Christine Walters and Pike County, IL site at http://genealogytrails.com/ill/pike/ Little-known website provides large quantity of local information By ©ANNA LEE WELTY Pike Press, 2008
Pike County was established January 31, 1821 and after more than 180 years it has developed a rich history. A little-known website is hoping to make that history avail-able to researchers across the world and the community. Genealogy Trails is dedicated to providing the public with as much information as possible concerning Pike County. The website, www.genealogytrails.com/ill/pike, contains documents and pictures of people, places, and events throughout Pike County's past. Visitors to the website can explore pioneer families, births, deaths, marriages, obituaries! biographies, churches, cemeteries, schools, and much, much more. The website also has galleries of Pike County towns. Christine Walters, co-coordinator of the Pike County site explains that Genealogy Trails is a group of genealogists dedicated to "free" history and genealogy on the internet. "Genealogy Trails is on the internet for this simple reason- to tell the good news that all researchers everywhere can have a quality website that will always remain free and always 'yours.' Pike County, as well as any county in the United States, will benefit greatly by finding their ancestors," Walters said. The information found on the website comes from history books, newspapers, and contributors.		Bill Browning, a volunteer at the Harman House in Pleasant Hill, has submitted several photos from Pleasant Hill and the surrounding area to the website. "Oh, I've submitted several photos. There's one of the old fireplace near Hwy. 54 outside Summer Hill and a couple of graduating classes from Pleasant Hill from the 30s and 40s; there's quite a few," Browning said. "Thanks to Billie," Walters commented, "we have some very nice photos of the "old" days, old schools, churches and other things that researchers are always trying to find." Browning also has a list of the obituaries received at the Harman House on the Genealogy website. "The Harman House has 7893 obituaries, not counting the last two weeks." The current list of obituaries has not recently been updated, but several are available on the site. Delaine and Sandi Donaldson also contribute to the website. Sandi was born at the Pittsfield Hospital, the daughter of Wesley and Dorothy (Dimmitt) Stead. Wesley was from Griggsville, while Dorothy grew up near Detroit. When Sandi's father passed away the Donaldsons became the owners of a large collection of material which he had collected over the years regarding the Pike County area, especially items related to family history.		"When we discovered the Pike County Genealogy Trails site, we were delighted and have been sending material from our collections of old photos, clippings, scrapbooks, and newspapers," Delaine said. "Through the site we have been contacted by distant relatives looking for information or thanking us for posting what we have on the Pike County site." "Delaine and his wife Sandi Donaldson have been equally important to us because they have been able to transcribe some of the early newspapers in the area. Carmen Megehe, a local genealogist, has been able to send us some early photos and history of the early schools and other events. Rosemary Reeves is priceless in helping to transcribe the old cemeteries... There are countless other people, that I can't name right now, but each of them have helped me, and other hosts, in the last couple of years. Everyone is important to us; it's been their trust in me that Pike County IL has prospered so well, so quickly." Browning believes Genealogy Trails is a definite attraction worth checking out on the internet. "People are into genealogy and history and the website has a lot of neat information available." Walters noted, "Genealogy Trails is unique with our ability to assure that all researchers and contributors know that their material is absolutely their own."
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News Tribune
http://www.newstrib.com
NORTH CENTRAL ILLINOIS
Saturday, June 24, 2006
by Shannon Crawley-Serpette




Nancy Piper hosts Putnam, Bureau and Marshall counties for Illinois Genealogy Trails

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Searching for Ancestors... by Carolyn Stephens, Contributing Writer ©2003 Marshall Independent Choice [Excerpts]
photo by Carolyn Stephens	....[Larry] Wells has been stricken with the family history fever since he was 17 years old when his Dad opened a letter from Van Tarble (now deceased) of Marshall requesting some Hammond family information. With that letter was a brief version of the Hammond family tree starting in 1640. Wells was hooked. His career was launched in researching the Hammond family -- his mother's side. Today, Wells is host of the Clark and Crawford "Illinois Trails" sites on the Internet. Just this month he received an award for his volunteer work on the site and the Clark County site is the feature for September 2003. It's a favorite family outing to go to graveyards. Lea, Larry's wife, enjoys the history and his two young daughters, Sarah and Mary, accompany their parents to take pictures of tombstones. Wells has transcribed all names and dates from Lindsey Cemetery as well as Bean. "The last time Bean Cemetery was done was in 1940 because Mom was buried in 1945 and she is not listed in those records. I have photographed all the old stones whether they were readable or not." Wells has data from other cemeteries in the county and would like to have complete lists. Currently he is working on the Baird Cemetery list....
"The Wells' were here in Clark County in the Melrose area before it was Clark County -- the Hammonds came shortly thereafter," Larry said. "We're related to most all the folks here." There are over 400 pages of Wells' listed in a book compiled by Larry with "soon, more to be added that I have found."..... Larry has old pictures of people he would like to have identified. There's a photograph dated 1918 of a WWI ship that was torpedoed by the Germans. There's another picture of some 1916 graduates. I have a postcard dated 1910 from John Angle to his brother-in-law, my Grandpa Wells".... Larry, as host for the Illinois Trails website for Clark and Crawford Counties, is very appreciative of every bit of information that folks give him and posts it to the site. Historical Clark County data can be mailed to him or dropped by at 209 N Elm, Apt 5b, Martinsville, IL 62442 or emailed to him through his website: Newspaper clippings of folks who lived or died in Clark, obituaries, biographies, birth/death/Family Bible/Vital and War records; old photographs, cemetery maps, census, anything to do with history of Clark County. The Clark County website has been selected as the featured website of the month for September 2003. "I am pleased to accept this award on behalf of those countless persons who submit data for me to post. It is those tireless workers who make this website possible." Marshall Independent Choice by Carolyn Stephens, Contributing Writer ©2003 Marshall Independent Choice Note: Larry is now our Orange County, Indiana and Orange County, NC host, as well as our Virginia and North Carolina State Coordinator. Return to the Main Index Page for Illinois Trails

Former Iroquois County Native hosts Illinois Trails Website by ERIN RUMBLEY Reporter ©2004, Iroquois County Times-Republic http://www.watseka.org/

There is a new way for Iroquois County residents to track their ancestry and learn about the history of the county. Carrol Mick, of Lakewood, Colo., is the host of the new Iroquois County portion of the Illinois Trails web site. The site contains census record information, photos, family records, newspaper obituaries, stories and other historical information from people all over the county. Before Mick volunteered to host the Iroquois County site last January, there was no one to take care of it. "It wasn't a site before I did it." Mick said. She said all of the Illinois Trails hosts are volunteers who know how to build and maintain web sites. "You don't have to update it every day," she said. "But they want to see something at least once a month." Some of the interesting stories on the site include an account of John Dillinger playing with kids in Loda, and several news stories about happenings within the county. The site also has lists of men who served and died in the military, including civil war records. Several census records, obituaries and marriage announcements are listed, which are helpful in tracking down relatives. Mick, who spent her pre-teen and teenage years in Milford and Watseka, is in charge of keeping the Iroquois County section of the site updated with things of historical value. This is a perfect task for her because she has been researching genealogy since she was 12 years old. "It started off as a question," Mick said. "My dad told me his father was adopted." From there, Mick searched until she found his name and other records. The fact he was adopted made this search difficult. "Illinois is one state where adoption records are sealed," she said. She was able to find his adoption papers, however, and eventually found the names of her grandfather's natural parents. Once she got into genealogy, Mick kept going. She has traced her ancestors back to Wales in the year 1610 on one side of the family, and to Germany in 1727 on the other side, although she said some of the records still need to be verified. Members of her family were among the first settlers of Milford. "My father's from the area" she said "I still have a lot of family there. They don't go very far." Mick said that while genealogical research can be difficult and expensive, she can get access to census records and look things up for free at the public library. She said there are also volunteers in different states who will help look for records in the state, often trading services with her. It does get expensive, however, when ordering records, which can run up to $20 or $30 each. "Birth, death and marriage certificates are when it costs most," Mick said. Mick learned how to build web sites as a requirement for her job, and continues to build a web site for her husband's band. I'm having a blast with this one," Mick said of the Iroquois County site. "Almost 500 people have looked at that web site since July 18. I was shocked!" Several people have sent her submissions to put on the site. She's received everything from stories about the county to obituaries to photographs. She said she linked the site to the Old Courthouse Museum, because that's where she got her start in genealogical research. "When I was 12 or 13 years old, I used to go up there a lot," she said. "Two people up there got me on track." Mick is always looking for new material to add to her site, and invites people from all over Iroquois County to send her their photographs, stores, obituaries and whatever else they have about the history of the county. Submissions can be either emailed or mailed to Mick and her contact information is located on the site. "The more people share over all, the more people have access to it," Mick said. Return to the Main Index Page for Illinois Genealogy Trails