I was going to be focused and concentrate on Riley and Nancy Rampley, the Civil War veteran and his wife who lived in southern Hancock County, Illinois.

I was searching the tract index for section 12 in Hancock County, Illinois’ Walker Township. That was part of where Riley and Nancy (Newman) Rampley farmed and lived for some time from the 1860s until the early twentieth century. The Rampleys were my focus that day when I was looking at the tract index for land deeds and other references to the family. The tract index is a good way to find “non-deed” items such as affidavits that are contained in the land record. And I did find an affidavit made out by Nancy Rampley.

But the name Trautvetter appeared in the index as well and it stuck out like a sore thumb. That’s what happens when a last name is somewhat unusual and you are related to every family in the county with that last name.

And the fact that it was “George A. Trautvetter, etux.” in the index only piqued my interest more. The reference was to my great-grandfather and his wife, not to some far-flung cousin.

I knew great-grandfather had rented or “owned and lost” several farms in Hancock County’s Walker and Wythe Townships before he finally settled on a farm a little further south in Adams County, near Loraine. I’d never bothered to research the various deeds, mortgages and likely foreclosures. The county recorder’s office wouldn’t have copies of any rental agreements and the other financial documents really didn’t interest me as my research on George and his wife focused on other aspects of his life.

Then it clicked.

The location of this document in section 12, Walker Township meant that my grandmother (the Trautvetter’s daughter) lived for a short time on a farm adjacent to where her future mother-in-law grew up. The moment that geographic reality clicked, I remembered my Grandmother saying that for a while she lived near where her mother-in-law used to. But before I located land record reference, I don’t think I ever would have remembered Grandma making that statement. It took seeing that record entry to jog my memory.

George and Ida Trautvetter for a time owned 110 acres in the same section of Walker Township where my Rampley great-great-grandparents lived from the 1860s until the early 1900s.

The item I found was an “assignment of mortgage” dated 1 April 1919. Sharp and Berry Brothers (the original holders of the Trautvetter mortgage) assigned it to a Mary M. Love.

The mortgage Sharp and Berry Brothers had on the farm didn’t raise any questions. Sharp and Berry Brothers lent money to a significant number of Hancock County farmers. What was odd was that it was an assignment of mortgage from Sharp and Berry Brothers to Mary M. Love. I have no idea who Mary M. Love is. She apparently paid off the mortgage the Trautvetters had on the property from Sharp and Berry Brothers and they assigned their mortgagor rights to her on 1 April 1919.

I stayed on task while at the courthouse and didn’t follow up on the Trautvetters ownership of property in section 12. However, there are some future tasks based upon the location of this assignment:

• When did the Trautvetters acquire the property?
• When was the original mortgage signed?
• How was the Love mortgage paid off?
• When did Trautvetters cease to own the property?
• Who was Mary M. Love?

George and Ida Trautvetter are enumerated in Walker Township in the 1920 Census–but that doesn’t mean they are necessarily living on this farm.

Questions, always questions.