It seems that this practice was still common in the early 1900's also. One of my Jr. High School teachers was known to all by one surname but was actually born with another. He was not born out of wedlock, just born into a situation in which the parents or surviving parent could not take care of a child. As an infant he was "taken in" by another couple to raise and given their name, no formal anything just a name change. Apparently this was also the case with one of my Grandmothers. As an infant she appears in the SMITH family, in Cottage Home, as Selva COX, born 24 JULY 1910 in Makanda. Shortly thereafter she turned into Opal Nokomis SMITH, born 24 JULY 1910 in Makanda. I have searched endlessly for any type of paperwork that might exist with no success. The SMITH couple were married and had previously had one stillborn child. Ida SMITH's maiden name was COX so the possibility that they "took in" the child of a relative seems highly likely. I have so far found nothing to prove, or disprove where my Grandmother came from. I also have to wonder (due to several circumstances) if it is possible the SMITH's were perhaps not the first couple to take young Selva into their household. Maybe she went to live with a COX family (relatives?) first and they discovered they could not deal with an infant(???) and turned her over to the SMITH's. So, the search continues... Robin Robin's PhotoGraphics http://www.robinsphotographics.com On Nov 30, 2006, at 2:12 AM, iljackso-request@rootsweb.com wrote: > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2006 11:52:35 EST > From: Thehensons@aol.com > Subject: Re: [ILJACKSO] Name change law > To: iljackso@rootsweb.com > Message-ID: <c30.8373ab0.329f14d3@aol.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" > ...A young person born out of wedlock will be listed with one surname > in one > census, then with a totally new surname in the next census, and they > have never > gone to court. . . In the 1800's people took in children, but never > went to > court to adopt them. I have seen one formal adoption in a deed record > in the > 1880's. >

Does anyone know what's going on with the Nighthawk coal mines near Creekpaum Cemetery? My aunt was out there today to put flowers on her parents graves. She said the road was nearly blocked by tires, and someone was standing guard, she asked if it was ok to go down the road and was told there was nothing but an old cemetery down there. She was allowed to go, but said the tires were across the road when she came back out. She said the mines is really close to the cemetery now, evidence of heavy equipment and mud everywhere. I have four generations of CRAIN grandparents there as well as Henson GG grandparents and many other great aunts & uncles, cousins, etc. I would hate to see this cemetery destroyed. My husband and I were out there one day a couple of years ago and the lime dust from the mining trucks was just rolling over the cemetery. I thought then that those old stones wouldn't last long under those conditions! What can be done to insure we can always visit this cemetery, and that it will not be destroyed. This is not an abandoned cemetery, it is still used occasionally for burials, and has been kept up very nicely. Peg Crain Luthy

Sad to say but it sounds typical of Jackson County. They (county government) don't seem to care about the cemeteries in their jurisdiction. Woolsey cemetery has been cut off also. You can still get to it if you park on the highway. It now looks like a small forest. You may want to start with the state government. I understand they have a program to help preserve these old cemeteries. George Basden Photography www.basden.com gebasden@charter.net -----Original Message----- From: iljackso-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:iljackso-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Peg Crain Luthy Sent: Saturday, December 16, 2006 8:31 PM To: iljackso@rootsweb.com Subject: [ILJACKSO] Creekpaum Cemetery Does anyone know what's going on with the Nighthawk coal mines near Creekpaum Cemetery? My aunt was out there today to put flowers on her parents graves. She said the road was nearly blocked by tires, and someone was standing guard, she asked if it was ok to go down the road and was told there was nothing but an old cemetery down there. She was allowed to go, but said the tires were across the road when she came back out. She said the mines is really close to the cemetery now, evidence of heavy equipment and mud everywhere. I have four generations of CRAIN grandparents there as well as Henson GG grandparents and many other great aunts & uncles, cousins, etc. I would hate to see this cemetery destroyed. My husband and I were out there one day a couple of years ago and the lime dust from the mining trucks was just rolling over the cemetery. I thought then that those old stones wouldn't last long under those conditions! What can be done to insure we can always visit this cemetery, and that it will not be destroyed. This is not an abandoned cemetery, it is still used occasionally for burials, and has been kept up very nicely. Peg Crain Luthy ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List Guidelines: http://www.rootsweb.com/~illinois/JacksonCoWelcome.html ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to ILJACKSO-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message