Effingham County  
Genealogy

Welcome to the Effingham County, Illinois Genealogy web site.  My name is Linda (Kralman) Lambert.  Even though I live in Arizona now (about 50 miles northwest of Phoenix) and have been here since 1972, I adopted the Effingham County GenWeb site in the spring of 1997.  I was raised and educated in Teutopolis (3 miles east of Effingham).  I graduated from Teutopolis High School in 1960.  My family still lives in Effingham and Teutopolis, and my roots remain deeply embedded in Effingham County.

This site is part of the Illinois GenWeb Project which is a part of the USGenWeb Project.

Effingham County NEEDS VOLUNTEERS to do lookups.  If you own or have access to any Effingham County reference books (such as census, cemetery, marriage, obituaries, newspaper abstracts, etc.) and would be willing to do lookups for other Effingham County researchers, then please contact me.


Do You Know Why.......

Do you know why.............I provide links to so many places instead of posting the information here?  It's because I want the people who do the work to get the credit for it.  If I posted it here, even though I put their name on it, it could be construed that I did the work when I actually did not.

As someone whose work has been "stolen" and posted on other sites without credit, I am extremely sensitive to this issue.  I would rather be criticized for providing links than let anyone think I am "stealing" their work.

So now you know why............


MAILING LIST FOR EFFINGHAM COUNTY

You can subscribe to the list in mail mode by sending an e-mail message to:
ILEFFING-L-request@rootsweb.com that contains only the word "subscribe" in the body of the email (without the quotes).  Do NOT add anything else to the body of your message.  Leave the subject line blank.

After sending your subscription request to the list you will receive a message with the subject of “Complete your Subscription to ILEFFING-L-request” letting you know that we received a request to subscribe your email address to the mailing list and asking you to click on a link that will lead you to the confirmation page.  The confirmation page has two options, “Cancel my subscription request” and “Subscribe to list ILEFFING-L-request”.  On this page you also have the choice of selecting whether you would like to receive digests.


MAILING LIST FOR TEUTOPOLIS, ILLINOIS
(I started this list for those of us who have roots in Teutopolis)

You can subscribe to the list in mail mode by sending an e-mail message to:
IL-TEUTOPOLIS-L-request@rootsweb.com that contains only the word "subscribe" in the body of the email (without the quotes).  Do NOT add anything else to the body of your message.  Leave the subject line blank.

After sending your subscription request to the list you will receive a message with the subject of “Complete your Subscription to IL-TEUTOPOLIS-L-request” letting you know that we received a request to subscribe your email address to the mailing list and asking you to click on a link that will lead you to the confirmation page.  The confirmation page has two options, “Cancel my subscription request” and “Subscribe to list IL-TEUTOPOLIS-L-request”.  On this page you also have the choice of selecting whether you would like to receive digests.


EFFINGHAM COUNTY HISTORY

Effingham County was formed in 1831 from Fayette and Crawford counties.

Effingham County (as well as the county seat, Effingham) was named after a British nobleman, Lord Edward Effingham, who resigned his commission as general in the British army in 1775, refusing to serve in the war against the colonies.  (Information courtesy of Jon N. Austin, Executive Director of The Illinois State Historical Society.  From Origin and Evolution of Illinois Counties published by the Illinois Secretary of State, 1994).

There is a growing belief that the county was named after General Edward Effingham.  He was a surveyor in Effingham County and served with General Ewing in the Blackhawk War.  It seems that it was a common practice to name communities and counties after the surveyors who surveyed them.

So.....there are two possibilities to account for the origin of Effingham County's name as well as the city of Effingham's name.

Effingham County traces its roots back to 1814, when the first pioneers settled along the Little Wabash River.  For the next 40 years, this area witnessed little growth, adding population only when a farm family journeying west along the old Cumberland Trail stopped to work for a living in the rich prairie soil.

When the railroad came in the early 1850's, the sleepy farming area changed. Stores and hotels opened as the county's first "boom" took place.  The first name of the community located on the ground where Effingham now stands was Wehunka, named for an Indian chief whose followers had located here.  The name was changed from Wehunka to Ewington and then to Broughton (not to be confused with Broughton in Hamilton County).  In 1859, the village of Broughton was made the county seat and its name was changed to Effingham.  The second "boom" in 1959 took place when the Interstate Highway System was formed.  The city of Effingham is located at the intersection of I-57 and I-70 and has become a hub for America's motoring public.

Effingham County---the "Crossroads of America"


EFFINGHAM COUNTY SPECIAL EVENTS
Information needed and welcomed!!!!!!!

If you know of anything that is genealogy or history related that you would like included here, please contact me.  This means genealogy workshops, genealogy seminars, family reunions, school reunions, family anniversaries (particularly 25th and 50th anniversaries), church picnics, genealogy software classses, (anything related to genealogy), genealogy society meetings, genealogy software user group meetings, historical tours, etc.

Send me your information (use the link above) so that I can add it. Don't you think this would be a good way to reach those long-lost cousins? Perhaps they would attend......(it's worth a try, don't you think?)


July 27, 2008 - Schmohe Family 52nd Reunion - Altamont, Illinois - Celebrating 149 years of the Schmohe family in America

The 52nd Schmohe family reunion will be July 27th, 2008 at Immanuel Lutheran Church at 302 East Division, Altamont, Illinois. The reunion will start following the Sunday services at around 1:00 PM in the the lower meeting hall (which is elevator serviced). It is a potluck and fellowship. This reunion is in celebration of 149 years of the Christian Schmohe family's arrival in the USA in 1859.  Anyone who has a relationship with this family is encouraged to attend. 
For more information, contact Michael Reynolds


October 18, 2008 - Illinois State Genealogical Society 40th Anniversary Conference - Elgin Illinois
 Speakers:
         D.Joshua Taylor - Research Services Coordinator at the New England Historic Genealogical Society
         Beau Sharbrough - Product manager for MyFamily.com
         Lori Bessler - Wisconsin Historical Society Library Outreach Coordinator

         Loretto Lou Szucs -  Executive editor and vice president of community relations for Ancestry.com
         Susan Anderson - Area Family History Adviser for the FamilySearch Program
         Debra Mieszala - President of the Lake County (IL)Genealogical Society
         Eric Basir - Owner of Photo Grafix in Evanston
         Kathy Carey - Illinois State Registrar NSDAR
Discover and evaluate new web sites, online databases and free tools available on the Internet. Investigate Footnote, FamilySearch and NSDAR collections.
Jumpstart your research with new techniques, get organized using MS Word tools and explore procedures for scanning and restoring documents.
Contact:
Web site: www.rootsweb.com/~ilsgs
Email: isgsconference@sbcglobal.net




EFFINGHAM COUNTY
Surnames/Queries

Submit Queries  -- In addition to submitting a query here, you may find it helpful to post your query to the Effingham County Mailing List (see instructions above).  Subscribers to this mailing list will receive your posting minutes after you hit "send".  This may give you a faster response.  Your query will be posted to the GenWeb page when I do the next update.

 Read Queries


Submit Surnames  -- If I am notified that an email address is no longer valid, I will remove that entire surname entry.  If you find that this has happened, you must resubmit your surname with a current email address.

Surnames - A
Surnames - Ba-Bm
Surnames - Bn-Bz
Surnames - C
Surnames - D-E
Surnames - F
Surnames - Ga-Gi
Surnames - Gj-Gz
Surnames - H
Surnames - I
Surnames - J
Surnames - K
Surnames - L
Surnames - Ma-Mi
Surnames - Mj-Mz
Surnames - N-O
Surnames - P-Q
Surnames - R
Surnames - Sa-Si
Surnames - Sj-Sq
Surnames - Sr-Sz
Surnames - T-U
Surnames - V
Surnames - W-Z

 

Good Stuff About Effingham County

Reference & Lookup Volunteers
Includes information about the Effingham County Genealogical and Historical Society and their publications for sale.
Also includes link to ECGHS membership form.
Cemetery books for sale from the Effingham County DAR chapter are also listed on this page.
Information about the Effingham County Clerk's office is included in this section.
Did You Know ... An Alphabetical List of Cemeteries (including nearest town and the township); Tips and Hints to Make Your Research Easier; Meanings of Old Tombstone Carvings; Importance of Military Records, etc.   Don't miss the new list of Civil War Veterans (North & South) buried in Effingham County.
Then and Now..... (Includes Diseases/Causes of Death; Occupations; Time Line for Effingham County; and The New Time Line for Wars, Epidemics and Natural Disasters)   Coming Soon!!!!  BIOGRAPHIES!!!!
Effingham.com
Civil War Regiments/Companies of Illinois
Effingham County in the Civil War
Political Graveyard - Effingham County
Perkins' History, Lore and Maps of Effingham County
Effingham County and National Road Museum
Veterans Affairs National Cemetery System
Recent Effingham County Obituaries (Link to Effingham Daily News)

USGenWeb Sites for Surrounding Counties

Clay County, Illinois
Cumberland County, Illinois
Fayette County, Illinois
Jasper County, Illinois
Shelby County, Illinois
Illinois County Boundaries 1790 - Present
Illinois GenWeb Map

Some Other Good Genealogy WWW Links

USGenWeb Project
Illinois GenWeb Project
RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative
Illinois On-Line Data Bases
Illinois State-Wide Index to Marriages
Illinois City-County Locator
Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet
Inflation Calculator (calculates what land purchased in the past is worth today)
Illinois County Boundaries 1790 - Present
Illinois GenWeb Map
Illinois in the Civil War
Illinois State Genealogical Society
Illinois Public Domain Land Sales
Illinois Section of USGenWeb Archives
John Fuller's Links to Mail Lists - Check the Illinois ones + Surnames!!!!!
Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet - Illinois
Color Landform Atlas: Illinois
Ordering Illinois Vital Records - U.S. Vital Records Info.
Ordering Illinois Vital Records - VitalChek

 


You are the58,284 visitor since July 5, 1997.

Linda (Kralman) Lambert (ktlkate@avantek.net)
Copyright © 1997-2008.  All rights reserved.
Last updated on Tuesday, 10-June-2008