Hi Tom,
Thank you so much for your suggestions. We have found that the Diocese of Peoria holds the records that we seem to be after so have sent off 3 reguests but they tell us it could take 2months so will sit and wait. The Sharkey children had no birth records, born before records kept it seems. The civi records for the marriage of the children aren't much help as father's spelling is Sharkey and the mother is listed differently on each one. So we continue to look at different avenues and look forward to what the Diocese can tell us.