If you go to the original IRAD site it will show you what counties are in which depository. The Carbondale SIU site has everything from Madison County and straight east and all of southern Illinois. You can ask for a search for a particular name. This will take sometime. You can go and search yourself but if the microfilm machines are being used by someone else, it is a wasted trip. When I went there they only had 2 machines. Just remember all those family stories have a grain of truth to them you have to figure out what is true and what has been added to the story. Always start with yourself and work your way back.
I have my own brick wall that is why I am on this list. I know the family history in Germany thanks to connecting with the person who still lives on the family farm in Ankum Germany. I know everything about them in America, Clinton County, Illinois. Neither one of us can get them on and off the boat. They had to leave the farm when the oldest boy reached the "Age of Majority" no one seems to know what that was. The oldest girl marries in 1842 in Germantown, Illinois. Any ideas how to solve this mystery? Er brick wall? Pat in southern Illinois