Just down the Street

Literally. According to Google Maps, it was a three-minute walk from 655 W 61st Street to 538 W 61st Street in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood. The other day I wondered about the possibility of my 2nd great-grandmother Elise Mueller and her brother John N. Schmitt attending the same church. I knew they lived near one another (and…

A Tale of Two Sisters

When the two sisters traveled from France to America with their mother and seven of their siblings in 1854, Elisabeth was seven and Christina was just five years old. Hailing from the Lorraine region of France, both girls spoke German. They both attended church and school in their new hometown of Cincinnati Ohio, and both girls were young…