Good Sunday morning, everyone! How do you feel about the new Illinois law legalizing marijuana? There are pros and cons to it, as there are to any topic, and everyone has his or her own opinion.

Anyone who has not started tracing a family’s history does not realize the fun, excitement and pure joy that can be enjoyed with this challenging project. As one who began searching because of the encouragement of a dear lady, Bertha Kamm, more than 40 years ago, I could never have imagined …

The ledger lodgers signed for J. C. Pierce at his Pierce Hotel in Ridge Farm was a mammoth book. A foot wide and 19 inches in length, it provided ample space for signatures of people paying the $2 per night fee. The first entry in the book was made by J. C. Curtis of Tuscola on July 1, 1898.

I have a confession to make. I’ve never liked asking for help. As a kid, I constantly heard the phrase, “If you want something done right, do it yourself.” So I often thought explaining a task to someone else would be a waste of time because I could get it done faster if I just did it myself.

Good Sunday morning, everyone! In the last six months, I have known three men who had a heart attack in a public place.

Genealogical researcher, Karen Zach, has been doing genealogy for more than 50 years and as administrator of the Indiana Genealogy Facebook Page she notes that Facebook is a fairly new tool but offers “a whole new aspect of the genealogical world.”

Spring Hill Cemetery always has been a special, sacred place to me. Its wooded hills and gently twisting lanes often lead me to the graves of four great-great-grandparents, three great-grandparents, three grandparents, several great-aunts and great-uncles, plus dear old Mom and Dad.

The Illinois State Genealogical Society (ISGS) Newsletter (Nov/Dec. 2019 issue) has listed the following meetings for 2020 — all open to the public:

Good Sunday morning, everyone! Every year in January we get a new year. Sometimes we are so glad to see the prior year go because it was just a difficult year and sometimes it will always be remembered for the great and lasting memories it brought.

The popular website FamilySearch.org has “launched a new function” allowing users to “build same-sex family trees on its free website.” The official announcement can be read at http://tinyurl.com/u9jpndv and Judy G. Russell’s (“The Legal Genealogist”) comments can be read at https://tinyurl.…

Good Sunday morning, everyone! As the new year approaches, I don’t want to ask you about your New year’s resolutions but how can we take this Christmas spirit of giving into the new year.

In April 1915, The Review Republican asked who had the longest continuous residence in Warren County. An absence of less than one year or military service would not be counted. The contest would end in June and the winner would receive a five-year subscription to the newspaper.

Early in 1945, Lt. Freda Haworth was in the bubble nose of a war plane being transported from Australia to her military medical hospital on New Guinea. She and Ruth Sheets Miller had graduated from Danville’s Lake View Hospital School of Nursing in 1941 and were serving in the army during Wo…

Anyone whose ancestors were early settlers (pioneers) in the location where they settled might be eligible to obtain a certificate recognizing that event. Many states, and several counties, offer certificates if those individuals lived there prior to a specific date.

Good Sunday morning, everyone! It’s here! Christmas is here on Wednesday. The celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

The Incredible Journey,” “A Dog’s Way Home” and “Homeward Bound” are Hollywood movies portraying pets that traveled miles to find their way home. Warren County had its own version. The following article appeared in the local newspaper in 1922:

More than 100,000 orphaned, abandoned and pauper children were sent from Britain to Canada between 1869 and the late 1930s by churches and other philanthropic organizations in order for them to have a better life. Upon arrival, these Home Children were sent to receiving homes and farms.

Eighty years ago today – Dec. 15, 1939 – “Gone With the Wind” premiered at Loew’s Grand Theater in Atlanta, the home of Rhett, Scarlett, Ashley and Melanie.

Am I the only one having trouble with the fact that there is less than four weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year?

Abraham Lincoln had been gone nearly a half century when mortgage banker Benjamin Culp sent Abe’s picture on a greeting card to the Hartshorn Brothers Co. in Danville at year’s end in 1911.

Good Sunday morning, everyone! You have one more week to prepare for Christmas. Are you ready?

“Just because you believe something doesn’t make it true.” The source is anyone’s guess (because the internet has attributed it to multiple sources)

Oct. 20, 2019, marked the 75th anniversary of General MacArthur’s return to the Philippines during WW II, keeping a promise he’d made 2 years 7 months earlier: “I shall return.”

Good Sunday morning, everyone! Our United Way Campaign has been going on since the first of September and this week we pulled our first two of six participants for the Car Giveaway Incentive Program.

Nobody knows what might someday occupy the building at 17 W. North St., but for 122 years it was the home of the Commercial-News. The proud inscription above the door reads, “THE PAPER THAT DOES THINGS.”

The Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Ind., is the home of The Genealogy Center, “the best single research stop for family historians between Salt Lake City and the East Coast.”

The handbills James M. Rees posted left no doubt he wanted his property back and his wife jailed. It noted he would pay a “A Liberal Reward” to anyone who would arrest the pair or let him know where they were.

Good Sunday morning, everyone! The season of giving thanks is upon us. It is easy to be grateful for the life you are living when you see so many others that struggle.

DNA websites Ancestry.com and 23andMe have pledged to keep their users’ DNA data private, but recently a Florida judge approved a warrant to search GEDmatch’s database of nearly 1 million users — which is likely to encourage other agencies to request similar search warrants.

Good Sunday morning, everyone! I wanted to give an update on our 2019/2020 United Way Campaign. Thank you everyone who have already donated or pledged. We have been busy, and we are so grateful for that.

If you’re from Illinois, you’re probably fascinated by all things Abraham Lincoln.

The Illinois State Genealogical Society has recently posted a blog announcing that a statewide database trial, Try-It! Illinois, will be offered through the end of November. Try-It Illinois 2019, the 19th annual statewide database trial, is sponsored by Secretary of State Jesse White and the…

Good Sunday morning, everyone! This time of year is very busy at the United Way office with not only the United Way 2019/2020 campaign in full force but with the beginning of the Christmas season through the Toys for Tots program.

The letter was written from “somewhere in muddy France” on November 10, 1918. That was the day before the Armistice silenced the guns in World War I.

"Hearing is listening to what is said. Listening is hearing what isn’t said.” — Simon Sinek

I get hot under the collar when I hear young people called “snowflakes.” I know it’s just the 21st Century version of “rock and roll will be the end of civilization as we know it,” but it still riles me. I wonder whether the complainer has ever known one of those kids, or are they judging an…

The U.S. Census Bureau has been hosting meetings around the country to answer questions about jobs and the hiring process in preparation for the taking of the 2020 census. A website at https://tinyurl.com/y4v3zr3v provides job details — overview and job qualifications — and answers to freque…

Good Sunday morning, everyone! As we go out, asking for our community to support our local United Way again this year, it is important for our residents to understand what and why we fund certain programs through local agencies.

If you owned one of the many saloons on Danville’s Main Street, or Westville’s State Street, you were facing ruin 100 years ago. Uncle Sam was putting you out of business.

Good Sunday morning, everyone! These days with all us of being pulled in many different directions, and life being so busy, we need to make sure we take care of our minds.

The sweet gum tree was losing battles with time and the elements. Three years ago, more than half the tree’s mast gave in to a thunderstorm. Last week, the remainder of top and a portion of the trunk was blown away by a strong south wind that swept across the prairie.

Genealogist Amy Johnson Crow has written a useful article, “Using the 1890 Civil War Veterans’ Census,” which can be read at https://tinyurl.com/y93letzh. Since most of the 1890 U.S. Population Census was destroyed, it is important to locate other sources that can provide helpful data for th…

The State of Illinois is noted for its free online access to the state’s genealogical records — including military records. For a better understanding of its collections of military records, a pamphlet, Genealogical Research Series Pamphlet No. 3: Military Records, available at https://tinyu…

Good Sunday morning, everyone! I always like to keep our PATH Crisis 2-1-1 line in the front of everyone’s mind.

“Do not judge my story by the chapter you walked in on.” — Unknown

The recent reopening of the restored Fischer Theater brings to mind the grand opening of the same building – then known as the Grand Opera House – on Nov. 5, 1884.

The fires from the distant burning buildings reminded Captain Joe Truax of the prairie fires he had seen back in Vermilion County. He was an officer in the 35th Illinois Volunteer Infantry and was fighting his way across the South in the Civil War.

Dick Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter recently reported on “a valuable gem.” The website called Unsplash “(dedicated to sharing stock photography) … claims over 110,000 contributing photographers and generates more than 9 billion photo impressions per month.”

Good Sunday morning, everyone! It’s happening all the time. Nearly 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner in the United States according to the National Statistics Domestic Violence Fact Sheet. That is more than 10 million women and men a year.

Good Sunday morning, everyone! It is Mental Illness Awareness Month so let’s talk about our mental health.