You wanted to know about a family in Benton Co., IL. I do little research in Illinois--the county in which I am interested is a burned county, but I managed to get some info because of an old county history for that county (in fact two of them). Also, someone had done some cemetery inscriptions which I found in a journal for a nearby county. (Genealogy is not always in county courthouses.) Anyway, may I suggest a couple of routes for you to take: Since you are studying Illinois, this is to inform you that Illinois State Archives has several databases, including a marriage index. I did not stop to search it but located a good many links to Illinois State Archives by using the search engine google. Type in htttp://www.google.com Then when a blank presents itself, type in quotation marks Illinois State Archives. There are a number of links, one for public land records, another for marriages, and I didn't explore the rest. I was testing google.com. You might even type in your ancestor's name in quotation marks and see what comes up--perhaps a lot of listings for living persons with the same name, but look for links that mention genealogy or rootsweb or some genealogy-related link. Another route you may want to take: Have you explored the LDS website at www.familysearch.org The link to the catalog is on the lower right of the initial webpage. You can type in the county you are searching (lower case okay, but do not use the word county) and the state and see what holdings there may be for that Illinois county. You can borrow film (not books unless they have been filmed) from Salt Lake City for a small fee through your local LDS center. A possible route: If this man were a physician, it may be that National Genealogical Society has a biography/obituary for a deceased physician. They have a website: www.ngsgenealogy.org There is a charge for this search for a deceased physician. Hope you find your ancestors. E.W.Wallace