I am trying to find out information on my paternal Great Grandmother.  Her name was Mary Ellen Hunter.  Her first husband John (?) McGill was my Grandfather's, William Herman McGill, father.  They were born in Illinois.  I don't know Grandma Hunter's maiden name.  I just found out that birth records weren't kept in Illinois until 1916.  I think that I will try to find the information on my own, but will probably contact the Newberry Library in Chicago and see if they can find it for me, for a fee.  One way to find this information is through baptism, church records.  I really want to find out what her maiden name was.

My paternal Grandmother name was Pearl Marie Pruitt.  She was also born in Illinois.  I found her once on the 1900 census, she was less than one year.  She was living with her mother and brother.  Her mother was listed as single.  I then found her on the 1910 census and she was living in Indiana with her father, who was also listed as single, divorced.  She had one more sister who was two years younger.  I am going to Indiana in October and I hope to be able to find out more information about her.  She died in 1935,  I found out from my Mother that she was in a mental institution called seven spirals.  I don't know if she was in the institution when she died.  I hope there are old records and will be able to find out more about her.  Her death has always been kind of a mystery.  She was only 35.