Gggrandfather, Lewis Allen, born 13 Apr 1816 in what is now Clinton County Illinois. The Allen Branch of the Kaskaskia River was named for this family, who owned land and farmed in Irishtown township until the land was taken from my grandmother, Ruby Allen, and her sister, Georgiana Allen, for the Carlyle Lake reservoir project.

According to my grandmother, the Allens came from Tennessee and she THINKS one of them may have served during the Revolutionary War.

Lewis Allen married Nancy Burnside abt 1837. Their son, James Allen was a judge in Carlyle, IL and his daughter, Ruby Allen, was my grandmother. Trying to figure out if/how Lewis Allen fits with other Allens in Clinton County, Benjamin, Covington and Greenbury (Greenbriar?)