SNGF: Very Best 2010 Research

This is easy since I didn't do much research this year. The best was the overnight trip my wife and I took downstate to Bloomington/Normal to access the Marshall County records in the Illinois Regional Archives Depository (IRAD) at Illinois State University. I didn't find as much as I had hoped for. I did however make a major find--the marriage license for my great-great-grandparents Edward HUIGENS and Catherine TOEMMES.  I did a little happy dance when I found this since I had no info on when or where these two had been married.

On this record, my Dutch great-great-grandfather is listed as "Edward Huigens," which is but one of the many forms of his name in the records.  My great-great-grandmother's surname has lost one of its m's in both places on the record. 

The license was issued on 3-May-1854.  The marriage appears to have taken place on "4-Juny-1854."  JUNY?!?!?!  At least that's how I read it.  And the officiating priest wrote it that way three times.  It's a head scratcher.  I'm assuming that should be 4-June-1854.  It's closer than July to when the license was issued and I doubt they would have been married on the 4th of July.  June 4th was a Sunday in 1854 and July 4th was a Tuesday.  A Sunday wedding makes more sense than a Tuesday one in a farming community.  A check in the church records may provide more info.

The priest's name will take some research to decipher.  Maybe Wm. Pettnaimer?  He signs himself a Catholic priest from LaSalle, Ills.  It shouldn't be too hard to find a list of the Catholic priests in LaSalle in 1854.  The location of the ceremony will also take some research.  I need to determine which Catholic churches in Marshall Co. were built when.  It appears they were married by a traveling priest from LaSalle so it may not have been in a church or if it was, it was a parish that did not yet have a priest permanently assigned.

The rest of the trip was just as lovely as my wife and I had a quiet, romantic  dinner in downtown Bloomington and a lovely drive down and back.  Overall a very satisfying weekend.