Andrew and Lena were originally Amish-Mennonite. They were married 29 Jan 1871 in Tazewell County, Illinois. They farmed many years in the area around Pekin, Illinois. They moved for a time to Decatur County, Kansas, but after several years of farming there and four years of continual drought the moved their family to Walnut, Bureau County, Illinois.

Sometime after moving to Walnut, their daughter Marie became ill. The family had heard of a healing minister in Chicago name John Alexander Dowie. Marie elected to go to Chicago and be healed, which she was. Marie had an uncle, Peter Ropp, her mother's sister Anna's husband, who lived in Zion when Dr. Dowie built the city (Peter also became one of the original elders of the Zion church). Marie came to Zion and lived with her aunt and uncle. Elder Ropp appealed to Andrew Burkey to come to Zion. Upon Lena's urging, Andrew moved his family to Zion around 1905. They became members of the Christian Catholic Church in Zion and Andrew was employed in the Zion Industries.

-Some of this information provided to Cathlene J. Landis by Andrew's granddaughter, Lorna Burkey Bieneman.

In addition to the eleven children listed here at Find A Grave for Andrew and Lena Burkey, they had another son who lived to adulthood, John Fred Burkey, born 12 Sep 1884, in Tazewell County, Illinois and died 22 July 1974 in Alameda, Alameda County, California. His place of burial is unknown at this time.

Census records indicate that Andrew and Lena were the parents of 15 children, 12 of them living to adulthood. The names of their other three children are unknown at this time.

Andrew's obituary:

Waukegan Daily Sun, Tuesday, February 21, 1928

Andrew J. Burkey of Zion passed away at his apartment in Zion Home Sunday evening about eleven o'clock. Mr. Burkey has been a highly respected member of the community for more than twenty years and his death from anthrax, commonly called carbuncles, is a loss to the community. He leaves behind to mourn his loss his wife, Lena, and five sons and five daughters, three of whom reside in Zion. They are, Mrs. Fred Fleeger, Mrs. Burton Innes and Sam Burkey. Another son, Simon, lives in North Chicago, where he is the proprietor of a butcher shop. Services will be held from the branch tabernacle number eight Thursday afternoon at two thirty, Apostle Neal officiating. The body will be laid to rest in Mt. Olivet Cemetery.