsinaname.net Hints for Scotland's People at http://bit.ly/WIAN-SCP **********************************************************