Coleen Coleman wrote: > I know that from an article my dads' Great Aunt wrote that they > were residing in IL near Bloomington McLean Co IL 1860ish as they > had a daughter Elizabeth born IL? or? Other children Katherine, > Mary (my great-grandmother), James, Patrick and Thomas. Later Mary > and John were in Woodson Co KS USA. Whilst most people are probably familiar enought with the abbreviations for American States, please put the states in full because not everyone will be as familiar with American geography as you are. I'm guessing IL is Illinois? And KS is Kansas? > I had heard that if they were from 2 different backgrounds > Protestant and Catholic that they could Not have been married in > the Catholic Church. They could have done if the Protestant party converted to Catholicism. > But apparently I am mistaken on this as the certificate of marriage > states married at the Catholic Church. That suggests both parties were Catholic at the time of their marriage or professed to be. > The obits/wills would be for the parents John Dwyer and Thomas & > Catherine Hyland. As Nivard said, there is unlikely to be an obit. Obits aren't the norm over here unless the deceased was a local worthy or one of the rich and famous. If the deceased wasn't, the family would have had to have been paid for an obit. They would also have had to pay for a death notice. There might be a will. Anyone could make one but it would depend whether they could afford a lawyer to draw one up. You could try the London Metropolitan Archives (LMA) to see if they have anything. > Unfortunately no census for Ireland until 1901 so am unable to find > Johns' exact place of birth and have attempted to post to boards > for Scotland and NO responsesto my request for lookups for a John > Dwyer with a daughter Mary age 8 (1841) and 18 (1851). If John was from Ireland, you wouldn't have got a response from the Scottish boards - or do you mean lists? Rootsweb have both message boards and mailing lists but they are different. Since you didn't get a response, your people of interest are unlikely to have been there. Have your tried the Irish lists and/or boards? -- Charani (UK) OPC for Walton, Greinton and Clutton, SOM Asst OPC for Ashcott and Shapwick, SOM http://wsom-opc.org.uk http://www.savethegurkhas.co.uk/