Karl and all, I really don't know of an exhaustive history of the families that migrated from Central PA to Stephenson Co., IL, but some of my own families went that route. It seems that the soils there very much resemble the limestone-based soils of Central PA. The terrain is similar (although less mountainous), the climate is not that different, etc. When one or two of them went out there, it seems they sent the word back here. Folks, believing there was a greater opportunity in that region, and knowing that their experience in Central PA would serve them well in the similar environment they would find there, moved from here to Illinois by the trainload. And that is mostly how they went. The greatest exodus occurred during the period after the Civil War until the early 1880s. People could catch one of the trains in Bellefonte, take it out to Pittsburgh, and from there travel west through Ohio and Indiana, into Illinois. Somewhere I have a map showing the train route that went almost directly into Chicago. It is for this reason that most of the folks who went there were able to keep in relatively close contact with kinfolk back here, and that oftentimes they would come back to visit PA every so often. Sometimes whole towns out there were transplants from Central Pennsylvania. One of the towns, it is rumored, has two intersecting streets called Centre and Clinton Streets, named after the two counties where many of the settlers came from. Most of the emigrants to the midwest settled in Stephenson County, Winnebago County, and Jo Daviess County in Illinois, and in Green County, Wisconsin. It would be wise to check all these counties for record of an ancestor. Every Monday night there is a chat room open for discussion of families that migrated from PA to the Northern IL/Southern WI region, that may be beneficial to you. I can't think of the website just now but when I see it again I'll pass it along to you all via this list. Justin Justin Kirk Houser Genealogist/Researcher of Central PA and Beyond Main Lines: Houser, Breon, Shawley, Ranio/Hrynio (and others) President, Bellefonte Area HS Class of 2003 Student Representative, Bellefonte Area School District Board of Education Listowner, PACENTRE-L@Rootsweb.com Historian, Schürch Association of North America (specialty Central PA lines) Member, Valley View United Methodist Church (near Bellefonte, PA) "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature"