I will probably never know what the letter inside the 1960-era envelope was about or who sent it. What I do know is that it was an instructive educational piece that reminded me of more things than I originally thought. My original commentary on the empty envelope was that someone who had an address of […]

It’s always great to determine a DNA match–particularly when it is on a family you’ve been focused on. That’s what happened with a match we’ll call “Jol.” She was a new shared with match with several known descendants of my Trautvetter great-great-grandparents. That’s how I first located Jol–she was a new shared match with a […]

This image comes from part of an expense submission by John Herbert to the estate of Michael Trautvetter, probated in Hancock County, Illinois, in 1869. Herbert’s wife was actually Michael’s niece. Herbert was allowed $4.50 per day for taking care of Trautvetter in his final illness. I’m not certain if there was a table of […]

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 […]