8
May 2014 • www.saukvalleysun.com • Sauk Valley Sun
Community
Do you know where you came from? Carol Chandler Without knowing our past, it is difficult to know who we really are. Do I have a great ancestor? Any horse thieves? Am I related to the president or anybody important or rich? There are places in the Tri-city area that will help you look for the answers to these questions - the Lee County Genealogical Society at 111 S. Hennepin Avenue in Dixon or the Sterling Public Library Genealogy Department in Sterling. You will find friendly people to help you and LOTS of references that you can check. What is genealogy? Webster says, “It is a line of descent traced continuously from an ancestor. It comes
from the Greek meaning generations with knowledge - the study of families and their traces in lineage in history.” The Whiteside County Genealogy Society was founded in Sterling in 1973. It was the first organized effort of the kind in this area. I spoke with Marilyn Anderson, the genealogy librarian and she was glad to share her experiences with me. “We have over 50 members right now from all over the country”, she said. The library has two computers with Ancestry. com. One is paid for by the library and the other by the genealogy group. The great news is that there are no fees for genealogy research here. Marilyn says that they
have indexes to 500,000 references. Marilyn first got interested in genealogy when her mother was always asking for her help in researching their family history. “I was always in the library researching, so when the job was established, they called me up.” she said. “The neatest part of my job is connecting a lot of adopted children to their parents. I did a lot with old telephone books and old city directories.” Her favorite experience was helping a young man find his biologi-
cal family. “He was a Vi e t n a m War vet and as he lay severely wounded on the battlefield, he wanted to know who the heck he was. He was my favorite. I found an obituary with some of his mother’s information. All his siblings had been sent to Mt. Carmel except him. He wasn’t taken because he was too small. He was adopted in Whiteside County. One year after he received his information, he came into the library and told me that he had found all
his siblings.” For help in Sterling, call the library at 815/625-1370. ext. 20 and you will reach Marilyn. She will be very happy to help you. The Lee County Genealogy Society was formed in 1994. There were 35 charter members and the current membership is now 270 from all over the U.S. and a couple from Europe. The LCGS boasts close to 50,000 references. The Family Tree Center, located at 111 S. Hennepin Avenue in Dixon, welcomes the public to do research or just to check out the library. Pat, the president of LCGS said that the neatest memory he has of his work is “putting families back together that have been separated for
Remembrance of a last mission - Part 2 of 2 Scott Hibbard In the April issue of the Sauk Valley Sun, Scott Hibbard, Sterling wrote,” Remberance of a last mission “....recounting the immediate details that preceded the ambush that was his last encounter.
Angie Harrison 815-973-6070
We hit our first ambush after the gay hotel and dance club that local drivers used for their homoerotic nighttime fun. A mud hut dressed up like a month-old Christmas tree with trucks parked all over. This should have been my first clue that something was up. When the routes are laced with
Shawney Evans 815-973-0383
IEDs, locals don’t use it. The locals knew, but just watched as we passed by. Few Afghans would ever intervene to help. To think for a minute that the men and money we were dumping into their country was for them. So they watched and we drove into inevitability. I don’t remember much
Gary Davey 815-440-3687
about the first ambush. I do remember being surprised because the Intel was right for a change. It lasted for awhile and what was left was blown-up vehicles and bullet holes. Our vehicles limped forward into a wadi with a dry field to the south and RCP 6 called for a medevac for the guys that
Laura Bock 815-973-8033
Sue McCoy 815-440-4144
100 to 150 years.” In fact, Pat was instrumental in reconnecting one of LCGS’s members with her biological family who had been hunting for her for years. Kathy now has met a number of her relatives and they keep in touch and visit frequently even though they live several hundred miles apart. The Lee County Genealogical library (The Family Tree Center) membership is $20 per year for a family and there is a small fee for using the library for nonmembers. Pat and his wife Carol found their families in Ireland. He says, “You’re never alone.” Take advantage of these great facilities! You may find something that will surprise you!
Continued on page 31 got blown up. We pulled security, watched and waited. Blackhawks came in from Bagram with Apache escorts. We were still in the valley surrounded by ridgelines, but the terrain was more flat because we were at a higher elevation. The medevac came from the west heading into the valley
Kirk Staples 815-440-0803
in a hi-lo pattern swarming like mad hornets. They landed to my left. The rotor wash made everything seem urgent billowing dirt all over us until we were lost in our own eclipse. I was distracted by my own mortality as they loaded a limp body into the Blackhawk. I drifted into
Melissa Plock 815-677-1364
We sell
and we want Edyie Madden 815-973-2352
Wendy Olson 815-994-2700
View all listings online at www.saukvalleyproperties.com
Deb Herwig 815-973-4240
Michelle Wilson 815-440-8193
Beth Wilson Broker/owner
815-440-8307 Beth@SaukValleyProperties.com
Curt Repass 815-622-8318
Billie Hipple 815-499-0558
Sauk Valley Properties
Wilson & Associates
Jay Krick 815-973-4791
Sid Heaton 815-440-3850
Lucy Henning 815-288-2235
335 W. Everett St. Dixon, IL 61021 Office: 815-288-2881 Fax: 815-288-2011