Please Forward:

My sister Carole and her husband just celebrated their twentieth wedding anniversary. Whee, that was a really quick twenty years! They have moved at least nine times during their marriage, not because one of them is in the military or they changed jobs, they just move from house to house. My brother-in-law is extremely handy and can do almost anything around the house. I know because he has helped me many times with projects around my house. When they move they usually don't move far. They are only about 48 miles from my home, so we get together very often. They have lived in their current house not quite three years. This house is beautiful and continues to get better and better. I have kidded the both of them many times about moving and when are they moving next? Both say this is it, they are staying put. I have heard that before!

That got me thinking about how many times I have moved in my lifetime. I started from the time of my birth. It couldn't really be that many times. In my childhood we moved from our home in Chicago Ridge to California. In California we stayed with relatives for a short time and then we moved to San Jose. (Yes, I really do know that way to San Jose!). Living in California didn't work out very well so we came back home to the south side of Chicago. We lived with my grandmother for about one year until we could move back into our house (my mother rented our house instead of selling it---good thinking!) Anyway, I stayed put with Mom until college and then decided to work full time which of course meant moving out of Mom's house and getting my own "place." In a span of ten years, 1975-1985, I moved eight times. WOW! Since 1985 I have moved only three times and in fact have lived in my current home for almost sixteen years. Since my birth I have moved eighteen times! When I asked a friend to figure out how many times she has moved, she came up with thirteen times. Our generation really moves around a lot!

With the help of the federal census records it is pretty easy for me to track my Great grandparents Bert and Eva Hanaway. They pretty much stayed in the same area of Indiana and on the same farm most of their married life. One hundred years ago, you could have simply addressed a letter to them with the Route number and DeMotte, Indiana and they would have gotten it. Pretty simple really. That certainly wouldn't be the case today!

My mother moved twice from the time she was born until she married in 1954. In 1975 she married my stepfather Jim and they traveled a lot. She eventually sold the family home in Illinois and moved to Arizona where she spent the winters. Apache Junction, AZ was really her home base. In the summers she traveled all over the United States and worked in National Parks. If you wrote to her, the letters usually stayed in her mailbox in Arizona until she got back there in the late fall! Once in a while she would leave a forwarding address if her she had long term plans to stay put in one spot for a few months. She will not be easy to find on any census record from 1980 forward that is for sure!

My Great Great grandmother Katharine Sommer Ball moved frequently from the time of her marriage in 1885 until her death in 1923. With the help of Chicago city directories, I found her living at sixteen different addresses in those thirty eight years. She usually only lived at one address one or two years and then moved. Many years she was not listed in the city directory. So, in actuality she had more than those 16 different addresses. Plus, I have yet to find Katharine or my Great Great grandfather Charles Ball on any census record.

So, I ask "How many times have you moved?" How easy do you think our ancestors will be able to find us on a census record? Well, I'm going to give mine a little help and document all the places I've lived. I might be able to save them a little time looking for me!

Sommer family at Oakwoods Cemetery

Last Sunday my cousin Terry and I searched the final resting place of Katherine Ball, in Oakwoods Cemetery located here in Chicago. We searched and searched for Katherine's grave to no avail. I sent a letter to the cemetery asking for some help and Kim in the office at Oakwoods was kind enough to call me and give me a lot of information! So, this afternoon, three of my children and I stopped at Oakwoods Cemetery again believing we would be lucky and find our "missing ancestors".

Boy did we luck out too! My youngest son Jeremy, found a very large monument with the name Sommer on it. (Kids can move around cemeteries so much easier than adults!) Sommer is Katherine's maiden name. Katherine does not have a marker on her grave but, Kim told me that she is buried in the Sommer family plot. Not only is Katherine buried there but so are fourteen other relatives! Here is the breakdown...

Adults

Katherine Ball, Julia Sommer-----Katherine's sister, Phillip J. Sommer----Julia's husband, Frederick J. Sommer and his wife Elizabeth Sommer, Jacob F. Sommer and his wife Phillipina Sommer, William J. Buis and his wife Margaret Buis and Elizabeth J. Eberhart.

Children

Elizabeth Sommer, Anna Sommer, Frederick Sommer, Arthur Sommer and Ernest Sommer.

Wow! I took pictures of each and every marker. Of course I researched some dates of marriages and dates of death for everyone I could find. Once again I contacted Cynthia at Chicago Genealogy to copy as many of those death certificates and marriage certificates that she can find!

Searching Ancestry from my local library I was able to find many of these relatives on the Federal Census records. For instance, on the 1900 federal census Julia and Philip have two children Elsa (10yrs) and Philip (8 yrs). Frederick and his wife Elizabeth are also living with them. I believe that Frederick and Elizabeth are Philip's parents only because they had been married forty years in 1900 and Philip was 37 years old at that time.

I now have some work to do, putting all these relatives on my family tree! There's lots more research to do now as well, what with all these additional Sommer relatives and their descendants. Plus, I am not absolutely sure of how some of them connect to the others.

Charles Ball and Theophillus Denno

Well, after waiting for quite some time, I received a letter from the Cook County Clerk's Office, indicating that they searched the years 1899 through 1907 and were unable to locate a death certificate for my GG Grandfather Charles Ball. So my search will have to go elsewhere. I am not sure where to look now, but will keep on trying. Of course, I still have no idea when my GG Grandmother Katharine Ball died either. Just another brickwall.
Now, onto another GG Grandfather- Theophillus (Theopolis) Deneau (Denno, Deno). I did receive a copy of my GG Grandparents Belle and Theopolis' marriage certificate, dated January 18, 1881! They were married in Newton County, Indiana as I have mentioned before. It is such an awesome feeling to actually have a copy of the original document. There really is nothing like a vital record to keep an amateur genealogist happy!

Newspaper Announcements

The other day I posted a query on a message board on Rootsweb. I have posted a number of queries on different message boards so this was not unusual. A kind person responded to one message in particular and indicated that she had searched the Chicago Tribune Historical Archives. That got me thinking.......
Charles and Katharine Ball were married here in Chicago, perhaps there was an announcement of their wedding in the newspaper. Who knows? I thought it was surely worth a search.
I work at a state university which just happens to own all the Chicago Tribune newspapers (on microfilm) from 1875, so I could easily do the search myself. I did just that. I went to April of 1885, knowing that Charles and Katharine were married April 22, 1885. I figured the announcement would be in the April 23rd issue or later. I could not find any wedding announcement but, I did find on April 22, 1885 an announcement indicating that they got a marriage license on April 21, 1885. I already knew that information because it was listed on their marriage certificate. What I did discover was a wild coincidence...a woman named Gussie L. Sommer, age 20 and her fiance' Paul E. Polzin age 27, also obtained a wedding license the same day as Charles and Katharine. To make it even better, Gussie and Paul married on April 22, 1885 as well! Now, to me, this is really interesting. Double weddings are not uncommon. Gussie MAY be a sister or a cousin of Katharine. I don't know but I believe I will do some research on Paul and Gussie and see if I can come up with some family information and perhaps a connection.
Some people say that there is no such thing as a coincidence......wouldn't it be wonderful if Gussie turned out to be related to Katharine? We'll see what happens!

Charles and Katherine Ball

My great-great grandparents Charles and Katherine (Sommer) Ball are an elusive pair! I hit a "brick-wall" regarding everything about them except the date and place of their marriage and the birthdate of their daughter, my great grandmother Alma. They were married here in Chicago at Central Christian Church in 1885. This church no longer exists. I can find one or the other on the Chicago city directories until 1900 and then they both "disappear". According to my great grandmother Alma's birth certificate (which I was very LUCKY to get my hands on considering that documenting birth records at that time was not required) both Charles and Katherine were born about 1857, in Germany . I cannot verify when they came over from Germany, although I have a pretty good idea that Katherine came over by herself in 1880. There is no 1890 Census to check. Charles, Katherine and Alma do not show up on the 1900 Census.
We can all hit a "brick-wall" when searching for our ancestors, you just need to keep on plugging away looking for clues anywhere; in vital records, census records, and talking to any relative who may provide a clue to steer you in the right direction. Wish me luck!