Even if you don’t know all the details of an item, include what information you do know about an item along with whatever provenance you have.
Your information does not need to be written in formal academic prose. Your provenance does not need references to citations. What the information and provenance does need to be is recorded as completely as you have it.
For the button in the illustration: This election button was found in the collection of materials in the home of Keith and Connie (Ufkes) Neill of Carthage, Illinois, after Keith passed in 2020. The unnamed candidate was running for Hancock County Treasurer (memory of Michael John Neill). He was a relative of Keith through his grandmother, Fannie (Rampley) Neill (memory of Michael John Neill). The election likely was in the 1980s as I think I was still living at home when it took place (memory of Michael John Neill).
Not perfect, but better than nothing.
Rampley didn’t win the election.
One response
This caught my eye because my father’s family was from Hancock County Illinois. I looked at the extended information about your background in the county and realized that you are more deeply connected to the county than my father’s family, and that’s saying a lot. His surname was Arnold, and his grandfather Miles Arnold came to Hancock County with his family in 1875. My grandfather, John Arnold, married Orpha Ellefritz in Hancock County in 1916; Orpha’s ancestors were Wilson, Walton, Botts, and Ellefritz; they all came to the county in the 1830s and 1840s. They were centered in Pilot Grove, St. Mary’s, and Montebello. My father was born in Carthage and lived in Hamilton. He graduated from Hamilton High School in 1936. I also had collateral ancestors on my mother’s side who were Mormons in Nauvoo. I figured out that they were on opposite sides of the “Mormon Wars” in 1846. My 2nd great-grandmother, Mary Ann Botts, attended Knox college in 1858-1860; I figure she was there during the Lincoln-Douglas debate held at that location. I’d love to talk about Hancock County with you sometime. I live in Williamsburg, Virginia, although I visited Hancock County a few years ago to do genealogy research.