Genealogy Society of Southern Illinois

11/19/2025

You may not know his name, but you have probably heard his songs . . .

The grave and tombstone of Albert E. Brumley and his wife Goldie E. (Schell) Brumley, Fox Cemetery, Powell, Missouri. The tombstone features the opening line of his song "I Will Meet You In The Morning." Albert E. Brumley was well known as a gospel music writer with more than 800 songs published. Several of his most well-known songs including "Turn Your Radio On" and "I'll Fly Away" have been recorded by a wide range of artists. The song "I'll Fly Away" is said to be the most widely recorded modern gospel song and has been recorded by George Jones, Alan Jackson, Charley Pride, Andy Griffith, Aretha Franklin, Brenda Lee, The Osmonds, Alison Krauss, Randy Travis, Kanye West, Johnny Cash and hundreds of others.

Albert E. Brumley, born October 29, 1905, near Spiro, Oklahoma; died November 15, 1977, Powell, Missouri, age 72.

The modest house that was the home of Albert E. Brumley in Powell, Missouri:
http://mygenealogyhound.com/vintage-photographs/missouri-photographs/MO-Powell-Missouri-Albert-E-Brumley-Home-photo.html

Also on the My Genealogy Hound web site: View numerous graves and tombstones of the famous and infamous including: Laura Ingalls Wilder, Louisa May Alcott (Little Women), Elvis Presley, Michael Landon, Dan Blocker (Hoss Cartwright), Jimmy Stewart, Chuck Connors, Don Knotts, John Wayne, Gene Autry, Mary Tyler Moore, James Dean, Daniel Boone, Benjamin Franklin, Jesse James, the victims of the Boston Massacre, Curly, Moe and Shemp Howard (Three Stooges), L. Frank Baum (Wizard of OZ), Fess Parker (Davy Crockett), "Wild Bill" Hickok, Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Paul Revere, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, Roy Orbison, Clifton Clowers (Wolverton Mountain), the world's smallest tombstone, "Bloody Bill" Anderson, Bob Ford (assassin of Jesse James), Clayton Moore (The Lone Ranger), Frank James, Lawrence Welk, plus unusual graves such as the mystery woman buried inside a boulder; and unusual engraved colonial era tombstones:
http://www.mygenealogyhound.com/vintage-postcards/Graves-Tombstones-Famous-Infamous-Otherwise-photos-postcards-and-images.htm

11/19/2025

t’s that time again. Membership dues for the year of 2026 are due now. Membership runs from Jan 1st through Dec 31st each year. You may pay your dues by PayPal on our website at www.ilgssi.org or by printing out the mail in form and mailing in your check to Genealogy Society of Southern Illinois, 700 Logan College Road, Carterville, Illinois 62918-2500

Thank you for your continued support to the Genealogy Society of Southern Illinois.

Genealogy Society of Southern Illinois. Preserving, protecting and publishing genealogy information of importance to Southern Illinois spread throughout the 28 counties we serve.

11/18/2025

11/17/2025

11/16/2025

In a new PBS documentary on the Revolutionary War, the co-directors Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein, and David Schmidt attempt to capture a conflict fought long before the advent of photography. https://theatln.tc/hPXL50oh

Our popular conception of the American Revolution can be encased in bloodless, gallant myth. But the bloody conflict at the heart of the Revolutionary story “was far beyond what we had previously appreciated,” the filmmakers write in The Atlantic’s November issue. “The real Revolution was a savage civil war: eight years of uncertainty, brutality, and terror that tore communities apart and left tremendous loss in their aftermath. That doesn’t in any way diminish its inspiring outcome; it only underscores how much people were willing to sacrifice to create the United States.”

📸: The American Revolution Film Project / Florentine Films / Megan Ruffe

11/15/2025

11/15/2025

Tomorrow’s the day. Come see us!

11/15/2025

in 1905, President Roosevelt addressed a delegation of railroad employees at the White House.

Roosevelt was pleased to see the laborers, and told them he would work in labor's best interest. "The interests of the wage-worker and the interests of the tiller of the soil must be peculiarly close to all American public men," he said, "among other reasons for the reason that if they prosper all other classes will prosper likewise as a matter of course." On the other hand, he also made it clear that he would work in the best interest of capital when he felt it was morally right and beneficial. "I would be false to your interest if I failed to do justice to the capitalist as much as to the wage-worker," he said.

He specifically addressed the issue of shipping rates being discriminatory, and of the need for strong federal regulatory power over the railroads.

Roosevelt is pictured here with railroad workers at an unknown station in 1906.

Read the full address as published in Roosevelt's state papers: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/76020/pg76020-images.html