Kane County, Illinois

History, Genealogy & Today

 

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This picture represents early pioneers arriving in Kane County in the late 1830 - 40s.  

They came in prairie schooners to settle the Fox River Valley.  

 

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Kane County Court House - Geneva, Illinois
 

Kane County Court House Image

Photo Tour of Historic Geneva

Geneva Chamber of Commerce History Site

Peck Farm

 

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Welcome All!

 

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Kane County,

Dear to My Heart!

It is a treasure of history,
wonderful architecture, antique shops, parks, fun festivals and bike paths.  



       My paternal grandparents left The Netherlands and Belgium in the early 1900s, spent some time in Wayne County, New York and then joined other Dutch and Belgian immigrants in St. Charles.

This is Maria MASTBOOM Simonse, my greatgrandmother in 1913, just before coming to the United States from "Holland". She is dressed in the native attire of her province - Zeeland, The Netherlands. In 1913 the Dutch referred to themselves as being from "Holland". Today, that is like saying someone is from Illinois, when they come from Texas.

Mastboom 1913 Image Eventually more Dutch and Belgian links will be added to this site as St Charles had a large influx of immigrants from those locations in the early 1900s. Geneva had a number of Swedish imigrants, hence one of their official festivals is "Swedish Days".


       My maternal side traces to the Mayflower
and Colonial America -- Clinton & Lancaster,
Massachusetts.   They fought in the
American Revolution.  

Something I wish I had known when studying
these things in school.  History would have
been so much more interesting!

I love art, as you will find as you travel
through the communities of this site.  

I've tried to give you a sense of the area,
using available clip art.
The terrain of Kane County is primarily prairie with rich black earth and rolling lands gently sloping to the Fox River Valley, most of the farm lands are disappearing to development.
(Disregard the mountains shown in some of these pictures.)  


There are several web sites that offer vintage postcard tours. YOU can see the area NOW - as your ancestors might have "back when". You may want to consider using vintage postcards in your family albums to give future generations a better understanding of "the way it was".

Vintage Postcard Tour

Elgin Postcard (and History) Tour.

Click here for additional image sources.

As I revamp these pages, vintage postcards and photographs of the county and communities will be added.  

These are my first web pages, initially done in 1999 & 2000, updates are being done now as time allows. Please accept my apologies for the long delay in updating information and the email address. You may notice that some of these pages indicate I will transcibe biographies. Unfortunately, I'm not able to do that at this time. In the mean time, I hope you will find the information transcribed here useful.

Much of the information contained
herein is from the Kane County History,
by R. Waite Joslyn, L.L.M & Frank W. Joslyn
Pioneer Publishing Co., 1908.  In some cases
it is quoted exactly and in others
paraphrased or extracted for clarity.


 

June McDowall

[email protected]

 

 

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My Family Pages

Hattersley - Flynn - Wilder - Rice
England; Mass; Wayne County, NY; Michigan; Lucas County, Ohio; Kane County, Illinois

Wallace - Babcock - Clark
Fulton County, Indiana; Kane County, Illinois

Van Waes - Matthys - Simonse - Mastboom
Eecloo, Belgium; Zeeland, The Netherlands; Wayne County, NY; Kane County, Illinois

Culbreth or Culbreath - Clarida or Clariday - Greeney - Burns
Williamson County, Illinois; Scott County, Arkansas; Kane County, Illinois

Button - Haven
Chicago, Cook County, Illinois; Missouri; Mississippi; Kane County, Illinois


Moreno & Guerrero
Dupage County, Illinois

Adams - Duvall - Bunch
Scottsville, Louisiana; Memphis, Tennessee; Georgia

 

 

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A Bit of Kane County History

Kane County was organized
January 16, 1836 from LaSalle County.

Look to Putnam County for earlier records.

DeKalb County was split from Kane in 1837

and

Kendall County was formed from part of
Kane in 1841.


      Send MailImage





June McDowall.

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This site is a resource to help
all those interested in Genealogy
and the History of Kane County, Illinois.  

It includes transcribed and extracted
information, which has not been proofed,
and many (currently broken) exterior links to other resources.  


 

 

**Be sure to bookmark this site.**


 

 

History of Each Community

 

Kane County Community Link

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Friday, 07-Sep-2018 23:10:28 MDT�                     [email protected]