Family Tree Chart: Hubbard L. Ring

Brenden's ancestor, Hubbard L. Ring:

* Research on this family line still in progress.  If you are related, I'd love to hear from you.
* Citations available upon request
* Created with Family Tree Maker 2010 software

Thanks for the Memories: Grandma Mildred "Millie" and Grandpa Nunzio Vitraelli

Thanks for the memories

This post is dedicated to my maternal grandparents, Mildred "Millie" P. Vitraelli nee Malouf/Gardos and Nunzio "Nick" Vitraelli.  Mildred "Grandma" and Nunzio "Grandpa" lived most of their lives in Addison, Illinois (a suburb of Chicago). The last few years of their lives were spent in Schaumburg, Illinois (another suburb of Chicago).

Mildred, born in 1927 in New York, was the daughter of Marie Cicero and Eugene Gardos (please see previous posts for information about Eugene Gardos). Marie was born in Castelbuono, Palermo, Italy and Eugene was born in Hungary. The family moved to Chicago, Illinois, where Mildred's brother was born. Eugene passed away in 1935, and Marie married John Malouf. The two kids were adopted by John Malouf, and the kids took on the surname Malouf.

  

Nunzio, born in 1925 in Chicago, Illinois, was the son of Leonard Vitraelli (aka Vittorelli, Vitorelli, Vittoreli, and Vederelli) and Lucy D'Orazio. Leonard was born in San Marco La Catola, Foggia, Apulia, Italy.  Family story is that the Vitraelli's had a vineyard in Italy, and one of Leonard's brothers/family members died from eating an unripe olive.  Lucy was born in Alfadena, L'Aquila, Abruzzo, Italy.

Foggia, Apulia Italy:

Pictures courtesy of wikipedia.com

My mom and her sister and brothers have shared some stories with me about the early lives of Nunzio and Mildred, although I am hoping to learn more. Nunzio owned a fruit and vegetable cart which he ran on Maxwell St in Chicago. Nunzio's brother, Michael, was drafted for World War II, and was killed in action in the Phillapines. Nunzio and Mildred liked to dance, in fact that's how they met each other. They had five children together, my mom was one of them.

My favorite memories of my grandparents are my family's weekly Friday visits to their house where we'd watch Wheel of Fortune and "TGIF" with grandma.

Grandpa loved to bowl and loved to talk about bowling. Grandpa worked at Dominick's as a produce manager.

Grandma worked odd jobs at the factory (my mom said she'd bring home a box of items and she'd have to put screws in them.  The family would sit around the kitchen table putting the little screws in the different items).  

I remember going shopping with Grandma at Straford Mall. She always picked out Alfred Dunner brand clothing.  Whenever I see Alfred Dunner clothing, I think of her. 
She taught me how to play pinnochle, and we played Scrabble on a regular basis. Grandma was unbeatable at Scrabble! I remember when she called all her friends to tell them that I had finally beaten her at Scrabble.

Grandma was a big fan of Notre Dame football, and wanted one of her grandchildren to attend.  There's still a couple of grandchildren left to fulfill her dream (ACT scores and money kept me from attending).  Grandma also loved the food channel. We used to tease her that chef Graham Kerr was her boyfriend.  I remember making Christmas cookies with her, especially the candy cane cookies, where we had to "roll snakes" of red and white dough together.

I remember visiting her on the holidays at her old house in Addison and playing on the piano in the living room and playing detectives in her "scary" basement.  I remember the time when I was finally taller than Grandma, she was only about 4'10" (so it wasn't too hard to do...). 

Grandma was a truly loving person, although her heart was as loving to her.  She had many heart attacks and bypass surgeries.  Grandma passed away in 1995.                                                                           I need to do some file organization, because I cannot find Grandma's obituary...it's here somewhere... I have created a memorial page for her on Findagrave .

I remember when Grandpa took me shopping for my birthday after my grandma passed away and bought me a jean jacket vest. He took me to McDonalds where we had hamburgers. My grandpa would always stick his french fries in the top of his hamburger so they were standing up...a hamburger castle. 

Grandpa would have coffee with Cocoa Puffs in the morning. Grandpa called me and my sisters the "three rozzes (sp?)".  Grandpa always held his lips in a scrunched up position that my mom and her siblings called the "funge face".  I remember visiting him in the hospital right before he passed away.  His face had turned yellow from jaundice and he was hallucinating.  He told my cousin there was soccer balls on the ceiling (my cousin loved soccer at the time).  Grandpa passed away shortly after our visit in 1996 (cause of death: cancer).

Grandpa's obituary from the Daily Herald:

Prayers for Nunzio "Nick" Vitraelli, 70, a resident of Schaumburg and formerly of Addison, will be held at 9:15 a.m. Wednesday, April 3 at Ahlgrim & Sons Funeral Home, 330 W. Golf Road, Schaumburg, going to St. Marcelline Church for 10 a.m. Mass.
He was born June 21, 1925, in Chicago. Burial will be in St. Michael the Archangel Cemetery, Palatine. He died Sunday, March 31 at Alexian Brothers Medical Center. Mr. Vitraelli was a produce manager for Dominick's Finer Foods, and retired after 30 years of service. He was the husband of the late Mildred; father of Richard (Joyce), Eugene (Halina), Donna (Richard) Swanson, Karen (Rick) Brown, and Lynn Vitraelli; brother of Connie Hayford, Mary Vitraelli, and the late Joseph and Michael, and grandfather of Victoria, Richard II, and Michael Vitraelli, Dawn and Ryan Swanson, Melissa, Christina, and Diana Brown, and Anthony and Dominick Censotti. Visitation will be from 3 to 9 p.m. today at the funeral home. Memorials may be made to the American Cancer Society or Masses appreciated. Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL) Date: April 2, 1996

I also created a memorial for Grandpa at Findagrave.

I miss them both everyday. Thank you for the wonderful memories.

Madness Monday: Organizing my death and cemetery files

I really liked Jen's Preparing for Research trips post regarding the ways in which she gets organized for an upcoming research trip by using Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.  I think the reason I liked it is because I use the same method to prepare for upcoming research trips and to manage my ongoing research. 

Jen discussed her burial spreadsheet that lists names, birth and death dates, burial place, grave location, and death certificate number.  I will definitely add death certificate number to my spreadsheet, and I also have a couple of additions for her, and anyone else who likes to use Excel spreadsheets to manage their genealogy data:

In a Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet I have a column for each of the following:

1) Cemetery
2) Findagrave.com ID
3) Prefix (I don't use this often, unless I know the person was never married, I'll put in Miss, or if a name like Kelly was a male instead of a female)
4) Last name
5) First Name
6) Middle Name
7) Suffix
8) Maiden Name
9) Nickname
10) Birth month
11) Birth day
12) Birth Year
13) Death month
14) Death day
15) Death Year
16) Plot
17) Notes
18) Marker Transcription
19) Has Photo (Yes/No)
20) (*New) Death Certificate
21) (*New) My spreadsheet contains both Brenden's ancestors and my ancestors.  So I'll add a column called Tree and indicate whether it's Brenden or my tree. 
22) I'm also going to add a column for obituary, to indicate whether or not I've found the obituary for that particular person. 

If you've use Findagrave.com to import multiple names for a single cemetery you'll probably recognize a lot of the categories.  I've added a few columns, and have kept some of the columns in the same order/format for easy uploading to findagrave.com.

I used to have a spreadsheet for each cemetery, but every time I added a new record, I'd have to add it in both spreadsheets.....until I found a better way (*Note: This is in Microsoft 2007, but other versions are similar):
1) Highlight the column headings of your spreadsheet
2) From Home, go to Sort and Filter (AZ with filter image)
3) Click the drop down arrow
4) Select "Filter"

Now all of the column heading will have a drop down arrow (pictured below).  When you want to find all of the people buried in a particular cemetery, for example Pine Mound Cemetery, I select the arrow in the cemetery column and in the drop down box select Pine Mound.  I can also use the drop down box to sort the columns alphabetically.  Or if I was looking for the graves of a particular surname, I'd go to the last name column, click on the arrow, and select the right surname from the drop down box.  Or if I was looking for all the graves I had not yet obtained pictures for, I'd go to the Has Photo column, click the arrow, and select no.

The spreadsheet also serves another purpose for me.  I use ancestry, google, familysearch.org and other websites on a frequent basis.  I often find a name or two that could possibly belong to my family, but I'm not sure how or if they really do belong.  I put their name and information in my spreadsheet to remind me to find information about that person and see if and how they are related, and so if I find they are related later down the road, I don't lose the information I found.

I need to do some more data entry, as I currently only have my ancestors whose cemetery locations I have found.  I need to add the ancestors whose cemetery location is unknown to help me remember to search for the location and remind me to look for them if I am in a cemetery that contains other family members.

I also find this spreadsheet useful to add information when I am not sitting in front of my genealogy software (Family Tree Maker), and can keep the information organized until I can input the information into the software.

What do you use to organize your cemetery/death files?  Do you have any suggestions for additional columns?

What I Do Meme

Thomas McEntee has a great posting suggestion for today, it's the "What I Do Meme".  What technology do you use for your genealogy research?

* Hardware: Windows Vista on my Dell Inspiron 1525
* External storage: Maxtor Removable Hard Drive 96 GB
* Online storage: Snapfish, Shutterfly, Picasa, and Flickr for photos
* Backup: CDs, DVDs, USB drives, external storage, hard copy

* Firewall: McAfee
* Virus protection: McAfee
* Spyware: McAfee
* File cleaner: None (?)


* Printer: HP Photosmart printer, copier, scanner, and photo printer.  Also on the search for a 35mm, slide, and 4x6 scanner for my large inventory of photos
* Phone: iPhone (best invention! :))
* Mobile media: iPod
* Music player: iPod
* Car audio: CD and AM/FM radio, usually hook up my iPod with connector
* eBook Reader: iPod, free Kindle reader


* Browser: Safari, Internet Explorer (when I have to)
* Blog: blogger  (http://pawprintsguidingmetothepast.blogspot.com/)
* RSS: Google
* FTP: Don't currently use


* Text editor: Word 2007
* Graphics: Photoshop Elements
* Screen capture: The "print screen" key on keyboard, then paste into document....

* Social media: Facebook, Scrapbook Flair
* Social bookmarking: Don't currently use
* Social profile: Facebook (?)
* URL shortener: Don't currently use


* Office suite: Microsoft Office 2007
* E-mail: Yahoo Mail
* Calendar: Outlook
* Accounting: Turbo Tax, Exel


* PDF generator: Nuance PDF Converter Professional 6 (use at work, don't own)
* Genealogy database: Ancestry.com, Family Tree Maker 2010
* Genealogy tools: Canon Digital Camera, OneNote (also going to check out EverNote), Google Maps, Google, iGoogle, Olympus voice recorder, Genealogy Gems and Family History Made Easy podcasts, ancestry.com, myfamily.com, familysearch.org, footnote.com,  Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness (RAOGK), findagrave.com (and many many more)
* Other tech stuff: TomTom GPS

Hmm...used to think I was pretty tech savvy....now after reading some other posts, I think not

Wordless Wednesday: All American Girls Baseball Team

Digital scrapbook page I made in honor of my favorite movie, A League of Their Own, which was based on a true event in America during World War I.

Tombstone Tuesday: Honoring Pvt 1st Class Michael J Vitraelli

Photo taken by me, World War I Memorial, Washington, D.C., 2008

Today's Tombstone Tuesday post is to honor my maternal grandfather's brother (my great uncle), Private First Class Michael J. Vitraelli.  Michael "Mike" was born July 27, 1923, son of Leonard and Lucy Vitraelli (nee D'Orazio).  Michael, US Army Service #36638490, was a member of the 19th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division, and was KIA during WWI, October 21, 1944 in the Phillapines, and is buried in Mt. McKinley (aka Manila American Cemetery) in Manila, Phillapines (Plot A, Row 13, Grave 152).  Michael was awarded the Purple Heart.

While I've only been to Washington, D.C. once, while on travel for work, I was able to pay my respects to my great uncle at the World War I Memorial.

Photos taken by me, World War I Memorial, Washington, D.C., 2008

Article from the Chicago Tribune about Michael's participation in WWI:

Article from the Chicago Tribune, 1944

Michael's Obituary:

Date: December 12-14, 1944

Chicago Tribune (IL)

Pvt. 1st Class Mike J. Vitraelli, Oct. 21, on Leyte Island, son of Lucy and Leonard Vitraelli, brother of Conceatta, Nunzio and Mary. Mass will be said Dec. 15, 9 a.m., Blessed Mother Cabrini church.

Mt. McKinley (aka Manila American Cemetery), Milano, Philapines

Picture from findagrave.com

Quilting your family history

I hope you all had a wonderful and relaxing 4th of July weekend. Of the many things I did this weekend, the one I enjoyed the most was finishing my t-shirt quilt. I started this quilt last summer, and other projects (a quilt for my dog, Millie, and digital scrapbooking) seemed to take precedence.

Why a t-shirt quilt? I started “collecting” t-shirts starting when I was in grade school. Every event I attended, every trip I took, and every school I attended resulted in a t-shirt. Soon there was no room in my dresser or closet, and the t-shirts I could stuff into the dresser never got worn. The t-shirts contained a lot of memories, so I didn’t want to throw them out and I didn’t want to give them away. I read a couple of articles online about creating a t-shirt quilt, and I thought it was the perfect idea. What started as a small project turned into a love for crafting and quilting.

How I made my quilt:

From my stack of about 20 t-shirts, I chose 12.

Requirements for the twelve shirts were:
1) ability to fit the image onto a 12X12” block
2) not too worn
3) didn’t clash completely with my color scheme.

For my background colors, I chose the colors of my family room, burgundy and dark blue. I found the backing at Crate and Barrel Outlet store for $10.

The first half of my t-shirt quilt was sewn by hand….I had never used, nonetheless owned, a sewing machine. Finally, I gave in, read some reviews online, and bought a Brother sewing machine at Wal-Mart for under $90. Using some online video tutorials, I taught myself to use the sewing machine, and finished the quilt. After cutting, piecing, sewing, binding, and quilting here’s the end result:

What does quilting have to do with genealogy?

I never intended for my t-shirt quilt to be a genealogy project. The end result changed my mind. (Hoping my quilt will be passed down to my future children) Each of the twelve “t-shirts”/blocks tells a pretty good story about my background, interests, and hobbies.

The 12 blocks include:

1) Niagara Falls

2) Central High School Softball Jersey

3) Disney World’s Splash Mountain
4) Disney’s Mickey Mouse playing baseball
5) Butler University Marching Band
6) Central Middle School
7) Butler University
8) South Dakota Badlands
9) Central Middle School Volleyball
10) Bowl for Kids' Sake
11) Chicago Bulls Championship Shirt (I’m still wearing my Chicago White Sox and Chicago Blackhawks championship tees….couldn’t cut those)
12) Grade School Softball Jersey

My descendants could use the following adjectives to describe me just by looking at this quilt:

1) Traveler: visiting Niagara Falls, Disney World, and the Badlands in South Dakota

2) Sports Enthusiast: softball, baseball, volleyball, basketball

3) Musical: Played the Saxophone, member of the Butler University Marching Band

4) Student: Central Middle School, Central High School, and Butler University

5) Athletic: Played softball from grade school through high school

6) Volunteer: Bowl for Kids’ Sake

7) Chicagoan: Chicago Bulls

8) Creative

9) Quilter

10) Dog lover (all the remnants of dog hair on the quilt from when Millie tried to help me by sitting on the quilt…)

While these adjectives don’t describe me completely, these words describe me a lot better than my census, birth, or marriage record.

Have some old t-shirts? Give this project a try! If nothing else, it’ll give you a warm blanket to put over your legs while doing genealogy research on those cold nights.

Surname Saturday: Henry Hanxleden, civil war ancestor

In honor of the 4th of July, I am writing today about the family in my tree that has been in the U.S. the longest.  I'd always thought my family were recent immigrants, coming to the U.S. in the late 1800's or early 1900's, so imagine my surprise when I found out one of my ancestors fought in the Civil War.

Henry Hanxleden (also found as Hanxladen, Hauxleden or Hansleden) shares a birthday with me, born August 30, 1819, Köln, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany and died March 19, 1889 in St. Charles, Kane County, Illinois.  Henry married Catherine Maas on October 1, 1946.  They immigrated to the U.S. in June 10, 1852.

Nine years later, Henry became a member of the 8th Illinois Calvary (at age 42) until he mustered out July 17, 1865.  Henry's calvary fought at Gettysburg among many other historic battles.  Henry was a member of the G.A.R. (G.A.R. is the Grand Army of the Republic, a fraternal organization composed of veterans of the Union Army who had served in the American Civil War).

In, Passing in Review: Reminiscences of Men Who Have Lived in St. Charles, Pliny A. Durant writes about Henry Hanxleden: 

"Born in Koln, Germany, in 1819, this hard-working son of the "Faderland" became a citizen of St. Charles in 1852.  He never seemed able to master the intricacies of the English language, and as long as he lived it was nearly impossible to understand him when he spoke.  His own language was so peculiar that the very best German scholars in the community with great difficulty understood him. He was an honest, upright man, and during the War of the Rebellion, served his adopted country faithfully.   In after years he was a member of the local G.A.R. post and always seemed proud of his record as a soldier.  He performed many a day's labor on the streets of St. Charles and always seemed to have a special friendship for John F. Elliott, who somehow had a knack of understanding him, which others lacked.  Poor Henry was laid away at last, and another of the characters of the place has since been missing." 

1885 St. Charles, Illinois city directory:

St. Charles North Cemetery:

Henry's daughter, Elenore (Laura) Hanxleden married Killian Krapf.  Their daughter, Emma Amelia Krapf, married Albert Ruebensam, my great great grandpa.

Treasure Chest Thursday: Blogging helped me find my great grandfather who was "lost" for 80 years

In a previous post, I described my search for my great grandfather Raymond Mason Peterson.  A comment from hummer led me to find Raymond Peterson.  Her comment included the World War II Army Enlistment Record for a Raymond M Peterson Jr.  Looking further at the record and details, I figured out that it was indeed the Raymond who I've been looking for!  I've searched ancestry for the last 6 months for him, and hummer found him in less than a day.  This record led me to discover more information about Raymond and his family.  I was able to add two more generations to that line on my family tree.  (stay tuned for more information....)

There are a couple of lessons I learned:

1) Blogging really does help you connect with other family members or other people in the genealogical community who are willing to help.  Genealogists and Family Researchers are the friendliest people I've ever worked with or met.  Have an ancestor mystery? Don't have access to a specific database?  Blogging about your brick wall may help you discover the past of your secret ancestor.

2) Sometimes it helps to have someone else look at your tree and search for records.  Sometimes we get so caught up in our own research we forget to look for things....like a world war II enlistment record.  Sometimes we're "stubborn" with our searches.....narrowing our searches down to Peterson, when the census taker might have written it down as Petersen......searching for the surname Morrison when the cursive writing made it look like Monison or Marrison....or thinking there's no way an ancestor could have been born in another city or state....or there's no way an ancestor was married previously...(just a few of examples from my research).  Whenever Brenden or I get stuck or have a brick wall, we'll ask each other to search for the ancestor.  99% of the time, when I look for his ancestor or he looks for my ancestor, we find what we're looking for.

3) Sometimes two letters make all the difference.  Discovering that my Raymond Mason Peterson was a Jr. was the key to discovering his past and where he ended up.

4) It's a small world.....Raymond Peterson died in Sun City, Maricopa County, Arizona.....fifteen minutes from my grandpa's house in Arizona where they moved a few years ago.   

5) The smallest details from your family's stories (or the details they forget to tell you) may be be the key to your next discovery.  When my dad told my grandpa that I found Raymond Peterson and his father who was also Raymond Peterson, and they shared the middle name Mason, my grandpa said, well, that's because Raymond's dad was a freemason....we had never known that fact.  The fact that he was a mason helped me verify an obituary belonged to Raymond's dad.

A BIG thank you to hummer for helping me find Raymond Peterson!

Tombstone Tuesday, Findagrave, and Technology Trouble with Family Tree Maker

Every visit to a cemetery includes both pictures of my ancestors' graves as well as pictures of random graves found next to or near my ancestors graves.  My goal this week is to update findagrave.com and add the people and pictures I've taken.  I've finished adding about 75% of the names, but only 40% of the pictures. I've been a member of the findagrave community for 4 months and have added 449 memorials.  I've added 250 pictures (although there may be multiple pictures for one memorial) and completed 5 requests (I'm trying to average at least once a month).  I've started three virtual cemeteries: Melissa's ancestors, Brenden's ancestors, and Possible Ancestors (people that may be related, that I have to research).  So far, Brenden's family has 117 memorials, my family 42, and possible with 140.  Looks like I have some graves to add for my side...

I also utilize an option on findagrave which lets me download a spreadsheet with the names and information from the memorials I have entered.  I love this option, as I use it to compare to my list of pictures taken and list of graves I still need to visit/find.

I've fallen behind in entering the burial locations in my family tree.  Part of the problem is I'm having trouble with the Family Tree Maker software on my computer (Vista), it keeps crashing!  I've followed through the helpful advice I've read online about fixing the problem, but so far no luck.  I'm frustrated as I spent $75 for the deluxe version, after reading many reviews online about it being one of the best.  I love how it has the option of merging duplicates, fixing errors, and printing customized reports.  I wish it had the ability to update as I enter information on ancestry.com family tree or vice versa.  It seems to work fine until I try to upload my ancestry.com gedcom file.  Perhaps there's an error embedded in the file, but I don't know how to fix it without starting all over.  Maybe I have too many people in my tree....lol.... Have you had the same trouble with Family Tree Maker? Were you able to fix the problem? What software would you recommend?

Here's today's tombstone:

I found this tombstone to be extremely interesting (note: I am not related).  Tombstone found in Mount Carmel Cemetery, Hilliside, Cook, Illinois.

Woodmen of the World Memorial

John Vacco, died June 18, 1916, age 43

Domenico Vacco, died June 18, 1916, age 14

Maggie Vacco, died June 18, 1916, age 9

I was curious, what did "Woodmen of the World Memorial" mean? Why had this family died all on the same day?  So I did a little research....According to Wikipedia, Woodmen of the World,

"is a fraternal organization based in Omaha, Nebraska, United States, that operates a large privately held insurance company for its members.  Its history includes the erection of numerous distinctive tombstones depicting tree stumps across the country prior to 1930, a program to donate flags, and broadcast interests...There are 2,000 community based Woodmen of the World (WOW) lodges throughout the nation.  Lodges conduct volunteer, patriotic, and charitable activities that benefit the community and its members."

I haven't found the obituaries or any information about the Vacco family and why they all passed on the same day.

More Sources of Background Research: Yearbooks, Gravestones, Heirlooms, and more

Today's post on Jen's Family History Research Tips Blog  is entitled, Background Information Research.  Jen describes some great sources for background research including newspaper articles, search engines, and books.  Jen asks for other sources used for background research, so here's the sources I've used (I've excluded the items Jen describes so well in her blog)

Other sources I've used for background research include:

1) Yearbooks (found at the library in the city/county of your ancestor, online, or even on ebay)  I found a great picture of Brenden's father in his yearbook online.  It also had his senior year quote, which provided some further insight

2) City/County History Centers--The Iroquois County Historical Society has a biography on two of my Ruebensam ancestors on its website.  I haven't seen the biographies in print anywhere else

3) Family photographs--not just looking at the people, but their outfits, cars, houses, etc.  Tells you a little bit for about the family than just what they looked like

4) Gravestones---I found out that Brenden's great grandfather was a freemason by the symbol on his gravestone.  Brenden's great grandmother has the Order of the Eastern Star symbol on her grave.  You may find other fraternal organization symbols or other symbols that may tell you about your family's background.  Not just symbols, but military participation as well.  Through a gravestone, I found out my ancestor fought in World War II.  I hadn't found a record on ancestry for him, but found it on his gravestone

5) Religious Organizations/Churches---Brenden's family is a lot more religious than mine is, and I've been able to find old church newsletters that have pictures of the family (more recent newsletters) and stories about how the family participated in a community event. 

6) Family Scrapbooks---I haven't been luck enough to find such a resource, but as the family historian for my family, I've started the scrapbook and hope it will passed on through many generations.

7) Obituaries--I've found out so much about my ancestors just by reading their obituaries 

8) Family Heirlooms--What has been passed down from generation to generation?  Obviously the item was important enough to be passed on.  What relevance did the item have to the family and their way of life?  My favorite heirloom is my grandmother's gold chain that has her first initial "M".  As I was the only person in the family with a first name starting with "M", I received the chain after she passed away.  We also have costume jewelry from my great grandmother, as she was a seamstress for some of the silent films

I'm sure there are more items I'm forgetting at this moment, but these are my top 8.  Do you have any additions to the list?

95th Carnival Of Genealogy "The Annual Swimsuit Competition": Swimsuits from the past, Let's Hear it for embarrassing myself

My first posting for the Carnival of Genealogy!  This month's theme is "The Annual Swimsuit Competition".

It was so much fun going through my stack of photos looking for swimsuit pictures of my ancestors.  While the two photos I found of my ancestors on the beach were not in a bathing suits.....unless bathing suits have changed that dramatically... I found it remarkable seeing the changes over time.  Here's my family's bathing suits from 1909 to 2008:

Depicted below is Clarence and Elizabeth Brown (nee Galligan) and child, my great grandma, Ruth Margaret Brown.  Ruth was born in 1908, so this picture is taken in 1909, most likely on the beaches of Lake Michigan in Chicago, IL.

 My grandma:  1950's vs. 2008

Unknown location, circa 1950's

Phoenix, Arizona, 2008

While pictures of my ancestors in bathing suits is limited, I have plenty of myself in bathing suits....I'm sure my future descendants will be proud...lol.  So while, I'm younger (26) than most genealogists and people interested in family history, here's a view of swimsuits in the 1980's in Illinois for your viewing pleasure and my personal embarrassment:

Yep, that's me with the squirt gun....also pictured is my mom and two sisters, 1987

Me...climbing the ladder, other three children unknown, 1988

Taking the plunge, 1988

Cheap sprinkler fun in front of the house...me in front, followed by neighborhood friends and my two sisters, 1990.    

We made up a game for the sprinkler, sort of like HORSE for basketball or Truth or Dare...whatever the one person in the sprinkler did, the others had to follow....no matter how silly or crazy.  Memories...

Graveyard Rabbits Carnival: All items found for Scavenger Hunt

This is my first blog contribution to a blog carnival.

Today's post is for The Graveyard Rabbit's Scavenger Hunt Carnival.

"Like a traditional scavenger hunt, the object is to find as many items as you can from the list below. In our case, those “items” are to be found in the cemetery"

To make my entry creative and special, all of the below images are either of Brenden or my ancestors...no random graves.  All pictures taken by me between May and June 2010.


The first image is my great great grandfather's gravestone.  Clarence Clifton Brown (1882-1962).  His grave is located in Queen of Heaven Cemetery, Hillside, Cook County, Illinois.  Three items from the scavenger hunt: Cross (there's actually two...bonus points...lol), Heart, and Hand (two hands too...)

The next picture is my great grandmother's gravestone (daughter of Clarence Clifton Brown).  Ruth Margaret Brown (1908-1992).  On this gravestone you'll find flowers and a cross. Her grave is located in Queen of Heaven Cemetery, Hillside, Cook County, Illinois.

This picture is the gravestone of Brenden's great grandmother, Bertha A. Wagner Myers Minnick (1881-1954).  On this grave you'll find one of the scavenger list items, a star, as Bertha was a member of the Order of Eastern Star. This grave is located at Lincoln Memorial Cemetery, Oswego, Kane/Kendall County, Illinois.

The next picture is the grave of Brenden's great grandmother, Peter Buchanan Morrison. Peter was a freemason, and on his grave you'll find the next scavenger hunt item, a fraternal symbol...the symbol of the masons.This grave is located at Lincoln Memorial Cemetery, Oswego, Kane/Kendall County, Illinois.

The next picture is the grave of my third great uncle, Joseph McCarron.  Joseph McCarron was in the US Navy in World War II, and you'll find the next item, a military grave.  This gravestone was found in Mt. Carmel Cemetery, Hillside, Cook County, Illinois

The next grave is that of Brenden's great uncle, Israel Rogers.  Israel was the first bishop of the Reorganized Church of Latter Day Saints in Kendall County, Illinois.  There is a monument in Pine Mound Cemetery in Sandwich, Kendall County, Illinois, for him, the next scavenger hunt item.

The grave of Dominick Censotti, my cousin, who's life was tragically ended in a car accident just short of his 17th birthday, contains the next scavenger hunt item, a bird.  His grave was found at St. Michael the Archangel Cemetery in Palatine, Cook County, Illinois.

The next is my second cousin, Brett Humphries, who's life was ended due to a genetic disease.  His gravestone contains the next items: Angel and 4-legged animal. His grave is located in St. Michael the Archangel cemetery, Palatine, Cook County, Illinois. 

Ok, so if a beanie baby doesn't count as a 4-legged animal, the next picture is that of my grandmother, Mildred P. Vitraelli.  My grandma's grave contains a lamb, a 4-legged animal.  Her grave is located in St. Michael the Archangel cemetery, Palatine, Cook County, Illinois.

Only a couple more to go....
The next image is from the Mausoleum at Mt. Carmel Cemetery, Hillside, Cook County, Illinois. (At the bottom, center) Lucy and Leonard Vitraelli are my great grandparents.

The next image contains trees, the next item.  These trees were located in Mount Carmel Cemetery near the graves of my ancestors.  I hope this isn't cheating....I couldn't find an image of a tree on any of the gravestones...

Another grave from Mt. Carmel Cemetery, Hillside, Cook County, Illinois, is the my great great grandparents, Maria and Nunziato D'Orazio.  Their gravestone contains photos.

And last....the hardest one to find for my family, is the grave of Jennie Weldon Hall, Brenden's great great (add more greats) grandma....an obelisk....well kind of.  This grave was found at Oak Ridge Cemetery, Sandwich, Kendall County, Illinois.

And that's all of them! :)

Adding one more item to the list.....grave with the most amount of names.  Below is the grave of the Quinn family.  Not blood related, but married into the family.  The grave contains 8 names, the most of the one's I've seen so far.  This grave is located at Mt. Carmel Cemetery, Hillside, Cook County, Illinios

Follow Friday: Great Resources from new blog, Family History Tips

Today's Follow Friday posting is dedicated to Jen's Family History Tips blog. Jen's blog provides tips for finding your family history. A lot of her postings have been focused on finding Chicago ancestors, which I find very helpful, as the majority of my ancestors are from Chicago. Even though I don't live far from Chicago (and even work in Chicago), I find there are many resources I still don't know about.

My favorite posting...which was hard to choose, there were many...is Women and the Naturalization Process.

This posting describes Jen's search for a female ancestor who was repatriated, even though she was born in Chicago. Jen highlights a wonderful article and resource from KindredConnections entitled “Where are they? Finding Your Ancestors’ US Naturalization Records.” I learned that due to an act passed in 1907, a women's nationality depended on her husband's nationality. So if the husband lost or gained citizenship, so did she.

I have a female ancestor in my line to which this applies to, but I could never figure out why. Thanks to Jen's posting, I now know why.

Keep up the great posts, I know I will continue reading.

Touchdown Thursday: Brother Trouble? Finding Ancestors on Land Ownership Maps

Today's Touchdown Thursday post is about two touchdowns I made this week using one of the latest and greatest indexes available through Ancestry, the "U.S., Indexed County Land Ownership Maps, 1860-1918".

Using Ancestry's searchable index, I was able to locate where some of my ancestors owned land in Illinois.

Chemung Township, McHenry, Illinois in 1872

Highlighted orange in the map above is the land owned by M. Kizer (aka Morris Kizer). Morris Kizer is my fourth great grandfather on my paternal side. He was born about 1811 in New Jersey and migrated to Illinois with his brothers, Warren, Jacob, and Morgan. Jacob's land is depicted in green, and Warren's land is depicted in blue.

Morris and his wife, Maria, were the parents of my third great grandma, Frances Kizer, who married Richard George Brown. There are many Brown's that owned land in Chemung Township. Richard and his father, Joseph Brown, owned land in Chemung, although I have not determined if any of the Browns on this map are my Browns.

I wonder why Morris Kizer's land is so much further away from his two brothers?

Papineau, Iroquois County, Illinois in 1904

Pictured above (in orange) is the land of G. Rubensam (aka Gottfried Rubensam or Ruebensam). Gottfried is the brother of my third great grandfather, August Ruebensam (aka Ruebenson). Gottfried and August immigrated to the U.S. from Germany on the same ship in 1873. Gottfried migrated to Iroquois County, while his brother, August, migrated to Cook County.

I wonder why August and Gottfried went their separate ways?

Looks like there could be some brother trouble in my past. Guess I should be glad I have two sisters, instead of brothers...lol

Source of maps:
Ancestry.com. U.S., Indexed County Land Ownership Maps, 1860-1918 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.
Original data: Various publishers of County Land Ownership Atlases. Microfilmed by the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Mystery Solved: Disappearance of Eugene Gardos (Part 3)

Continued from yesterday:

Eugene Gardos left his family in 1929 never to be heard from again………that was until Eugene’s great grandson, David, (from his first wife) and I (Eugene’s great granddaughter from his third “wife”) made an ancestry.com connection.

A few months ago I received a message on ancestry.com from David. He noticed that we had posted the same passenger list record to our family trees. He contacted me to determine if our two great grandpas, Eugene Gardos were the same person.

1922 Passenger List, Hungary to U.S.

At first our connection seemed unlikely. My Eugene Gardos had a birthdate of 1891 (which was estimated from a census record), and his Eugene Gardos had a birthdate of 1884. David’s Eugene Gardos showed up in the 1930 Federal Census in New York, while my Eugene Gardos showed up in the 1930 Federal Census in Chicago.

1930 Federal Census, New York, New York, Eugene Gardos and family

1920 Federal Census, Chicago, Illinois, Eugene Gardos and family

Despite these challenges, we kept digging. David shared a story with me his family story about how Eugene Gardos was in the movie business, and had helped Vilma Banky come to the U.S. to get a movie contract with Sam Goodwyn. Then, I told him my story about Vilma Banky…..now we were curious!! Could they really be the same guy, despite the differences in birthdates and census records?

Vilma Banky (1901-1991), Hungarian Actress

Our next step was to share pictures. David had a picture of Eugene Gardos and his family circa 1920 (posted in Part 1 of this blog). We also had the picture of Eugene in his U.S. passport photo (posted in Part 2 of this blog). My family supposedly has pictures of Eugene, but they have yet to be found.

While my grandma, Eugene’s daughter was deceased, her brother, Arthur is still alive. His wife, my aunt, and my cousins on Arthur’s side have seen the picture of Eugene. My family knew I was doing genealogy research on the family, so during my sister’s bridal shower I showed them a couple pictures of family members. Two of the pictures I showed were Eugene’s passport photo and the picture David had shared with me. I actually showed them a bunch of pictures, some related and some not related, and asked them if any seemed familiar....so they couldn't just think it looked like him.

Both Arthur’s wife, Ginny, her two daughters, and my uncle confirmed that the passport photo and the picture David sent, matched the pictures they've seen of Eugene Gardos. They said the only difference in the pictures was that he didn't have a mustache, as most of the pictures they saw of him, he had a mustache.

Talking about Eugene more stories about the family came out. Eugene was in the textile business….his passport application includes a letter from his textile company. Eugene’s third “wife” always told the family that their marriage record was lost or burnt, although my family was always suspicious. I have not found a marriage certificate. Ginny told me that Marie and Eugene were 18 years apart, and they probably lied about their ages in the 1930 Federal Census in Chicago. The 1930 Federal Census of Chicago also stated that my grandma, Mildred, was born in Illinois, when she was actually born in New York. I never knew she was born in New York.

The story began to piece together. Someday, somehow, and somewhere in New York Eugene and Marie were introduced to each other. They had an affair, Eugene was still married to his second wife. Marie got pregnant and had my grandma, Mildred in 1927. Eugene kept the affair and the birth a secret from his other family. During that time, Eugene and his wife Theresa had two kids, Elsa and Robert. The affair continued and Marie got pregnant again in 1929. Only this time, the stock market crashed, and proved to be a good time to run away from his marriage. Him and Marie ran away with their daughter, Mildred, and moved to Chicago where Arthur was born. They remained in Chicago, not able to get married, as Eugene was technically still married. Five years later, Eugene died from a heart attack…maybe all the stress from running away from his family or leading this double life? Meanwhile, in New York, Eugene’s wife didn’t know what happened to Eugene, and when it came time for the 1930 Census, a year after he disappeared, she included him as part of the family.

While the story is just a guess about what actually happened, it matches the family stories and historical records. While his wife, Theresa is deceased, Eugene’s daughter, Elsa, and my great uncle, Arthur are still living….discovering they have half siblings 81 years later. It seems like a movie…..

While I feel horrible for Eugene’s wife and family he left behind, if he had never had the affair with Marie and moved to Chicago, my grandma wouldn’t have been born, my grandma would never have met her husband, my mom would never have been born, and I wouldn’t be here today.

As Brad Paisley sings, “To me it’s all so clear, every one of us is here, all because two people fell in love…”

I thank David for reaching out to me and helping me discover the mystery of Eugene Gardos…I would never have known his birth name was Goldberger. I am so glad I was able to help David solve the mystery of the disappearance of his great grandfather, Eugene Gardos.