Meri's Play Place

These are portraits of my paternal grandfather's maternal grandparents, if you follow that sidestep. The bearded man is John James Madison Biggs. The lady with the glasses and the hair pulled back into a bun is Dicy Caroline Reed Biggs. John was born in 1837 in Kentucky to Elijah Biggs, Jr. and Mary Benton Biggs. His family moved across the river to Illinois (Williamson County) during his childhood. His father died in 1849 and his mother farmed him and the other boys out to live with neighbors, the McCrearys. The McCrearys were said to be staunch abolitionists and may have influenced the Biggs' boys decision to fight on the side of the Union. Strangely, I can find military records for John's brothers, but haven't found ones I can identify as his and his grave marker  doesn't bear a "G.A.R." identifier,  as so many did if they served  in the Union forces during the Civil War. Dicy was born in 1841 to Abner Reed and Temperance Moutray. She grew up in F...

Who knows what dreams immigrants carried with them on to ocean-going vessels, ships that spirited them away from the land of their birth, their families, their known world?    Certainly they imagined a better life for themselves and their children, born and not yet in being. What did they bring with them? What were they forced to leave behind? Pranciskus Kremenskas from Lithuania   was a handsome, curly-haired 33 year old  when he brought his pretty 23-year old wife Manki Vaitekunaite Kremenskas to the land of dreams aboard the ship Kroonland. Manki, who became Monica in the U.S.,   was pregnant with their first child. They had the princely sum of $25 in cash when they arrived at Ellis Island. Their destination was East St, Louis, Illinois, specifically 443 Collenwell Avenue. Though the passenger manifest is hard to read, it looks like their "American" contact in Illinois  was a member of Manki's family.  It also appears that a brother or co...

I don't think I've properly introduced you to Isaac Lile and Sarah Caroline Ellis Lile, at least not officially. I've given mention to Sarah, I think, when I told you the story of her brother Ellis Ellis. But Isaac and Sarah deserve to have their story told. Where shall I begin? Issac, twin to Jacob, was born December 23, 1836 to John Lyle and his wife Catheren Fry in Pennsylvania. His father died when he was not quite nine and his mother was forced to place several of her ten surviving children with neighbors or relatives. Issac lived with John and Sarah Kunkle in 1850. I've often wondered if Sarah might have been a sister to Catheren, but Pennsylvania records are spotty and I can't assign Sarah to parents, let alone figure out the family structure. John Kunkle was a farmer, but somewhere along the line, Isaac learned to make shoes and boots.   Catheren remarried in 1847 and had two more children, a son born in 1848 in Pennsylvania and a daughter ...