where2look4ancestors

Category: Genealogy

  • The Birthday Girl

    From left to right, my cousin Fran, Auntie Karen, the birthday girl (me!), and my cousins Johnny, Alan and Russell.

  • Aunt Louise and Ernest

    Rosa Louise Mangels was born in Chicago, Cook, Illinois on this date in 1888. Many thanks to cousin Linda for sharing this photo of her father with his aunt Louise.

  • Read a French Birth Record

    Reading vital records written in a foreign language can be challenging. But we genealogists quickly become proficient at locating family names even among words that are otherwise illegible. I’ll come back to this record later to really transcribe and translate it. But I wanted to share it with you today,…

  • Fond Father of Myrtle

    From the Chicago Daily News January 28, 1920 page 30; Youngberg – Charles J., aged 58 years. Jan. 26 at home, 1421 E 75th st., beloved husband of Freda Youngberg, fond father of Myrtle Elvira and Lawrence Youngberg. Funeral Thursday Jan. 29 at 2:30 p.m. from late home to Swedish…

  • Delayed Birth Certificate

    My paternal grandmother was 18 years old when, on May 4, 1929, she and her paternal aunt Amanda (Mangels) Giles signed their names before a notary public, essentially testifying to the date and place of Frances Lois Mangels’ birth. No mention of why there wasn’t a certificate issued when the woman…

  • Are We Polish? Part One

    During the Polish Research Techniques workshop I attended in December, I mentioned to Deb that I have a marriage certificate for Maria Bukmakofski and Hermann Mangels: Deb told me immigrants from Poland tended to be Catholic. Hermann Mangels was a German Lutheran. To marry her husband in his church, Deb…

  • A Swedish-Style Wedding in Chicago

    On this day one hundred and thirty-two years ago, my maternal 2nd great-grandparents Peter August Tolf of Svenarum, Jönköping, Sweden and Augusta Sophia Landström of Norra Sandsjö, Jönköping, Sweden were married in Chicago by Rev. D. S. Sorlin of 151 Oak St. Chicago [1], pastor of the Swedish Methodist Episcopalian…

  • Beloved Wife of John

    Cancer ended my grandmother’s life January 19th, 1954. She was 44 years old. From the Chicago Daily Tribune, January 1954: “WALTON – Harriet Walton, beloved wife of John, loving mother of Donald and Joan, fond daughter of Harry Tolf and Julia Chinell, dear sister of Earl, Oliver, and Francis, niece of Raymond…

  • She was a Good Christian Lady

    From the Batavia (Illinois) Herald, Wednesday 16 January 1901: “Death of an Aged Mother – Died, at the home of her daughters, Misses Christina and Amanda Tolf, on Hueston [sic] St., West Batavia, Sunday, Jan 13, 1901, after an illness of several weeks, Mrs. Elena Tolf, aged 78 years. Deceased…

  • Edna Cornelia Walton (1906-1993)

    My grand aunt Edna Cornelia Walton (1906-1993) should appear in four publicly accessible census records. In family history research, one begins with the most recent information and works backward. The most recent census record available to us is 1940. Edna’s family is listed albeit a tad creatively: 34 year old…