where2look4ancestors

  • Who was President?

    Do you remember who was running for office when you first became aware of politics? Who was in the White House when you were born? When your parents were children? When your ancestors immigrated? One of my grade school teachers held a mock election during the 1972 United States presidential…

  • Herman Mangels’ Inquest

    My 2nd great-grandfather attempted to take his own life January 7, 1912. Three days later Herman Mangels died in Dunning Hospital after succumbing to lobar pneumonia, the result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Below is a transcription of the inquest record created after his death. “WITNESS SHEET Inquest upon the body of Herman…

  • Family Story Examined

    According to family lore, Herman Mangels drank often and his wife was tired of his drunkenness. She was supposed to have told him that the next time he came home intoxicated, he would be sent outside to sleep on the porch. As fate would have it (the story continues), Herman’s…

  • Chicago Illinois Inquest Record

    Obtaining inquest records from Cook County requires persistence. On July 30th I requested my paternal 2nd great-grandfather’s 1912 inquest record in a letter that said; “To whom this may concern, I would like a copy of the inquest record regarding Herman Mangels, my 2nd great-grandfather. Enclosed please find a copy of…

  • Chicago Research – Batavia Illinois

    Batavia Illinois is a lovely suburb about forty miles west of Chicago. The oldest city in Kane County, Batavia was founded in 1833 and many old buildings remain, giving visitors a sense of the community’s rich history. The Fox River runs through the center of town and shady well-kept parks are located along…

  • October Birthdays in My Family Tree

    Happy October birthday to the leaves on my family tree including my dad, who would have been 81 on October 25th; and to my grandson and my niece, my cousins Cynthia and Rosemary, and my grandaunt Lucy. Happy birthday to Anna, David and Frank – my first cousins once-removed, to James – my first…

  • Chicago Research – Home Again

    Husband and I just returned from a genealogical vacation in Chicagoland. We explored records at the Gustafson Research Center in Batavia Illinois and at the Chicago History Museum, Harold Washington Library and Newberry Library. We visited several cemeteries including West Batavia, Rosehill, Graceland, Jewish Graceland and Wunders. We spent a day…

  • Happy Birthday Grandson!

  • September Anniversaries

    Ah, wedded bliss. Not always the case in my family tree: My great-grandmother divorced her first husband and gave away their three children. A few years later Esther Ingeborg CLARIN married Charles Fredrick OTTO in Chicago, Cook, Illinois. I located their 10 Sept 1918  marriage certificate on familysearch.org where Esther’s name…

  • Pieces of String

    “Human lives are not pieces of string that can be separated out from a knot of others and laid out straight. Families are webs. [It is] impossible to touch one part of it without setting the rest vibrating, impossible to understand one part without having a sense of the whole.”¹…