The Genealogy Search

Three cheers for the Fayette County Clerk in Fayette County, Illinois.  I just received the probate file of Morris Durbin , my 2nd Great Grandfather.  It appears that Morris died intestate.  Ayres Buzzard , his brother-in-law,   was appointed the administrator of the estate.  Morris died 10 Feb 1880 and Buzzard was appointed 27 Feb 1880.  I am hoping to spend some time tomorrow reading the entire file. 

The Illinois State Archives sent the entry for for Richard Poundstone from the Roll of Honor.  It did list information about him but nothing I didn't already know.  I was hoping that it would provided the unit he served in the Civil War.  It is obvious that he did not serve for the state of Illinois.  Now I just need to find out whether or not he served in Indiana or Ohio. My Uncle Bruce's murderer, John Joynt, has once again received a delay of trial.  The next hearing date will be at the end of July.  I hope that this case gets to trial before anymore family members pass away.  I have another Uncle that is in poor health that really needs to see this process completed before his time comes. I have been working on a list of Illinois research to do if I have a chance to travel to Illinois for the trial.  Right now it is just wait and see while the wheels of justice grind away.

This past week has been a busy one.  I sent out a letter to the Fayette County Court in Illinois to locate additional court filings on my Great Grandfathers probate file.  Previously I had located some records on a film at the Family History Library, however, the film noted that several record books were not filmed.  I requested a copy of an entry for Richard Poundstone of Bement in the 1929 Roll of Honor at the Illinois State Archives. I also sent away for death certificates on some collateral relatives.  I was lucky to connect with a new Clark/Dial relative on Ancestry and Facebook.  If all goes well I will be meeting a new cousin on my next visit to Illinois.  A status hearing for the accused murderer of my Uncle Bruce will be taking place on June 17 at the Macon County Courthouse in Decatur, Illinois.  Once the trail date is set I'll visit Illinois to attend the trial, meet new relatives and do some more sluething in the area, and deliver some of...

I have finished scanning and sorting yet another box of photos. Is there an end in sight? - I don't think so. The good news is that the photos are now preserved, sorted, filed, and available at an instance with my handy computer and file system. This time I was scanning the Skibbe family photos that I skillfully removed from my mothers clutches. Among the box of photos from her family were two photos - one of my brother and one of my father - clipped together at the bottom of the box. I am not going to ask how they got there, however, it is interesting that both photos were taken when they were each about nine years old.