I have been so busy researching I almost forgot to mention one important term: 'YOU'UNS' meaning, "y'all or you all." It was a well used term by my grand Dad, Ralph Waldo and I believe originates in Indiana. I have been very busy these past two weeks researching in Illinois and have made some very important discoveries I'm going to share. All this important data still has not helped find those pesky McQuillens over there but is most useful to the serious researchers. 1837 A well known Abolitionist and newspaper editor, Elijah Lovejoy, was set upon, Nov 7, 1837, by a mob of proslavery folks in Alton, Illinois and shot dead. That would have been exactly 117 years to the day before I went into the army in 1954. Now that's important. 1816 In 1816 there were a number of fractious folks living in various neighborhoods all over the state in Indian villages. Some of these folks belonged to the following tribes: Ottawas--Kickapoos--Pottawatomies--Chippewas--and the McQuillens a short time later. "Notice: in each tribe there are double letters in it." Note: I really like the word "Fractious," Webster says it means: hard to manage, unruly, rebellious, refractory, peevish, irritable and cross. With such apt and specific descriptions I can't understand why my McQuillens are not easier to find in Illinois. These very fine first Americans were led by such stalwart Chiefs as: White Hair--Pepper--Bull--Toad--Great Speaker--Pipe Bird--Blue Eye--Yellow Lips--Sunfish--and White Dog. The McQuillen tribe could have been led by: Rhoda Bare Skin--Whiskey Dave--George Pounding Rocks and other famous names of great historical significance. One great site location in Illinois was named Chicago and was spelled at this time, "Cheeaqua" and was given to a long line of governing Chiefs which has a number of interpretations such as: "The voice of the Great Spirit," Thunder, Skunk, and Wild Onion. There could be more but these seemed to be the most commonly used names. This leads me to believe that Chicago was a very important place, even back then, with such important sounding names. 1812-1814 The judicial system was very strong too, with proper punishment and judgments against evil doers that maintained the peace and tranquillity of the state, towns and villages. Some of which were: Perjury and larceny--31 stripes, bare backed. Burglary--39 stripes, bare back. Children and servants--Not to exceed 10 stripes, fully clothed. (Now this is one I could get behind of, if it included sassy wives. Don't worry, Josephine never reads what I send.) Horse stealing--50 to 100 stripes, bare back. Hog stealing--25 to 39 stripes, bare back. Bigamy--100 to 300 stripes, bare back. What makes this information so important to the McQuillen family survivors is, if poor gr-grand Dad, George W. McQuillen, were only given 39 stripes for burglarizing the railroad warehouse at Olney in 1876 instead of being sent to that nasty prison in Joliet, there would be no psyche scars remaining in his descendants and there would still be huge rocks across the state. I would have said, "Give him the stripes and forget the whole thing, maybe he'll remain in Illinois and leave the folks in St Louis alone." But that was not to be when he arrived in St Loo in 1882, just four short years after his release and one step ahead of the posse. Enough for now, I must return to my search for truth and accuracy concerning my McQuillens, Brashers, Byrnes, Browns and Vies.----Jim