Illinois' winter quarterly with German pioneers

The centerpiece of the Winter 2007 isue of the Illinois State Genealogical Society Quarterly is part 2 of Gary Beaumont's "German Immigrant Farmers in Illinois," featuring letters from Jacob Menke, who settled near Beardstown (Cass County) in the 1830s, and a diary by Johann Konrad Dahler, who settled near Mount Carroll (Carroll County) in the 1850s.

"Around us there are about 20 German farmers," wrote Menke, "including three medical practitioners with a degree, jurists, theologists, mechanics, even a mayor of Giesen, foresters etc. -- very educated people with whom we have a very pleasant contact.... We are likely to establish a reading or literary circle and a club..."

Dahler on the winter of 1856-57: "From beginning to end there was deep snow, on which smooth ice three inches thick had formed. When we needed firewood and went with the oxen to drag it in, they would go perhaps three paces on the ice and then break through.... We lost our 2 cows, which had cost 30 dollars apiece. We had a log stable for them and slough hay for feed but we lacked straw for bedding in the extreme cold."

Other articles:

"Illinois Resources: Where From to Kansas? Illinois!" by Cherie Weible

"Alderman Protects Family Graveyard," by Jeanie Lowe

"The Digital Revolution in Genealogical Research: What's Coming from Family Search, Part 1," by Susan A. Anderson

"Six Degrees of Separation or Two: Applications for 'Cluster Genealogy' and 'Genealogy Buddies,''' by Margaret M . Kapustiak

"Are You Killing the Things You Love?" by Patricia L. Miller

"Ask the Retoucher!" by Eric Curtis M. Basir

"Richard F. Sutton's Story: A Revolutionary War Soldier, Part 1," by Raleigh Sutton

How did you find THAT?

The Midwest turns up where you least expect it, like smack in the middle of the article, "Identifying Benjamin W. Cohen of New York and New Orleans," by Teri D. Tillman, CG, in the current National Genealogical Society Quarterly (member$hip required, earlier blogged here).This article is a wonderful genealogical tour de force. Her key piece of evidence that New York City doctor Benjamin W. Cohen and New Orleans dentist B. W. Cohen were the same person comes from -- a 10 Feb 1842 letter now in the archives of the University of Notre Dame! (page 252)

I love unconventional sources as much as the next guy, but what's the story behind the story? How did the author ever get the idea that it might be worth trolling the archives of a Midwestern Catholic university for information on a Jewish dentist in Louisiana?

South Bend Area genealogy

Highlights of the Jan 2008 Quarterly Newsletter of the South Bend Area Genealogical Society:

"Leopold Pokagon, Potawatomi Chief: A historical and biographical sketch," by Ken Reising

"Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Byerley Observes Anniversary" (1906 South Bend Tribune)

"Ask the Retoucher" column, by Eric Curtis M. Basir

"Revolutionary War Soldiers Buried in St. Joseph County with details," by Richard Berkheiser, transcribed from Schuyler Colfax Chapter DAR files

"New Books on the Shelf," St. Joseph County Public Library and Mishawaka-Penn-Harris Public Library

"Marriages at St. Paul's German Lutheran Church in South Bend, 1879-1903," transcribed by Karen Bond

Chicago Genealogical Society turns 40

Articles in the 40th anniversary issue of Chicago Genealogist (Fall 2007):

"'Did You Know Our Great Great Uncle Was a Mayor of Chicago,'" by Earl J. Beese

"Renamed Streets of Chicago -- 1900," by Gail Santroch (reprint)

"Index Listing of Obituaries from Illinois Staats Zeitung," by Debbe Hagner (reprint)

"The Alwards of Woodbridge, Scipio, South Bend, Niles and Chicago," by Timmins Alward Dodson. This family largely followed a classic migration pattern from northern New Jersey to Cayuga and Livingston counties, New York; Berrien County, Michigan, and St. Joseph County, Indiana; Cook County, Illinois, and points farther west.

"Class 7A-7B of Bateman School, 1939-1940," by Doris Carlson Sturm

"Kindergarten Class of Bateman School, 1934," by Doris Carlson Sturm