Book Sale - Coles County Illinois Genealogical Society

Newspaper Digitization Project

Please consider donating to our project to move microfilm and some papers to digital format, free access. Date of completion to match Charleston charitable grant is Monday April 27, 2026

Newspaper Digitization Project

Galbreath Mitchell Reunion Workshop

Saturday July 15, 2023
Charleston IL Public Library, Rotary Room
Open at 10am

Presentations: Open to the Public

11am “Our Abolitionist Ancestors and Coles County”
Presented by Jane Gregga, Eli Skinner Chapter of the DAR

12pm “My Circa 1850 Ashmore Twsp. Farm House and Farm History”
Presented by Eric Coon

1pm Book Signing with Author David Bowles of the Westward Sagas Series.
The Mitchell Family Westward Odyssey (tentative)
https://westwardsagas.com/

Nancy Easter-Shick

Nancy Sue Easter-Shick (1940-2020) was born and died in Charleston. She was a charter member of the Coles County, Illinois Genealogical Society, served on the board, and was the newsletter editor for several years. Nancy did have something to say about her epitaph: her epitaph for all of us is plain to read in the thousands of pages of printed words and pictures she left for us: 955 pages in the 1976 HISTORY OF COLES COUNTY, 1876-1976; 243 pages in the 1985 PICTORIAL LANDSCAPE OF CHARLESTON, ILLINOIS; 141 pages in the 1990 LONG STORY SHORT; 524 pages in the 1999 LIFE IN DOWNTOWN CHARLESTON, 1830-1998, ‘ROUND THE SQUARE. This is not to mention the index of 52 pages of the reprint of the 1887 PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL ALBUM OF COLES COUNTY, nor the hundreds of pages of articles she edited for AMONG THE COLES, the newsletter of the Coles County Genealogical Society.

Nancy had a belief, “He who cares the most should be the one to do it.” Who cared more than Nancy? – she spent countless hours tracing and preserving the history and genealogy of the people of Coles County. Nancy Sue Easter-Shick had lots to say for her epitaph, because she cared the most to share the old stories of family, ancestors, friends, and neighbors in the place she loved the most – Coles County, Illinois. She traveled far and wide and loved every minute of it, but she cared the most for the stories of her home.