I just discovered that my gg-grandparents, Thomas E. McMANIGELL and Mary E. BENNETT, were married on 21 Oct 1886 in Livingston Co, IL. They popped up in the Illinois statewide marriage database which must have recently added Livingston Co. data as this marriage hadn't shown up in previous searches. Also, recently, I got a marriage record of Thomas' sister who married in Chicago in 1885 and indicated her mother, Sarah (CURRY) McMANIGELL, lived in Strawn, IL. Also, Thomas' twin brother Charles S. McMANIGELL's future wife, Ida B. HODGES, shows up on the 1880 census in the Strawn area ... they married in 1888 in Phelps Co, NE. I don't know why the McMANIGELL family members show up in Strawn in the mid-1880s. They came from the Neoga area in Cumberland Co, IL. The railroad may have had something to do with it. The father of the family abandoned the family around 1882 and went to Colorado. I hope there is a marriage license application for Thomas and Mary showing Mary's parents. This is the first official record of any kind that I've uncovered for Mary. Thomas and Mary and two of their children seem to have died in the Cerro Gordo area in the mid-1890s leaving only my g-grandfather, Fern Elmo McMANIGELL. Thomas was born in 1864, the son of John and Sarah (CURRY) McMANIGELL. If anyone has any info. on the McMANIGELLs or BENNETTs or on the Strawn area, I would be interested in hearing from you. The McMANIGELLs were an Irish Catholic family and may have attended St. Rose Catholic Church in Strawn. Is this church still in existence? I haven't been able to find a phone number or address. Thanks, Mike _________________________________________________ Michael L. Hebert, Fort Worth, TX Email: mhebert.gen@home.com or genheb@yahoo.com http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~mhebert/