This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Mees Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/Hh.2ADE/1.23 Message Board Post: My great grandmother was a Mees (Josephine Sophia) who married a Steppig (louis). They both were born and died in Columbia, IL which is in Monroe county, IL. I have traced the Mees back to the 1700s. Here is some information on my great-great grandfather Peter came to America on the ship the "Chas. Caroll", landing in New York on January 5, 1833. He initially lived in Philadelphia and later in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The Peter Mees family finally settled in the Columbia, IL area. At Peter's urging, his brother Georg brought his family from Pennsylvania to live near or with Peter's family. Story has it that an argument developed and was never reconciled. Georg's family changed the name/spelling of Mees to Maeys after 1844 and in 1845 Georg moved his family to a farm northeast of the present site of Maeystown. Peter Mees (spelled Maess on the 1860 census) and Katherina were both born in Bavaria. Peter was a farmer Hope this helps. Please feel free to contact me for further information