By that time, the railroads ran all throughout Iowa, so the answer is that it was a journey of less than a day to two or three days perhaps, depending upon where they went to in Iowa (how many transfers, what additional transportation they had to use to get to their destination, etc). You should do a marriage database check in Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin, too, as they were all eveb more really easily accessible from Chicago by that time. I would think if a young couple wanted to elope, they probably would have simply taken a train to one of the closest cities (South Bend, Milwaukee, etc) in an adjoining state, rather than go all the way to Iowa....but who can predict irrational young people in love, eh? :-) Penny > [Original Message] > From: <Daaazy1945@aol.com> > To: <IOWA-L@rootsweb.com> > Date: 10/29/2004 2:50:20 PM > Subject: [IOWA] Marriage-Unknown County1886Hardin/Vass > > Hello Listers, I really need your help. My grandparents: John Hardin born > 1855 Tx.and > Anna/Annie Vass born 1864 Ky.They first met in Chicago,Ill. Anna came there > in 1880. > John, abt.1884.They apparently weren't married there though.There are persons > with those names,but not the two marrying each other.I have checked the > Illinois site many times.Using all sorts of spellings. > So I thought I would try Iowa. I do not happen to have a map of the states > handy right now. > How long would it take a young unmarried couple to come to Iowa from the > Chicago,Ill. area? Would someone mind looking in marriage books or records for > these two people. > I would be so gratefull for any help. > Dianne Hardin > in Ca. > > > ==== IOWA Mailing List ==== > The IOWA Lists now have their own website with unsub > instructions, list rules and other useful information. > Visit & Bookmark http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~richard/ialist > > ============================== > Expand your family tree. Search more than 200 million names in > Ancestry.com's United Kingdom & Ireland Collection. Learn more: http://www.ancestry.com/s13968/rd.ashx >