What a great week, it was beyond my greatest expectations! I met so many new, wonderful cousins and found lots of interesting information. It was a really great experience to be in the same place as my ancestors.

Friday August 3rd, 2001

I land in Peoria in the afternoon. Paul Fletcher drove over from Iowa to meet me and share his extensive knowledge and love of genealogy. He is related to the Harseil's who married into the Molchin line. I didn't recognize him at first, he didn't look like the high school picture he sent :)

Our first stop is St. John's Lutheran Church in Limestone to meet Betty Smith, the church secretary and keeper of the old church records dating back to 1855. What a great resource, details of every birth, baptism, confirmation, communion marriage and burial done at the church. Several names occur over and over again, Heuermann, Willms, Bruninga, Ojemann, Molchin. The books are very fragile, the edges of all the pages are damaged and most of the pages have torn away from the binding. I can't wait to read them next week. Paul and I walk the older section of St John's cemetery, locating several ancestors. A few stones are illegible, but I think I can make out B.H. Willms on one of them.

Next we head for the downtown library, so Paul can give me an overview of their holding. The Peoria County Genealogy Society has transcribed many old records. I love the old city directories, they date back to 1861. The cemetery grave inscriptions and the Illinois death index should prove beneficial.

Then it's off to Bartonville. My English/maternal family lived here (Hilton, Price, Leyland, Higgins, VanHouten). Paul drives me around to the places I can recall. Bartonville looks much different that I remember, it's getting older and a lot of places are gone, but I can still remember the fun we had visiting my grandma and playing around the alley and railroad tracks. Paul and I have dinner with my English cousin Norman Higgins-VanHouten, she is the only person I will see during this trip that I knew previously. I love Norma, she is so fun to be around and we can talk for hours.

Saturday August 4, 2001

Paul and I head for the Alpha Park Library in Bartonville to do a little research, but their resources are limited. At around 1pm we leave for the Prichard's house.

Emma, (Behrend Willms > Elisabeth Willms-Molchin > Emma Molchin-Friemuth > Tracy Friemuth-Hartseil > Emma), Bob and their daughter Karline are so pleasant and welcoming. Emma owns the organ her grandmother Emma played, she had the organ refinished and it looks beautiful. Emma also has the broach shown in the photo of Elisabeth Willms-Molchin's portrait but she wasn't able to find it during our visit. I copied several of her old photos including:

Emma Molchin and John Friemuth
Tracy and John Friemuth
Tracy Friemuth and Adolph Hartseil wedding
Tracy and Adolph Hartseil in the 1980's
Johanna Hartseil and John Freimuth's wedding

We end our visit with ice tea and homemade zucchini bread, I must get the recipe, it was the best zucchini bread I've ever tasted.

Paul has a favorite pizza joint in East Peoria (Dan's Pizza), he's a fanatic about their pizza and ordered several to take back to Iowa. I would have to agree with him, it was a really good pizza, but I ate too much.

We finish the day by driving up Route 6 around the north side of Peoria, I'm surprised that the landscape is so hilly, it is a really beautiful area.

Sunday August 5, 2001

I went to 9:30 services at St. John's Lutheran Church. The current church was built in the 1950's. It is really beautiful inside. The Prichard's are there, Paul drives back to Iowa with his pizza.

Next I journey to McNabb, Illinois, which is about 2 hours northeast of Peoria, and such a lovely drive through the farmlands. I'm meeting Chyrlie (pronounces Shirley) Delicath-Soltau (Behrend Willms > Annie Willms-Delicath > Charles Delicath > Christian Delicath > Raymond Delicath > Chrylie) and her uncle Norman Delicath (Behrend Willms > Annie Willms-Delicath > Charles Delicath > Christian Delicath > Norman).

Chyrlie drove down from Naperville with her daughter Melissa, Norman lives in McNabb with his second wife Betty. Chyrlie is the reason I found my link to the Willms family, we met online about a year ago, I knew my GG Grandmother was related to the Delicath's and Chyrlie provided the connection. We also met Naomi Hinz-Stanek (Behrend Willms > Inse Willms-Folkers > Martha Folkers-Wohlfeil > Agnes Wohlfeil-Hinz > Naomi) at the same time, unfortunately Naomi wasn't able to make the trip from Minnesota.

I had a wonderful time, Norm, Betty, Chyrlie and Melissa are great fun. Norm tells us stories about his grandfather crossing the Illinois river when it was low, by horse and buggy to perform plastering work on the east side, there wasn't a bridge back then. We look at old pictures and Chyrlie will copy 8 of them for me. Norm's daughter Bonnie has also worked on the family genealogy, I'm eager to share my information with her. I head back to Peoria around 7pm.

Monday August 6th, 2001

Betty Smith at St. John's welcomes me with open arms. I read and re-read and re-read the old record books, they were written in German until 1925. My focus is the Salters but I find a lot of great information on all of the family.

Juanita Shick-Vires (Behrend Willms > Elsabeth Willms-Molchin > John Molchin > Christian Molchin-Schick > Juanita) is the church treasurer, she just happened to come by and Betty introduces us, knowing we are related. Betty has a great love of family history and has done extensive work on her lines. She remembers the names that other researchers are looking for and she will pass on any information she finds. Juanita is first cousin's with JoAnn Brunk who I plan to meet later this week. Juanita suggests I call her aunt Frieda (JoAnn's mother) who lives in Bartonville.

At lunch, Betty drives me around the county side to show me the old Molchin house, the land Jacob Willms owned and the location of the original log cabin used for the first church services, located on the Ojemann's farm. The building no longer exists, a lot of the homes in the area have sadly been destroyed by the airport expansion.

Later I visit Betty Salter-Jones, (Behrend Willms > Rebecca Willms-Salter > John Salter > John Walter Salter > Betty), she still lives in Bartonville. She is very funny and has lots of stories to tell about John Jacobs farm and her father's as a coal miner in Bartonville. She doesn't have any pictures, the sadly burned in a house fire.

I spend the remainder of the day/evening at the downtown library.

Tuesday August 7th, 2001

I head back to St. Johns' for another look at the church records. Betty gives me a tour of the church and allows me to climb up to the bell tower, a silly idea, I almost didn't make it back down the ladder. Betty shows me the woodwork done by John Freimuth, which is beautiful. The church still has the original alter from 1876 and it is being restored. There are plans to convert one of the side alcoves dedicated to the old church, using the altar and several stained glass windows that still exist

The cemetery workers are here today and they have the original plot records. They help me confirm the location of Behrend and Imke's graves. The stones are very weathered so I was glad to have conformation. I would like to place ground plaques in from of the headstones so future genealogist will know where they are buried.

Frieda Henrich (Behrend Willms > Elizabeth Willms-Molchin > John Molchin > Frieda) invites me for a visit and she shares her pictures with me, including:

Carl Molchin and Lillie Lamka ~1920
Gerta (Molchin), Eugene and Garneida Bowker ~1930
Elizabeth Molchin and William Parr ~1930
Christian Molchin, Frieda Molchin, Herman Henrich and Fred Schick ~1930
Frieda (Molchin) and Herman Henrich ~1980
Old picture of the Molchin and house ~1900

Juanita Glasford-Bellavia (Behrend Willms > Jacob Willms> Edward Willms > Frieda Willms-Glasford > Juanita) and Frank Bellavia drove down from St. Charles. Juanita has a really old photo album filled with old photos, she generously shared some with me and said she would copy the rest of them also. She and Frank are super people and I really enjoy our visit. We head out for the Lutheran cemetery and locate as may graves as we can find. Juanita has the gravestone transcription book which proves to be extremely helpful in figuring out who is buried in the same plot. Next to my gg grandparents Christian and Rebecca Salter is brother Henry Willms, daughter Louisa Donaldson and several Solter graves, I will have to investigate these new Solter relations further. Next we go to St. John's cemetery to see Behrend and Imke's graves.

Juanita and Frank head home and I go to the courthouse. I check out the marriage books prior to 1916 and find marriages for Louise, Anne, Emma and Mary Salter. The genealogy volunteer introduced herself as she was leaving for the day (Pat Hickman), when I told her I was in Peoria from Maryland, she offered to stay and search for the records I wanted. I was so grateful to have the married names for the Salter girls. She gave me her e-mail address in case I needed any more help with my search. I spend the rest of the day at the library.

Spent the morning in the library and realized that I was getting tired of searching and was ready to go home. I leave early for the hotel to wait for Ardeanne (Behrend Willms > Jacob Willms > John Willms > Louisa Willms-Weller > Ardeanne) Weller-Ekena to pick me up. We almost don't meet. Ardeanne thought I said the Fairfield Inn instead of the Signature Inn and was waiting for me there, she checked several other hotels and as she was giving up she decided to check the Signature Inn, thank goodness, I would have been disappointed if I had missed meeting her. Ardeanne is warm and personable, I liked her the minute we met. I think I have her hooked on genealogy. We drove out to see her mother in Dunlap, Louisa Willms-Weller (Behrend Willms > Jacob Willms > John Willms > Louisa) She lives on a farm that her son farms in a beautiful old brick house. Louisa is the dearest lady and at 85 is doing really well. I enjoy our visit and Louisa's stories and pictures. She had some snapshots taken of Jacob Willms farm in about 1925 of the chores including slaughtering the hogs, they are really great. She allowed me to make copies of all of them. We enjoy a nice lunch with tasty, red Illinois tomatoes from her garden, they are the best tomatoes. The pictures include:
Jacob Willms and Mary Ann Bale 1926
John Willms and Gesena Meyer 1905
Martena Willms and Joe Haller 1943
Freida Willms, Mildred Willms and Pete Rose 1931
Jacob Willms (Sr) about 1925
Farm snapshots

I spend the evening with my English side, Ron Dorey my mother's sister Janet's ex-husband. He still lives in the little brown house my mother lived in and later I lived in, it's next door to my Grandma Alice Price house. Her house belongs to someone else now, a couple and their 2 sons. I met the woman and she knew more stories about the house than I did. She cares about the house and the memories it represents. She invited me in to look around, of course it has changed but the smell was still present and I could still imagine the green wall to wall carper, grandma's character teapots from England, the paint by number of the last supper, the dust collectors above the living room cornices, grandpa's chair, pipe and ashtray, the picture in the back bedroom, her canned tomatoes in the cellar, fresh bread baking in the oven, the sound of the clock chimes (every 15 minutes all night long) and the train whistle in the distance.

The little brown house looks just the same inside and out. I had asked my uncle Ron if Grandma's hollyhocks still grew in the backyard but he said they hadn't for years. He did have three peonies though that grandma planted and he offered them to me for my own garden. I planned to go back the next day and dig them up. We had a nice talk and reminisced about grandma.

Afterwards I went to see Norma and stayed until midnight talking about her son Mark who recently died, genealogy, and family. When I asked if she had any old pictures of her parents she told me that she only had one wallet size photo, one of my favorites of them. I offered to enlarge it on a photo machine and to send her copies of the old pictures I have.

This ended up being a very busy day. I first visited Elvira Delicath-Lauterbach (Behrend Willms > Annie Willms-Delicath > Carl Delicath > Elvira) at St. Joseph Home. She is 89 years old. She tells me she has cancer and needs oxygen all the time now. I so glad I got the chance to meet her. She tired quickly, so my visit was short.

On to Bartonville to dig up the peony. It was a lot of work and took nearly and hour because the pine tree roots were twisted all around. I hope it survives and grows in my garden. Later I will cut off the leaves, wash the roots of dirt and pack it in my luggage. I went to say goodbye to cousin Norma and took her the enlargement of her photo which I'd framed, she loved it!

I left for my lunch with Elinor Anderson-Lawson (Behrend Willms > Rebecca Willms-Salter> John Salter > Opal Salter-Anderson > Elinor) She didn't know much about the other Salter's as they lived up in Chillicothe, she brought some pictures but could only identify a few of them.

My next visit was with Annie and Milton "Bud" Neptun. (Behrend Willms > Inse Willms-Folkers > Emma Folkers-Mellott > Martha Mellott-Neptun > Bud Neptun) Such nice people, so kind and willing to share information. Bud had a picture of Inse and John Folkers which they let me photocopy. They live only a few blocks from where Inse and John Folkers lived all those years ago. He has done a lot of research on the Folkers line. He also had a transcribed copy of Inse's midwife log. He owned the original and passed it down to his family. He offered to send me a copy. I can't wait to read through it, I'm sure it will have a lot of information.

I leave for East Peoria to meet Earl "Butch" (Behrend Willms > Rebecca Willms-Sunkin > Henry Sunkin > Earl Sunkin > Jack Sunkin > Butch) and Carol Sunkin. We have dinner at a Chinese Buffet, very tasty. They both have a sense of humor and are great story-tellers.

My last visit was to see JoAnn Brunk (Behrend Willms > Elisabeth Willms-Molchin > John Molchin > Frieda Molchin-Henrich > JoAnn Henrich-Brunk) and it turned out to be one of the best. Twenty-five years ago JoAnn was an avid genealogist. She had the St. John's Church records microfilmed, she transcribed the St. John's cemetery gravestones inscriptions. She has extensive documents and family group sheets for the Willms decendants - a goldmine! She zeroxed everything, we photocopied her old pictures including:

Elizabeth Willms-Molchin
John Molchin
Imke Willms
John and Trientje Heuermann
John Molchin and Elizabeth Heuermann
Group picture of the John Heuermann family

and she loaned me her copy of the church records on microfilm!!!

Her life and work doesn't allow much time for genealogy anymore so I told her I would become her successor and carry on the research. I enjoyed our visit very much, it was hard to leave but it was after midnight and I still needed to pack for the trip home tomorrow.

It was a great vacation, I meet some of the nicest people in the world, I felt like I had know them my whole life, I copied lots of great old pictures and took a few of my own. I gained so much insight and appreciation for my extended family, my ancestors and the land they settled and farmed 150 years ago.

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