My father and I started doing our families genealogy in 1987 after his retirement, he loved to research, write and talk about family history. He would always say, "One day this will all be a lot easier to do," and he was right. Our Swiss family surnames are: Lauener, Nägeli, Rätz, Zwald, Fuetz, VonAllmen, Abbuehl, Amacher, Gertsch, Mäder, and Linder. We have taken this line back to the 16th Century in Lauterbrunnen, Bern, Switzerland. Our forefathers were "Chamois Hunters" and "Mountain Guides" and claimed many first ascensions of the Alps. In his famous book "Wanderings", Wills passed on to his future readers that these were the most romantic figures among the greatest guides of the Alps. He wrote:"There is something to the simple name Lauener which stimulates the imagination, appears to embody the ghost of the mountain, and not any older Alpine literature will portray anyone higher in stature than Ulrich and Christian Lauener. Four brothers descended from an "Alpine Goat Hunter" and "Mountain Guides" generation, who, according to the mountain climbers' history, became very well-known early in the past century.My other paternal surnames are: Curtess, Mattocks, Hayes, Revere, Cline and Dunning. Have traced them back to 1700's, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and South Carolina. My maternal surnames: Hagle, Bush, Katterman, Lowman, Wintz, Thornton, Crowley, Place, Bodine, Jackson, Hamilton, Kennedy and Warren.Among these surnames was Senator Dios Corides "DC" Hagle, who served during the Thirty-sixth and Thirty-seventh General Assemblies, representing the 44th Senatorial district of Illinois and also served as Illinois first Attorney General.

My father and I started doing our families genealogy in 1987 after his retirement, he loved to research, write and talk about family history. He would always say, "One day this will all be a lot easier to do," and he was right. Our Swiss family surnames are: Lauener, Nägeli, Rätz, Zwald, Fuetz, VonAllmen, Abbuehl, Amacher, Gertsch, Mäder, and Linder. We have taken this line back to the 16th Century in Lauterbrunnen, Bern, Switzerland. Our forefathers were "Chamois Hunters" and "Mountain Guides" and claimed many first ascensions of the Alps. In his famous book "Wanderings", Wills passed on to his future readers that these were the most romantic figures among the greatest guides of the Alps. He wrote:"There is something to the simple name Lauener which stimulates the imagination, appears to embody the ghost of the mountain, and not any older Alpine literature will portray anyone higher in stature than Ulrich and Christian Lauener. Four brothers descended from an "Alpine Goat Hunter" and "Mountain Guides" generation, who, according to the mountain climbers' history, became very well-known early in the past century.My other paternal surnames are: Curtess, Mattocks, Hayes, Revere, Cline and Dunning. Have traced them back to 1700's, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and South Carolina. My maternal surnames: Hagle, Bush, Katterman, Lowman, Wintz, Thornton, Crowley, Place, Bodine, Jackson, Hamilton, Kennedy and Warren.Among these surnames was Senator Dios Corides "DC" Hagle, who served during the Thirty-sixth and Thirty-seventh General Assemblies, representing the 44th Senatorial district of Illinois and also served as Illinois first Attorney General.