52 Ancestors: Week 12, Membership

The prompt for Week 12 of Amy Johnson Crow's "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks" is Membership. Since I should have written this during Women's History Month in March, let me mention three maternal ancestors and the organizations to which they belonged.

My maternal grandmother, Eugenia Marolewski, was a member of Mothers of World War II, Unit 125 from Immaculate Conception Church in South Chicago. For a few years she served as president of the group, as well as financial secretary of District 1. From newspaper items, it appesrs that this group was dedicated to supporting veterans. They visited local VA hospitals and provided cookies and gifts at Christmastime. The group welcomed mothers of those who served in World War II or Korea, as well as those who currently had children in the armed services. 

Grandma's sister-in-law, my grandpa Steve's sister Constance Norwich, once served as president of the American Legion Auxiliary South Chicago Unit 493. She was at one time national president of the Polish Legion of American Veterans, Ladies Auxiliary.

Grandpa and Grandma's daughter Henrietta (my aunt Hank) was a member of the Cadet Nurse Corps. A student at the Jackson Park Hospital School of Nursing, she joined the Corps in October 1944, and her service ended when she graduated in October 1947.

52 Ancestors, Week 11: Lucky

 I'm playing catch-up on "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks," the project of a year's worth of writing prompts by Amy Johnson Crow. While everyone else will be on Week 16, I'm finally getting around to Week 11.

Week 11's theme is "Lucky." I don't especially recall any lucky talismans in my family. If my ancestors had any, I never knew about them. If they ever had any especially fortuitous luck, I never knew about that, either. 

The only luck I can think of is how lucky I am to know the stories I do know; to have found the records and mentions that I have found; and for the chance to tell their stories in my poor way.

While not precisely a lucky piece, there is something that I've kept on my refrigerator, as my dad did before me: these Round Tuits. I inherited a tendency to procrastinate. Procrastinators always put things off until such time as they can get around to it. I even acknowedged that trait by naming my blog Round Tuit Genealogy because I blogged so seldom. Sometimes it's been years between blog posts. 

So go ahead. You can keep your lucky penny, your rabbit's foot, your horseshoe. I'm actually blogging again. I've got a Round Tuit.

 

52 Ancestors, Week 10: Translation

I'm several weeks late in keeping up with Amy Johnson Crow's "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks" challenge. While the project is entering Week 16, I'm catching up on Week 10: Translation.

Or, more accurately, "Lost in Translation."

Fifty percent of me is Polish. And I don't speak or understand a word of it. 

Thankfully, my second cousin does. Jay Orbik is a genealogist who's done all the work on our Orbik and Pyterek lines, and has taken the Orbik line into the 1600s. He's fairly fluent, and travels to Poland a couple times a year where he works with a group of genealogists there, Jamiński Zespół Indeksacyjny (JZI), on indexing and publishing projects. It was through this group that he's published two family histories so far: The Orbik Families from Tajno, and One Hundred Percent Polish: A South Chicago Family History.

So thanks, Jay, for all the work you've done! 

The Pytereks were from Gulcz, in west central Poland. Several members of the family came to Chicago shortly after the Great Chicago Fire in 1871. They lived in what was called the "Polish Downtown" anchored by St. Stanislaus Kostka Church, which was founded in 1867 by Rev. Vincent Barzynski. He performed the marriage of my great-great grandparents, Alexander Pyterek and Helena Murkowska, in that church in 1876. 

Chicago claims the largest population of Poles outside Poland itself. So the Polish neighborhoods of Chicago would have been fairly self-sustaining, with Polish-speaking residents patronizing Polish-owned stores and shops, attending one of a number of Polish churches, and whose children perhaps attended Polish parochial schools. They read Polish newspapers published in Chicago. In this setting, the Pytereks learned a new language. 

By 1900, Alexander, Helena, and their family relocated to South Chicago; the frame house they owned in the 8600 block of South Baltimore Avenue still stands. Alexander could read and write, and could speak English, according to the 1900 census. His brother Valentine (Walenty) appears on the voter rolls in Chicago in 1890, and is listed as having naturalized in 1878, so presumably he also could speak English. 

An upcoming exhibit at the Chicago History Museum, "Back Home: Polish Chicago" will open May 20. I hope to check it out and discover more about the Poles of Chicago, and my ancestors' contributions to it.

52 Ancestors, Week 9: Gone Too Soon

Infant mortality was a common occurence among our ancestors. With no modern vaccines, illnesses could affect whole families. How did young parents cope with the death of not just one, but two (or more) children? 

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Many of my paternal grandmother's family are interred at Old White Cemetery in Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa. In addition to great-grandma Iowa Hale Speed, her husband William Speed and her brother, Landon Hale, are there. So, too, are her son William Stotts, son of Iowa and her first husband, John Benton Stotts. 

William married Myrtle Spencer, daughter of J. W. Spencer and Lizzie Tarr, in 1904 in Oskaloosa. On 23 September of that year they welcomed their firstborn, a son, Joseph. Two years later, they welcomed another son, Charles.

What hopes and dreams they likely had of raising two strapping sons! But it was not to be. Joe died of dysentery July 31, 1906 at the age of 1 year, 10 months, and 7 days. His gravestone is engraved:

   Our Joe

   1904-1906

Charley died of cholera infantum on 16 August 1907 at the age of 1 year, 3 months and 13 days. Cholera infantum was an often fatal gastrointestinal disorder, often prevalent during summer months. Charley's gravestone reads:

Our Charley

1906-1907

Unfortunately, the person who created the Find A Grave memorial has incorrectly identified Joe and Charley as children of Iowa Hale Stotts Speed and her husband, William Speed, who are buried adjacent to the boys and whose stones are in the same design, likely paid for by William Stotts. I submitted edits for these stones, but as of today they are still linked to the wrong parents.

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My paternal grandfather's family had its share of tragedy. I previously wrote about the death of Grandpa's uncle Charles Herrick, for whom Grandpa was likely named. Grandpa Charles's aunt, Jennie Herrick, and her husband James Osborn Mitchell lived in Canonsburg, Washington County, Pennsylvania. Jennie and James already had two children, Jean and Walter, when the couple welcomed twin sons — James Alexander Mitchell and his twin, William Herrick Mitchell — in mid-February of 1911. 

As with Charley Stotts in Iowa four years previously, cholera infantum struck. The twins were 5 months old. William died on 19 July 1911, and James on 23 July. A news item began, "Twice within a week death visited the home of Mr. and Mrs. James O. Mitchell, Highland Avenue, Canonsburg..." It ends by saying "Mrs. Mitchell was formerly Miss Jennie Herrick and she has been nearly prostrated by this double misfortune."

The twins are interred at Oak Spring Cemetery in Canonsburg. The Find A Grave Memorial for James lists him as James O., even though the obituary gives his name as James A., and his death certificate says James Alexander.

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My maternal great-grandparents, Mary Pyterek and Stanislaus Orbik of South Chicago, Illinois, also were no strangers to infant death. 

After the births of Mary and Stanley's children, Harry, Eugenia, and Jennie, the couple welcomed a girl, Helen Josephine, in September 1908. Helen died the following August "of pneumonia (probably tubercular)."

The couple had a son, Alfred, in early September 1916. He died of "acute ileocolitis" the day after Christmas.

Both Helen and Alfred are buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Calumet City, Cook County, Illinois.

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This is a post for Week 9 of Amy Johnson Crow's initiative, #52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.

52 Ancestors, Week 8: I Can Identify

As I catch up on posting as part of Amy Johnson Crow's "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks," the theme for Week 8 is "I can identify."

I only WISH I could identify...

• all the photos in a photo album that belonged to my paternal grandparents. Most of the photos have no names. Are they kin, or merely family friends? (Tip: BE SURE TO identify the people in your photos and videos.)
• the actual first name of my great-great-grandfather. Was he John Donley, John Donlon, John Patrick Donlon, or Patrick Donlon?
• the actual first name of John's wife. Was she Katherine Kelley or Margaret Kelley?
• the origin of another great-great grandfather, John Speed. He was from England, and DNA matches to his line seem to point toward an ancestry in Somerset. But John himself left no clues that I've found — yet.
• the origin of 3x great-grandfather Henry Herrick, a coach driver who lived in Washington, PA. He was from New York, and that's all I know. (By the way, Henry, it'd be nice to know when you died. I'm just saying.)
• whether Lydia Speed born in 1866 in Peoria County, Illinois, is the same Lydia who ran away from a girls' school in 1881, and whether they're both the same Lydia who married James Tucker in 1887 in Sangamon County, and who died in 1901 in Chicago.

That process — the investigation — is what I like about genealogy. Finding that little nugget, that "Aha!" moment, that discovery that leads to the genealogy happy dance when the pieces all slot into place. 

52 Ancestors, Week 7: Outcast

Week 7's theme for Amy Johnson Crow's "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks" is Outcast.

My great-grandmother Iowa Hale Speed had a brother, Landon, nicknamed Landy. Landy was named for Iowa's grandfather, Landon Ballinger. Censuses from 1870-1900 indicate that he could read and write, and was eligible to vote. All extant Iowa State Censuses that ask about education indicate the same. However, the answers for the 1910 census questions "Whether able to read" and "Whether able to write," are both "No." Landon was employed mostly as a teamster, and also hauled coal. He never married.

A cousin of my dad's told us that her father would visit Landon at the County Home, and staff had to take his shoes because otherwise he would run away. When Landon died in 1937, a secondary diagnosis was dementia praecox, today known as schizophrenia.

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My Polish maternal grandfather had a brother, Bronislaw, whose name was Americanized to Barney. Barney's World War II Draft Card shows him as age 38, unemployed. His penmanship is very poor as compared to his older siblings, so the penmanship does not appear to be related to the amount of education he received. He did not marry.

In a newspaper article from 1951, Barney appealed to the South Chicago Police to give him a bunk for the night. He testified that he had no home, and said "I have a few relatives, but they have their families to take care of." He stated that he used to stay at a mission on 92nd Street. Three years before, he was beaten up in a local park, and his kneecap was broken. He stated that since then, he's spent seven or eight months of every year at the County Hospital. 

Barney died in 1957 of a heart ailment. 

52 Ancestors, Week 6: Social Media

The theme of Week 6 of Amy Johnson Crow's "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks" is social media. I haven't found an ancestor on social media, but I did find a cousin. It was after posting to this blog (which I do VERY INFREQUENTLY) about my grandpa Herrick's first cousin Grant that several months later I was contacted by Grant's granddaughter, my third cousin Vicki. Vicki and I have met twice, and she showed me around my dad's birthplace — East Palestine, Ohio, which just a few weeks ago was the site of a major train derailment and toxic chemical leak.

The "52 Ancestors" theme can also encompass the social columns of our ancestor's newspapers. It was such a social tidbit that broke a brick wall on this line. The column mentioned that Mrs. C. P. Morgan went to East Palestine for a family funeral. Katherine Morgan (Vicki's great-grandmother) and Margaret Herrick McCabe (my great-grandmother) were sisters. While investigating whose funeral Kate attended, I found a surname of interest which then led to discovering Kate and Margaret's eldest brother, Robert Donlon — someone we'd not heard of before, although my father had told me about several of Margaret's other siblings.

So don't discount those social columns. By compiling and analyzing the social items pertaining to your  ancestor, you may be able to reconstruct a family unit that had been unknown to you.

52 Ancestors, Week 5: Oops

Week 5 of Amy Johnson Crow's "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks" prompt is "Oops." Mistakes can be costly. They can also be deadly, and the summer of 1892 was a doubly tragic one for my family.

Shot Himself in the Side

Charles Herrick was received at the Allegheny Hospital yesterday afternoon severely wounded by a gun shot. He gave his address as No. 32 Cherry street. He said he was with a camping party down the Ohio River opposite Shousetown, and yesterday afternoon went with a companion to shoot at blackbirds among the reeds in the river. His rifle trigger was caught in some matted grass, the weapon was discharged and the ball entered Herrick's side at the fifth rib. It passed upward and caused a very serious wound, which seems likely to be fatal. The man was brought to Allegheny on a Ft. Wayne train, but at midnight the surgeons had not been able to find the ball.

— The Pittsburgh Dispatch, Tuesday, August 16, 1892

"The Shot Was Fatal" read the headline in the following day's Washington (Pa) Daily Reporter. That article gives the location as Leetsdale, on the Ohio River 17 miles below Pittsburgh. It states that Charles accidentally shot himself while climbing over a fence. Marshall Lytle, one of his companions, had him placed on the train and taken to the hospital. Lytle, and Charles's brother and sister, were with him when he died.

Charles was about 15 or 16 at the time of his death. His parents had divorced several years earlier and mother Rebecca had died four years before. His father Henry was living elsewhere, and Charles and his siblings were essentially reared by their sister Daisy, about five years Charles's senior, and their brother Frank, who was about three years older than Charles. 

It's not known which siblings were at Charles's bedside when he died. The eldest brother, Harry, had gone to Texas sometime in 1892 or 1893 but returned before the summer of 1893, most likely due to the impending death of his grandmother, Jane (nee Wood) Herrick, who reared him and with whom he lived. 

In 1899, Marshall Lytle would go on to marry Charles's sister, Katherine. Harry married Maggie Donley in 1893 and their only child, a son (who was my grandfather), was named Charles — likely in memory of the uncle he never knew.

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52 Ancestors, Week 4: Education

The Week 4 prompt for Amy Johnson Crow's "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks" is Education. I have no ancestors who were teachers. At best, I think my paternal grandmother's sister was a teacher. 

The only  memory you may have of a grandparent is an older person with gray hair. But imagine your grandma with her hair in braids, bringing her lunch to school in a pail. Perhaps grandpa didn't have much formal schooling if he was needed on the farm at harvest time. Did they attend a large school? A one- or two-room schoolhouse? Was the building made of brick, or of wood? Who were their teachers? Are there records or photographs for your ancestor?

What I do have are some vintage school items. They're kind of cool, and some of them even contain the name of the student who used them. 

FIRST GROUPING:

These school books, lined tablet, and school slate have been used by students from long ago. The Bobbs Merrill Third Reader has wonderful illustrations, and dates from 1923. 

The Aldine First Language Book dates from 1913. The name inside reads Frederick Mason (and coincidentally, Frederick W. “Bill” Mason was the name of my Grandpa Herrick’s childhood friend in Iowa). I can’t recall which antique store this is from. 

Our Diamond Leader flexible pencil tablet was from Spill the Milk, a vintage store that was in Valparaiso, Indiana. The name at the top is Elberta Schuessler. (Census lists her as Alberta, born about 1911. Her family lived in Morgan Township, Porter County, Indiana. Her nickname was Peaches, and she died without issue in 2002. There is writing on the inside that dates from 1928.) It reminds me of my old Big Chief tablet. 

This Extra Special slate is bound in leather. It has a crack and a chip in it. It was made by the National School Slate Company of Slatington, Pennsylvania.

SECONG GROUPING

Eclipse Desk, Model No. 3 was found at an antique store in Winona Lakes, IN for about $40, at least 15 years ago. It obviously had been kept outside because the wood is very dry, more like weathered barn wood. I haven’t done anything to it yet, and it’s in the garage. Hopefully next year I can show it some love. I love the wrought iron scrollwork. 

Not seen in these photos is an arch just above the desk legs. On this arch, it says Cleveland. Online research of another Eclipse desk shows that this was designed by Theodor Kundtz, who also designed sewing machine cabinets for White. Most other No. 3 models found online don’t have the fancy wrought iron; just a solid base for schoolbooks, with Eclipse just stamped or forged into the side.

THIRD GROUPING

This Dick and Jane ”Our Big Book” had several versions: “We Look and See,” etc. This card is from the “Think and Do Book,” and measures 30x22. It dates from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s. I think I bought it in Michigan. The side-arm desk was already refinished when I bought it.

FOURTH GROUPING

This Indiana Teacher’s License is dated 1903, and allows Lulu Waggoner of Jackson County, Indiana, to teach. The Young People’s Reading Circle of Indiana Diploma, for Walter Hurst of Wayne County, IN, is dated 19 March 1898.

Wouldn't it be wonderful to find a school item owned or used by your ancestor?

52 Ancestors, Week 2: Favorite Photo

 Week 2 of my pal Amy Johnson Crow's writing prompt, "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks," is "Favorite Photo." 

Do I have just one? Not that I can think of. Several stick in my memory, and when I finally get all my photos organized and scanned, then I'll be able to finally post them. Until then, this one brings me much joy.

My Aunt Joy once told me "We have a picture of your Grandpa Herrick when he was a little boy. It's part of a paperweight." For years, I meant to ask to see it. A year ago at Christmas, I was at my cousin's holiday open house. After everyone else had left, I asked her whether she received the paperweight after her mother had died. She didn't recall it specifically, but she kindly dug in a box in her study, and — there it was. I brought it back to her dining room table, around which my family had gathered several hours earlier.

It proved almost impossible to photograph — the smooth, curved glass reflected the lights over the table. I had no idea how the photo was set into the paperweight. Could it be removed? YES!! With shaking hands I picked up my iPhone and took the best photo I could of the photo of little Charles Lewis Herrick. Part of the original caption on the reverse is still visible. In ink: "17 months old" and "born 1894." Barely visible in pencil: "Charley Her" and "April 10th" which was Grandpa's birthdate. 

I wondered about the circumstances behind the paperweight. What had the photo originally looked like before it was cut to fit inside the recess in the bottom of the paperweight? Was the photo only of Charley, or were there several poses done at the time, perhaps with his parents? I have photos of Charley's mother, my great-grandma Margaret "Maggie" Donley Herrick McCabe. Of Charley's father, my great-grandpa Harry Herrick, I have no photos — yet.

Welcome to Round Tuit Genealogy

Truth be told, I'm in it for the beads :)  
Thomas MacEntee says the Geneabloggers get beads.
I want beads too! So I'm blogging.

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I write in my journal too infrequently to think that I can blog regularly — I've been known not to write for a year or more; hence the name of my blog. It's a family story; the kind that goes on so long, we nearly forget the point. The kind my siblings tell; the kind that make their spouses groan.

See, Dad always said, "I'll get around to it." Usually this involved building something. For an electrician, he was one heck of a carpenter; one heck of a (fill in any trade here). He built two bedrooms, a bath, a walk-in closet and a ton of storage space in the unfinished attic of my childhood home. He built little wooden boats for my niece and nephew to float on the pond in the park. He built a picture frame, a bar in the basement, shelves for his workshop... so many things. No elaborate plans, either. A quick pencil sketch on a piece of scratch paper, and that was it. And darned if his projects didn't turn out exactly as he envisioned. 

He was not one to boast of his handiwork, but not content to do a less-than-perfect job. He'd actually cringe if he saw construction that didn't measure up to his standards. 

An uneven wall? "Pitiful; just pitiful."  

Or a building on which he worked more than 60 years before. I don't recall exactly what he hated about the building, but we'd hear about it every time we passed it. He'd almost cover his eyes, it pained him so much. Which could prove dangerous, since he was the one driving.

Where was I? (Oh, right; Dad...Perfectionist...Get around to it.) Anyway, Dad's insurance agent once handed out a little promotional wooden disc that was stamped "Round Tuit." Dad collected a bunch of them and passed some down to us. When he died in 2010, I think we buried a Tuit with him... an inside joke, as it were.

Not only did I inherit one of Dad's precious Tuits, but also his procrastination and pack rat tendencies (which, if we genies call it "archiving," gets us a reprieve. Or so I'm told). If Dad's perfectionism kept him from calling the Maytag repairman when it was something he could fix just as well (and for a lot less), it was Dad's procrastination that kept us going to the Laundromat for years. 

Being frugal ("Cheap is the word you're looking for") was second nature to him, being a child of the Depression. Dad's pack rat tendencies included such items as four electric motors and a set of wheels from a supermarket cart. Because he was going to build a (fill in the blank again), once he could get a Round Tuit.

So that's the story of how this blog got its name. It may be about family, sometimes. It may be about genealogy, most times. And I'll blog whenever I get a Round Tuit. 

(Hey, you Geneabloggers going to FGS — can I get beads now?)