Find Henry and Win a Year of Casefile Clues

Our new contest is based upon Henry J. Fecht.

Henry J. Fecht (born about 1823 in Wiesens, Ostfriesland, Germany) was married to Marie/Mary Bruns who died in Illinois in the 1870s. The family came to Illinois in the 1860s, settling in Hancock County, where Henry remained for the rest of his life. He died in Elvaston, Illinois, in 1912. He and Mary/Marie had several children, including:

• Trientje, born about 1857
• Jann
• Gerd, born in 1855
• Anna/Anke born in 1860
• Nanke born in 1864
• George born around 1868

George was supposedly born in Illinois--the rest of the children were born in Wiesens, Ostfriesland, Germany.

Henry was married before Marie to Trientje Bruns (sister of Marie) and they had a child Jacob, born in 1848. Henry was married a third time to Antje (Jaspers) Habben in 1877.

How to win the contest:

• Locate the family of Henry Fecht on a passenger list. You must provide the citation, including name of ship, date and place it landed. I don't need an Evidence style citation, but the source must be pretty clear that you have found them. They can be found

Email your submission to me at michael.john.neill@gmail.com ONLY. You may research the family as much as you need to in order to try and win the contest. I know quite a bit more about this family, but there's enough information on this post to locate them.

If you don't want to play in the contest, you can still subscribe the regular way.