Does Will Co. have marriage application like Iroquois Co. does? They list age, where born, parents names, etc. I have a marriage record for Lewis Burnow & Emeline Jervis for 7th of Oct. 1867. Need to prove the parents for Emeline. Thanks Wanda

In a message dated 6/15/99 6:31:31 PM Central Daylight Time, w-bouchey@softcom.net writes: << Does Will Co. have marriage application like Iroquois Co. does? They list age, where born, parents names, etc. I have a marriage record for Lewis Burnow & Emeline Jervis for 7th of Oct. 1867. Need to prove the parents for Emeline. Thanks Wanda >> Not the one I just got from 1854. Yes, I have some from Iroq Co too. Wonderful, aren't they? Perhaps in later years Will Co did a better job. Do you need the addy for IRAD in Dekalb? They have Will Co. records. Debbie

Hi Folks, Looking for Harris brought me to your list!! I have a Romulus Harris b.abt.1848 in Rockbridge Co. VA. His family moved to Ritchie Co. WV by 1860 and after that Romulus disappears. I ran across some info. on a site that shows a Romulus Harris living in the Paxton area. Now this Romulus would be to young to be mine but there is a chance he is the son of my Romulus. Anyone know of Romulus Harris? Or searching for Harris families in paxton area? Thanks Julie _______________________________________________________ Get your free, private email at http://mail.excite.com/

I have checked at the Kankakee County Court House and found no record of the marriage of John Lietz to Mathilda Wollschlager in 1888, yet family lore states that these are the facts. Also there is no record of the birth of their first child, Joseph James in 1890, again facts from family lore. I need help from someone willing to give me newspaper names to contact or churches to contact or provide lookups. Thanks in advance.

-----Original Message----- From: Lee Hollenbeck <lee@keynet.net> >As coordinator for the Kankakee ILGenWeb Project I have done what I think best for the queries by keeping them out of GenConnect> I think you are doing the right thing by keeping the queries out of GenConnect. Keep up the good work!

In a message dated 6/14/99 7:13:46 AM Central Daylight Time, mfuller@surfree.com writes: << -----Original Message----- From: Lee Hollenbeck <lee@keynet.net> >As coordinator for the Kankakee ILGenWeb Project I have done what I think best for the queries by keeping them out of GenConnect> I think you are doing the right thing by keeping the queries out of GenConnect. Keep up the good work! >> Ok, I am lost and confused. LOL. What exactly does this mean? Debbie

The Ford County ILGenWeb Project and Iroquois County ILGenWeb Project pages have been updated with the following queries and surname postings: In Iroquois County: BUSHMAN / WETHALE BOISVERT / GREENWOOD / MEAR FERDINAND GEHRT / WEISENBARN / CRUMBODY / KRUMWIEDE HAMILTON / LYON / LYONS / PETERS HOLMES / MAJORS / WYMAN PATNAUDE / COASH SPAIN PAGE / GARNES / DEES RICE / WHITE WARD WILLIAMS WILSON Later Debi Visit my Web pages at: http://members.aol.com/LaFineD/LaFineD.html or http://www.capstonebank.com/~lafined/ Stop by the Iroquois Genealogical Society Page at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~ilicgs/index.htm

Hi All, I'd need your opinion on this new development. You know the way we have queries now on the Kankakee pages - the submitter fills out a form and the query goes to the bottom of a page until I go in and edit and index it. I have not been very good at doing this for the last few months, primarily because I have been rebuilding the system I have for keeping track of queries and surnames since my hard drive died in February (now I have a zip drive for back up.) Well, I finally have everything nearly all set so I can get back into the swing of things this weekend when Rootsweb goes and produces these new County Resource Pages. If you have been going to different counties and looking at queries, you have probably seen the GenConnect system for queries, obits, ect. This system has been available to USGenWeb counties upon request since April a year ago. Well, now, I guess, RootsWeb - GenConnect seems to think their system is the best and only way to go because Roots Web has set up County Resource Page for each county at http://resources.rootsweb.com/USA/ complete with a suite of seven (7) GenConnect boards that include: Bibles, Biographies, Deeds, Obits, Queries, Pensions and Wills. RootsWeb is NOT USGenWeb. RootsWeb provides many wonderful resources, including the mechanism and space and search utility for this list and the space for the Kankakee ILGenWeb site, but USGenWeb and RootsWeb are two separate entities. RootsWeb has hosted mailing lists, then newsgroups, then web pages for genealogy for many years. USGenWeb was started about three years ago as an organization of volunteers who thought it would be a great idea to have regional Web sites, hosted by volunteers, to provided researchers with information on local resources, a place to post queries, a way to connect to people willing to do lookups, and some way to index it all. When I started the Kankakee ILGenWeb Site, I put it on the web space provided to me as a Keynet.net subscriber. Some time after that RootsWeb started offering space and eventually I moved it to RootsWeb. Currently about 90% of the ILGenWeb counties are on RootsWeb. I am not sure of the national percentage, it is probably high. The point is that although Rootsweb is very generous in providing this space, Rootsweb is not USGenWeb, and not all USGenWeb counties, or even all USGenWeb states, are located on the RootsWeb servers. RootsWeb is doing good things, it is run by good people, and it is currently supported by only any money donated to it, (although they are looking to sell ads.) RootsWeb is not some Borderbutt (FTM) outfit out to make a buck. The reason I am explaining all this is that it is important to understand that USGenWeb and RootsWeb are two different entities when making a decision about these GenConnect boards. Start at the URL above and you will be able to click on a few links to bring you to RootsWeb's Kankakee County Resource page. Starting near the top, you will find County Web Sites at RootsWeb and you will see the Kankakee Co IL Genealogy (Kankakee ILGenWeb) link. The only reason this link is here is because RootsWeb provides the space for this Web site. If the Kankakee ILGenWeb site was located on someone else's servers, Rootsweb would not even have a link to the Kankakee site here. I looked at the RootsWeb Iroquois county page and for some reason it lists only the Iroquois County ILGenWeb Site and not the ICGS page even though it is located at RootsWeb? Scroll down and you will see the ILKANKAK mailing list. Um, we decided to have a tri-county list since there is such overlap in genealogy research between Ford, Iroquois, and Kankakee Counties. I imagine you will see the same situation in New York where they have combined five counties into a NYC list and in Rhode Island where the list members have just a state list because, well, its Rhode Island for Pete's sake. If you go down further, you will see the GenConnect Boards. There they are, they exist. The reason I and many County Coordinators are up set by this is that, although we are supposed to have first dibs on them, If we choose a different method of posting queries or obituaries, ect, THESE BOARDS ARE STILL HERE AND WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE TO ANY DUFFUS WHO WANTS TO RUN THEM. Excuse me, but I just think this is silly and confusing and time consuming to any one who would be either posting a query or scanning for a query to answer. As you might be able to tell, I am more than a little upset that the RootsWeb county resource pages, seems to me to be Rootsweb forcing their way of doing things regardless of the visitors and volunteers wishes. Anyways, there are advantages and disadvantages to having Queries, ect., in the GenConnect boards. The advantages I can see are that the submitted information is automatically posted and indexed and responses can be posted. If there were no disadvantages, I would have snatched the boards up the instant they were available. Disadvantages: !. Information posted to GenConnect stays in GenConnect. The information is said to belong to the person who posted it, and he could request that it be removed or edited by the maintainer of the board, If we decide we have found a better way to post, for instance, biographies. The biographies already posted to GenConnect would remain there until each submitter individually requested to have them removed. And even then, the board would become and orphan board and would be up for adoption. 2. The format of the information is as you see it. If we want the information arranged differently, we are out of luck. If GenConnect decides to change the way the information is organized, we are stuck with their decision. 3. We do not know where GenConnect is going to be in five years. The web is ever changing. If you put information in a book or such, you can put it in libraries and there it will be until it disintegrates, the library burns, or some one finds the information so interesting that he absconds with it. Information going into GenConnect might be maintained by a USGenWeb volunteer, but it is going into GenConnect. Here is an Index to the GenConnect boards in Illinois so you can see what they are like. http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/indx/Il.html As coordinator for the Kankakee ILGenWeb Project I have done what I think best for the queries by keeping them out of GenConnect, but I am only the coordinator for the site and I believe the site belongs to you. We do not have to use all the boards, we can decide to only use only some of the boards for the Kankakee ILGenWeb Site. We do not have to use the boards at all. So let's discuss it. Lee Ann

Several have asked about getting copies of the book, so I will explain. About a year before Grandma died (early in 1996) she found out she had lung cancer. She was always writing stories and poems. In facto, over the years several of her poems appeared in books put out with poetry contest winners (and those who could afford to pay the company to print their poem in their anthology). So, in two or three installments Grandma sent all the kids and grandkids bundles of approximately 200 pages each printed off of her computer. Lots of the stories were short snippets she remembered, some were fictional stories she had written over the years for classes, for clubs, etc. And of course, some of her poetry was thrown in, too. Some of the things were repeated between the installments. So, basically the "book" is in a 3-ring binder -- I think because Grandma knew she didn't have much time left and she wanted to get as many of her stories out as she could, and didn't want to worry about getting it printed and bound. I had thought of editing it (only for spelling/typing errors) and MAYBE rearrange (like put the snippits in one section, the fiction in a second and the poems in a third) but thought maybe that might take away from the spontinaety of the book. Besides the fact, I didn't know if any company would actually be interested in publishing the manuscript, and I don't have the money to send out 50+ copies to family members (besides, they might be insulted that I edited it LOL). We have a LARGE family. :o) Anyways, that's about the book. Grandma had written and self-published (with the help of Kankakee C. C.) other books since the 1960s, but I believe most of those books were collections of poems. I think this was the first time she'd put together stories from her life and the family that she remembered. Brenda Hébert

Love the stories, and look forward to more of them. Myrna

My grandparents were married in Kankakee in 1888. His name was John Lietz and hers was Mathilda Wallschlager. I will be watching to see if either of them appears in your grandmother's recollections. Very interesting. Dennis

YES! YES! YES! And please subscribe to IL-TRACES-L and post them there at the same time. That way, the record will go into the archives and be there for reference into the future. And PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE photocopy the book and send a copy to The Iroquois County Genealogical Society 103 W. Cherry Street Watseka, IL 60970 What a treasure! BrenHebert@aol.com wrote: > Hi! > > In April, 1997 my grandmother Lillian Gertrude MERKLE HEBERT died at > the age of 82 years. Before she died she wrote what she intended to only be > about 50-page book of recollections. Things she remembered about being a > child in the Ashkum-Danforth area, things her parents and grandparents told > her, things about raising 9 children in a Catholic household in the Kankakee > area, and things Grandpa HEBERT told her about growing up in the Kankakee > area. The book ended up being over 200 pages long. > > Anyways, would it be okay if I occasionally post one of her stories > to the list? It probably won't be everyday, but I'll try to post at least one > story a week, if I think it might be interesting to the list. > > Both sets of Grandma's parents were early settlers in Iroquois > County, in fact her grandpa MERKLE donated the land that the old MERKLE > school was built on, and her father Chris A. MERKLE taught at the school at > one time. > > Grandpa's great-grandparents were from Québec and came to Kankakee > County in the middle 1800s. They weren't very prominent in the community, > just your average hard-working, religious people. > > Thanks, > Brenda Hébert > > ==== ILFORD Mailing List ==== > *********************************************** > Ford-Iroquois-Kankakee Genealogical Mailing List > http://www.rootsweb.com/~ilkankak/ilford.html > *********************************************** -- Loretta Iroquois County ILGenWeb Project http://www.rootsweb.com/~iliroquo/ Ford County ILGenWeb Project http://www.rootsweb.com/~ilford/ Iroquois County Genealogical Society http://www.rootsweb.com/~ilicgs/

I think you are very generous for offering to share your good fortune with the list. Does she by any chance mention friends, neighbors, schoolmates, etc.? It would be a nice surprise to be reading along and see an ancestor's name. Even if that's not the case, many researchers would love the opportunity to be able to visualize the town and lifestyle of their ancestors. I'm looking forward to it. Laurel Busch lsbusch@accutek.com My Iroquois and Kankakee County ancestor Valentine L. Spawr's diary is at http://www.iowa-counties.com/civilwar2/spawr.htm

The Tree By The Well by, Lillian G. MERKLE HEBERT In the thirties many of the old homestead trees: elms, cottonwoods, willows, ash and box elders, began to show their decadence and, one by one, fell or were blown down. Pa [Christian A. MERKLE], and a day laborer he hired, Mr. LaCROSSE, went to a tree farm and bought 50 Chinese elms and set them out around the house and farmyard. They ended up with one little puny one and Pa was going to throw it away but Mr. LaCROSSE insisted, "No, put it by the well. That way if one of the others dies, you will have a replacement." As time went on and World War II came along and gas was rationed, we did not make many trips to the farm and many times, it was in the evening and we didn't look around the yard much. It must have been in the summer of 1945, because Clarence [MERKLE] was home from service, that I drove into the yard and there behind the well stood a tree, topping the 40 foot of the windmill. Clarence was walking across the yard and I asked, "How in the world did you transplant that big tree?" He laughed and said, "That grew there. It's one of the Chinese elms Pa and Mr. LaCROSSE planted years ago." I argued, "It can't be a Chinese elm. It's too big. It has to be an American elm. There -- those are the Chinese elms." I pointed to a row of trees about the size of a large apple tree. "Yes, but they got only ordinary rain. This tree got all of the overflow from the well. That's what they mean by saying you should give a tree lots of water." A few more years went by and the windmill became unoperable and, since the pump was electrified, it stood there rusting away. They talked about trying to take it down but it was too dangerous a job. What with all of the nuts and bolts being rusted and only a skilled person with an electric arc cutter could do it safely. Nature took care of it. In May of 1951 a tornado came through the area and touched down in the yard, tearing the elevator off of the crib, carrying off 200 six-week old chickens, 30 guineas and their young, moving the milk house off of its foundation and twisting the windmill like a cork screw as it wound around the tree, slicing its branches on the ground, leaving only the tall trunk. In the years since, the other trees have stood but none has grown to such a stature as the little puny almost discard. Mr. LaCROSSE, by the way, was the one who made the sage remark: "Don't plant a $10 tree in a $1 hole." Street Signs by, Lillian G. MERKLE HEBERT Sometimes, you hear about a city council having to decide on a name for a street but one of the streets in West Kankakee didn't have to go through that formality. It was the farthest west street off of West Station Street and went south from the front of the old EZY Way factory, later ROPER. Having been originally a country road, a few people had settled nearby and it was still just the "last road to turn south." A man named MARTIN, who had lost part of his hand in a saw accident, had a gas station on the corner for a number of years. There is still one there, new and modern. After Franklin D. ROOSEVELT was elected he decided that would be a good name for the street, painted Roosevelt Ave. on a board and nailed it to a post and that is how the street got named. Just to the south of the corner, on the west side of the street, is a small two story house that belonged to Uncle Henry HEBERT. He raised his family there and, later, Pete (Viator) [HEBERT] and Yvonne [DIONNE? HEBERT] raised their family there: Lucille [m. PHILLIPS], Camille, Rita Mae [m. MADDEN] and Doris [m. DION]. The house originally stood at Greenwich, just north of Rte. 17 at what is now called Pipeline Road. Mr. NESBIT, father or grandfather of the NESBIT who does house moving now, moved it to its present location using horses to draw it on the big dollies or rollers.

Before there was "The Field Of Dreams," there was...Indiana Where Is Indiana? by, Lillian G. MERKLE HEBERT Genevieve tells how when she was little she knew that Uncle George [MERKLE] and Aunt Jennie [WALLACE MERKLE] lived in Indiana, but she never quite knew where Indiana was. Uncle George and his family came to visit Grandma Helena [TASCHER] MERKLE, who lived around the corner south and east about 40 rods. There was a lane going between the fields of corn that was a short cut between Grandma's house and ours. Genevieve saw our cousins, Alice and George [MERKLE -- children of George & Jennie], come out of the fields into our backyard. "Now," she told herself, "I know where Indiana is. It is out there in the cornfield." Little Angel by, Lillian G. MERKLE HEBERT When Lucille PRIESSER MERKLE was a little girl, about eight, she was hit in the leg with an exploding sky rocket on the fourth of July. She had a very bad infection from it, blood poisoning, and since there were very few effective medications in those days, she lay near death for several days. Father RIML, the parish priest, was called to give her the last rites. She recovered and grew up to an attractive, energetic flapper in the roaing twenties era. She wore short skirts and lipstick and bobbed her hair, which was not readily acceptable in those days. One day she was walking downtown in Ashkum when she met Father RIML and greeted him. He peered at her through his little oval spectacles and said, "Oh, it's you, Lucille. Tsk Tsk. It's a shame you didn't die when you were little -- you'd be an angel now." When she told the story she finished with, "Just what do you suppose he meant I was?"

David And Goliath by, Lillian G. MERKLE HEBERT I was very small for my age, only about as big as the third graders in our country school, even though I was in the seventh. There was an older boy, quite large, eighth grade, who liked to tease me, mostly about being a runt, midget, or anything else he could think of and it didn't bother me too much as a rule. However at Christmas I received a new fountain pen and, of course, I took it to school to show it off. "You're too little to have a fountain pen," he glared at me, not teasing, but with outright animosity. He didn't have one and his jealousy ate at him throughout the rest of the term. His teasing became more than teasing, almost viciousness. If he could trip me he would, or if I fell down innocently in one of out games of dare base, ani-i-over or green light, he would pretend to fall, too, and manage to kick me in the process. I didn't want to be a tattle-tale but I was getting fed up. However, I guess Teacher had been watching us, because one day near the end of the term when he had made a particularly insulting remark with an elbow in my upper arm as he passed me in the schoolyard, I turned and kicked him in the shin as hard as I could. As he grimaced and reached down to rub his leg, I came up with an uppercut to his nose, starting it bleeding, and he ran screaming for Teacher. Unknown to us, she had seen and heard the whole thing and she answered from a few steps behind us, "Lillian, you should be ashamed of yourself. A great big bully like you picking on this itty-bitty boy. For shame." I thought he might try to get even, but he treated me with a little more respect those last few days before summer vacation. The Lily Man by, Lilian G. MERKLE HEBERT If you have ever noticed orange lilies growing wild along the roads, railroad tracks, ditch banks, and farm corners you are enjoying the fruits of the work of the Lily Man. Genevieve [MERKLE FRUIN] tells me that Mama [Anna Genevieve WALLACE MERKLE] told her that when she was a little girl (she was born in 1883 so that would have been in the early nineties) a man came through the area of Iroquois county, and I don<t know where else, saying that all schools should have flowerbeds and, since lilites would reproduce themselves every year, he planted the orange lilies in the corners by the country schools. As time went on they spread and with animals, probably squirrels and chipmunks, moving the bulbs, within a few years there were "Schoolhouse lilies" growing all over the area and they are still growing and spreading. Mama didn't have any knowledge of who the man was, but said that through the years he was remembered as the Lily Man. This type of lily is very sturdy and shouldn't be planted where you don't want it to spread, because it will crowd all other flowers in a matter of two or three years. They look a bit like a tiger lily but don't have the black spots and little strips that the tiger lily has. [contributor's note: Lillian G. MERKLE was born 1 Jan 1915 in Danforth, Iroquois County, to Christian Albert MERKLE & Anna Genevieve WALLACE. In November, 1934 she married Edward Joseph HEBERT of Kankakee, Kankakee County. In April, 1997 she passed away at the age of 82 years after fighting lung cancer.]

>> Would it be okay if I occasionally post one of her stories to the list? It probably won't be everyday, but I'll try to post at least one story a week, if I think it might be interesting to the list.<< I would be very interested in reading what your grandmother had to say about growing up in this area. Charlotte Henley

In a message dated 6/10/99 10:42:10 PM Central Daylight Time, BrenHebert@AOL.COM writes: << Both sets of Grandma's parents were early settlers in Iroquois County, in fact her grandpa MERKLE donated the land that the old MERKLE school was built on, and her father Chris A. MERKLE taught at the school at one time. >> I think one of my grandpa's sisters married a Merkle. Very well known name in Iroq co. Debbie

Hi! In April, 1997 my grandmother Lillian Gertrude MERKLE HEBERT died at the age of 82 years. Before she died she wrote what she intended to only be about 50-page book of recollections. Things she remembered about being a child in the Ashkum-Danforth area, things her parents and grandparents told her, things about raising 9 children in a Catholic household in the Kankakee area, and things Grandpa HEBERT told her about growing up in the Kankakee area. The book ended up being over 200 pages long. Anyways, would it be okay if I occasionally post one of her stories to the list? It probably won't be everyday, but I'll try to post at least one story a week, if I think it might be interesting to the list. Both sets of Grandma's parents were early settlers in Iroquois County, in fact her grandpa MERKLE donated the land that the old MERKLE school was built on, and her father Chris A. MERKLE taught at the school at one time. Grandpa's great-grandparents were from Québec and came to Kankakee County in the middle 1800s. They weren't very prominent in the community, just your average hard-working, religious people. Thanks, Brenda Hébert

Hi, I am looking for information on Elizabeth (Elisabetha) Katrina Schumacher Wallace. She was born 11 DEC 1874 in Cabery, IL. She attended St Josephs Catholic church there. Her parents were Joahnn and Anna Tresch Schumacher. At some point she married ? Wallace. She was my great grandfather's older sister. I have information on her grandfather but none on her descendants?! Any connections? Any help is appreciated, Renee Schumacher Tatro