In the Beginning...

About 40 years ago there was a young woman who was interested in finding out more about her great-grandmother, Margaret (nee Donnelly) Herrick McCabe. The young woman was me. All Dad remembered were the names of some siblings: "There was Aunt Kate, Aunt Mary Liz, and Uncle Eddie." Dad thought there were several others: Johnny, Matt, possibly a Jim and a Tom. All Dad remembered was that his grandmother was buried somewhere near Evergreen Park, Illinois. For those unfamiliar with the Chicago area, there are LOTS of cemeteries near Evergreen Park. 

My aunt was a bit more helpful: Margaret was buried in St. Mary's Cemetery, which was actually IN Evergreen Park. So I went to the cemetery office, naively asking where Margaret McCabe was buried.

"We have two people by that name."  

Uh-oh.

That was my introduction to how difficult, intriguing, and dismaying genealogy can be.

Left: "Illinois, Cook County Deaths, 1871-1998", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2MH-MW1C : Tue Jul 23 06:32:39 UTC 2024), Entry for Margaret McCabe and Patrick Donnelly, 30 Sep 1950.
Right: "Illinois, Cook County Deaths, 1871-1998", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2M4-VKRN : Sat Mar 09 05:54:34 UTC 2024), Entry for Margaret McCabe and Ivan Stokes, 03 Oct 1951.

The above records from FamilySearch do indeed show two Margarets at St. Mary's.

• Both were in their 70s.

• One was born in England, one in Ireland. 

• They were buried exactly one year and one day apart.

• They lived about two minutes from each other. (The Lake Park address was actually my grandparents' address, not Margaret's. She apparently lived a few buildings north. See the image below.)

• The same funeral home handled both burials.

Thankfully, I recognized the informant, Katherine Morgan — Margaret's sister. 
"My" Margaret had a stone. The "other" Margaret who died in 1951 had no stone.

I'm glad to have proof from that long-ago visit, and I'm glad to have proof from FamilySearch, in the form of Illinois, Archdiocese of Chicago, Cemetery Records, 1864-1989. Because now, the Catholic Cemeteries of Chicago have a computerized database of all burials. But it does not list "my" Margaret, buried in Section U. The only one listed is the other Margaret, buried in Section V.

That's one of my New Year's resolutions: get my Margaret into the database.

By the way, Dad missed a sibling — I don't think he was aware of the eldest brother, who was the key to breaking through Margaret's brick wall.

Left: "Illinois, Archdiocese of Chicago, Cemetery Records, 1864-1989", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2HN-PBM2: Sat Mar 09 23:36:13 UTC 2024), Entry for Margaret McCabe, 4 Oct 1950.

Right: "Illinois, Archdiocese of Chicago, Cemetery Records, 1864-1989", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2HN-PY1G : Sat Mar 09 11:58:59 UTC 2024), Entry for Margaret McCabe, 5 Oct 1951.