Historical Maps of Illinois and Algonquin, Illinois

I found these two historical maps today while digging around for some locality information for Algonquin, Illinois.  Maps have always fascinated me and they are particularly interesting when you can compare one place across time. 

 

1818 Geographical, Statistical, and Historical Map of Illinois

 

 

1833 Map of Illinois

 

 

This is a collection of plot maps for McHenry County, Illinois.  I believe it is for various years, though it is not the most image friendly website.

Above is a screen shot of the Algonquin Twp plot map.  You will need to use the above link (or click on picture then Algonquin) to be able to read anything on the map which includes interesting information about the survey.

 

 

Several more historic Illinois maps from 1835-1885 can be found HERE

Illinois Railroad Maps

These come from the Illinois Digital Archives.  They are particularly interesting to me because I had multiple grandfather's that were engineers for the C&EI railroad including Charles Everett Condon and Henry Dodd Bigelow. 

 Illinois Railroad Maps

Charles E. Condon in 1920 Illinois Census

1920 Illinois Census Marion Salem Ward 3 District 194 CONDON

Publish at Scribd or explore others: law legal

Source Citation: Year: 1920;Census Place: Salem Ward 3, Marion, Illinois; Roll: T625_391; Page: 4A; Enumeration District: 194; Image: 700.

Extraction:

Name: Chas E. Condon

Relation: Head

Home Owned or Rented: Own

Own Free or Morgaged: Morgaged

Male/White

Age: 48

Married

Can Read: Yes

Can Write: Yes

Birthplace: Ohio

Birthplace of Father: Ohio

Birthplace of Mother: Ohio

Able to Speak English: Yes

Trade: Engineer

Industry: Railroad

Salary or Wage: Wage

Name: Margaret (maiden name Short)
Relation: Wife
Female/White
Age: 46
Married
Can Read: Yes
Can Write: Yes
Birthplace: Illinois
Birthplace of Father: Tennessee
Birthplace of Mother: Indiana
Able to Speak English: Yes
Trade: None

Name: William
Relation: Son
Male/White
Age: 24
Single
Can Read: Yes
Can Write: Yes
Birthplace: Missouri
Birthplace of Father: Ohio
Birthplace of Mother: Illinois
Able to Speak English: Yes
Trade: None

Name: Charleen
Relation: Daughter
Female/White
Age: 17

Single

Attended School in Census Year: Yes
Can Read: Yes
Can Write: Yes
Birthplace: Illinois
Birthplace of Father: Ohio
Birthplace of Mother: Illinois
Able to Speak English: Yes
Trade: None

Name: Alice

Relation: Daughter

Female/White

Age: 15
Single
Attended School in Census Year: Yes

Can Read: Yes

Can Write: Yes

Birthplace: Illinois

Birthplace of Father: Ohio

Birthplace of Mother: Illinois

Able to Speak English: Yes

Trade: None

Name: Helen

Relation: Daughter

Female/White

Age: 12
Single
Attended School in Census Year: Yes

Can Read: Yes

Can Write: Yes

Birthplace: Illinois

Birthplace of Father: Ohio

Birthplace of Mother: Illinois

Able to Speak English: Yes

Trade: None

Interesting info from this census:

It gives a complete picture of the family, including all four children.

The birthplaces of parents and children help to place the family in certain states particularly Missouri, Illinois, Ohio, and Indiana (only their first child was born in Missouri).

Occupation given as Railroad Engineer.

Bigelow Birth Certificates

I've been playing around some more on the labs.familysearch.org and found some birth certificates for my great grandfather and his brother in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois.


John Chester Bigelow (transcribed as Bigelon)

In addition to giving the birth date as 25 Nov 1896 it also gives the following information:

Number of Child for this Mother: First

Place of Birth: 1257 Wilcox Ave

Residence of Mother: 1257 Wilcox Ave

Nationality of Father: American

Place of Birth of Father: Illinois Age 26 Nationality of Mother: Irish
Place of Birth of Mother: Ireland Age 26

Full name of parents: Mary Elizabeth Bigelow- Maiden Name: Richards Henry Dodd Bigelow Occupation of Father: Locomotive Fireman

Edward Bigelow

In addition to giving the birth date as 13 Feb 1902 it also gives the following information:

Number of Child for this Mother: Third

Place of Birth: 23 N California Ave
Residence of Mother: 23 N California Ave
Father's Place of Birth: Dundee, Illinois Age 31
Mother Place of Birth: Co Monighan, Ireland Age 32
Full name of parents: Minnie E Bigelow- Maiden Name: Richards; Henry D Bigelow

Occupation of Father: Locomotive Engineer

Census Clues and Cemetery Records

While I was doing my census record sweep I came across a tiny clue that led me to believe that I was missing a child of one of my ancestors, William Wesley Alderson and his wife Isadora Winders Alderson. The clue came from the 1900 census where one of the questions asked by the enumerator was how my children were living versus how many total. The answer for Isadora was 3 of 4, hinting to the existence of a child born after the 1880 census that died before the 1900 census. There was also a pretty distinct gap in the ages of the living children.

I was unable to find any helpful information on the internet and made a point to look for the missing child while I was in Utah at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. Time was short at the library and I had multiple things I was looking for, but I was by chance (though probably not really chance at all, just not somewhere I would have logically looked so early in the game) I was able to find the cemetery record for the Aldersons and the Winders (Isadora’s parents). Turns out this was a classic case of the cemetery being just across the county line, not in Marion County, Illinois where I knew the family to have lived and died and had come up empty in the Marion County cemetery records, but in Clay County, Illinois right next door to the East.

Clay county happens to be a county where one of my very elusive ancestors, George Daniels born in England (if you know anything about him, please oh please let me know!) lived and presumably died before 1880 in Oskaloosa, Clay, Illinois. Anyway, while we were looking at the cemetery records for Marion County my mother suggested we look in Clay county for good old George. The books happened to be close to each other on the shelf so I picked up the book Cemetery Inscriptions of Clay Co. Illinois (977.3795 V3t). This book turned out to be a gold mine though not for George Daniels (alas he will have to continue to wait).

Thank goodness for INDEXES! Without them we would never have found my missing Aldersons and the Winders. We found EIGHT of my ancestors buried in Parker Cemetery in Songer Township, Clay, Illinois (just across the county line from Omega, Marion County, and multiple pieces of information that I did not know!

Page 357
Alderson, W. W. Apr. 10 1858 (my great great grandfather)
Isadora-his wife-June 7, 1859-Nov. ?, ???? (my great great grandmother)
Alderson, Estna M. Apr 5, 1885 d. Oct 14, 1958 (daughter of William and Isadora Alderson)
Daniels, T. Arthur 1875-1958 (my great grandfather)
Ellen O. 1878-1957 (my great grandmother, daughter of William and Isadora Alderson, wife of Arthur T. Daniels)

Page 355
Winders, Wm. W. b. Oct 25 1824 d. July 26 1877 (my great great great grandfather)
Sarah wife of Wm. b. Dec 15, 1826 d. Aug 16, 1901 (my great great great grandmother, maiden Mosier)
Ethel L. dau of Wm W. and Dora Alderson b. June 14, 1883 d. July 1, 18??

Tada! There she is, my missing child, Ethel! (With sisters named Ellen, Estna, and Elva. Oh my.) Unfortunately her death date is not complete, apparently the transcriber was unable to read the death year, BUT I will take what I can get. She fits in exactly where I thought she would. She is buried with her grandmother, who lived with the Aldersons after her husband died. I didn’t have birth or death dates for Sarah or William W. either and was very surprised and happy to see them in the Parker Cemetery too. Talk about one of those moments when you want to stand up and do a jig in the library (don’t worry I restrained myself to a low five).

Well, my point is to never ignore even the smallest of clues and follow those little urges to look somewhere you didn’t think about initially (thank you, mother!). Doors can open and ancestors can be found. It is an amazing thing to be a part of.

Citation and Notes:

Cemetery Inscriptions of Clay Co. Illinois 977.3795 V3t

Parker Cemetery, Songer Township
Location? NW/4 of Sec. 18, township 3 North, Range 5 East
North of Xenia on Xenia-Oskaloosa Road to Songer Town House (3 miles), West about 3 miles across Railroad to County-line Road, right 1 ½ miles to cemetery.

Google Books

I just discovered this exciting thing a couple of weeks ago through a family history blog. I've used Google books before, in fact I even linked to it in one of my early posts, but never realized the great potential it had for family historians.

Google Books is a great way to view and preview books that are on the market today. But even better are the books that are out of copyright or are public domain. Those books are available in their entirety and some are even available for download. You are acutally able to view the book in it's original format but are able to do electronic searches within the pages of the book. There are a lot of local and family histories out there that were published eons ago and I am excited to say that there are a lot of them available on Google Books! The possibilites are amazing!

Google Books has it set up so you can flag a book and add it to your own "library". Just in a matter of hours I was able to build up my own library with a wealth of family history information. You are welcome to browse through what I found in my library at Google Books. Even if the book isn't available for full viewing it is great to know that it exists somewhere. Some of the books that I am most excited about that are my ancestors specifically are:

The Corwin Genealogy

Genealogy of the Bigelow Family of America

I've found it also to be a great place to find local histories written during the era my ancestors were actually living there. A lot of them have biographical sketches (though I haven't been lucky enough to find an ancestor that has one, yet).

History of Pike County, Ohio 1880
History of Detroit, 1912
A Guide to the City of Chicago, 1909

Using another tool by Google called a Notebook, you can highlight snippets of a text and save them seperate from the book into your notebook. You are also able to add notes and labels. This enables you to then go back and find the actual page from the book that pertains to your ancestor through your notebook.

You can also highlight a portion of a book and imbed it into your own post like this one about my great great great grandfather Chester Mathews Bigelow from the Bigelow Genealogy:


Genealogy of the Bigelow Family of America From the Marriage in 1642 of John Biglo and Mary Warren to the Year 1890 By Gilman Bigelow Howe

Through doing this I was also able to find a reference (though sadly not a sourced reference) to my ancestor Joshua Bigelow who served in the King Phillips War as I mentioned last week:


In all Google Books has made it rather simple to do a search on your ancestors through a plethera of different books available for full view or not. They have made it easy to search, read and share what you find.

Check it out!
Do a search on your own family.
Come up with any questions? Just leave me a comment and I'll see what I can do to help.