ChicagoAncestors.org gone for a while

From the Genealogy Blog of the Newberry Library, the outdated code for the ChicagoAncestors.org website is the issue that has resulted in the suspension of the website. Ouch. I guess I will put off some of my Michael and Laura (Dow) O'Brien research for a while.

A new site will be up in a few months and they do promise that the content has been preserved.  Please hurry!

The library's post is from Saturday, September 27: http://www.newberry.org/genealogy-blog

A family genealogical connection to Chicago's Soldier Field

One of my favorite lectures to present during seminars is "Your Anytime Library: Success in the Virtual Stacks." It's about finding digitized records, books, pamphlets, and periodicals while lounging in your own home. So much has been placed online that we get excited about it. The number of websites with such material is growing by the day as are the individual collections already online. Each time I present it, the handout needs to be extensively updated to keep up with all the changes. As I say in my preface to the lecture: "Peruse books at any hour without starting the car or breaking into the library? Add newspapers, documents, family trees, pension records, periodicals, and more to the accessible items and you might be housebound for days (months?)."

I periodically check these sites for my family surnames and localities to see if anything new has been added. Tonight I spent extra time on one specific person, my Great Granduncle James Edward Stuart (1842-1931). I have posted about him before. At times he seems to be everywhere online. He was a Brigadier General, served on active duty in three wars, and was Chief Inspector for the Postal Service in Chicago. I have stories about him that don't appear online and I may not share them for a long time!

Tonight I found a connection that would have thrilled my late father. Ol' Jim Stuart was part of the ceremony when Soldier Field in Chicago received its current name. Soldier Field is the home of the Chicago Bears. It seems particularly fitting to find this bit of history in a week when the Chicago Bears will be playing the Minnesota Vikings. Alas, they are playing here at the Metrodome and not at Soldier Field. On a future trip to Chicago, I just might take a tour of Soldier Field now that I have a connection and know more about its name.

I found this on Hathitrust.org and the digitized and searchable book is Chicago's Great Century, 1833-1933, by Henry Justin Smith. (page 176, Chicago: Consolidated Publishers, 1933).

140th Anniversary of the 1871 Chicago Fire

"Today and tomorrow, Oct. 8 and 9, mark the 140th anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871."

Click here to read the full post on the Newberry Library's Genealogy News.

Click here to read about the fire on the Chicago History Museum's website.

Advent Calendar: Christmas Tree Memories

My plan for this December is to be a better participant in the Geneabloggers Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories. This will be a way for me to tell my children and grandchildren about Christmas in my youth and to remind them about some wonderful Christmases in their past.

I grew up in a rambler on Bowdoin Street in St. Paul that had three huge side-by-side living room windows. This was the perfect place for a tree. And for my parents, especially my Mom, that had to be the perfect tree. I think Dad was pretty particular, too but she was more so. It was always the coldest day of December when we would venture to the tree lot. I remember going to one at the corner of Snelling and St. Clair at the edge of the Macalester College campus for many years. We looked and looked till we found the best tree (short needles of course) and if there were a few spots that needed a branch or two, we purchased extra branches. My Dad would then drill holes for these "additions."

The tree would be positioned in front of the windows, Dad would do the lights, and then we three girls would get to hang the ornament. That was always so much fun to see these wonders we hadn't seen in a year. Mom and Dad would make some adjustments if we didn't have them spaced too well! Then came the tinsel. Tons of tinsel. BUT each piece had to be run through our fingers to make sure it was perfectly straight, not twisted or tangled. The result was a tree that was wondrous. We would turn off the room lights and sit on the couch and beam at our work. The background was all the snow in our large front yard.

Cemetery cannot be destroyed for O'Hare International Airport.

For some time now, I have been reading about Chicago's plans to add a runway to O'Hare International Airport. Sadly, this necessitated the moving of many bodies buried in St. Johannes' Cemetery on the land. Today's Chicago Tribune carries a story that the court has put a stop to this, even for some families that had agreed to the bodies being moved. The city can no longer move any bodies at this site. The 161 year old cemetery belonged to St. John's United Church of Christ.