This image comes from page 216 of Probate Journal 44 from Hancock County, Illinois’ Circuit Clerk’s Office and was obtained on FamilySearch. There is a typographical error in this document. This probate journal is from the December 1917 term of the County Court–18 December 1917. This date is not on the image and the page itself […]

FamilySearch has the full-name index to “United States Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Applications, 1800-1900” online on their site. This database is an index only and does not link directly to the images at FamilySearch. The index was created by Fold3.com and FamilySearch links (apparently) to the images at Fold3.com and those are […]

The 1886 estate inventory of Andrew Trask in Mercer County, Illinois, contained a detail that is not always included: the manufacturer of several of the pieces of farm equipment. Modifiers of this type make it possible for the researcher to learn a little more about the item in question. A “Weir Sulkey[sic] plow” was valued […]

Here are some research suggestions to remember as your research progresses: Use contemporary [to the problem] maps Cite sources Avoid using record transcriptions Determine a record’s likely informant Question the reliability of the likely informant Ask “how did this record get to me from its original location?” Question (respectfully) the conclusions of others List the assumptions that have been […]

Order is good. I took a little time to organize the materials in John Ufkes’ cancelled homestead application file from the National Archives. 19 August 1871 John Ufkes filed a declaration of intent to become a citizen in Hancock County, Illinois. The copy of the declaration contained in his homestead application file is dated the same […]

From Squire to Prince; Being a History of the Rise of the House of Cirksena (published in 1901) is one of the books I discovered on Archive.org. The House of Cirksena is a history of the Counts of Ostfriesland and was written by Walter Phelps Dodge.Like other books on Archive.org, it can be downloaded as a text […]

It always pays to read the entire probate case file. This is part of a claim allowed to Philip Smith in 1865 that is contained in the estate case file for William Smith of Mercer County, Illinois. N. B. Partridge states that in August of 1862 Philip Smith paid him $10.00 for “making two coffins […]

“…that I am over 21 twenty One year of age native born citizen of the United States.” Even though the writing was not the neatest, it was relatively easy to transcribe. Ekke Behrens indicated in an affidavit of 2 November 1886 that he was a native born citizen of the United States. There is just […]

I discovered a court case that was appealed to the Illinois State Supreme Court while searching on Google books. I have included part of the summary here in this post. The parents died within ten days of each other in 1920. I am not certain what they died from, but will have to add getting […]

The list of disbursements in the 1938 final accounting of the John J. Trautvetter estate contains an inordinate number of “x”s. Over half of the disbursements were effectively eliminated before the report was filed. The disbursements that have been cancelled were to John’s family. He died in Quincy, Adams County, Illinois, in 1937 leaving his […]