A little bit of a treat before Halloween...

Greetings,
Like many of my blogger friends, I have been working on my family history for quite a while now. I still get very frustrated when I make one of the simplest mistakes and don't realize it for too long a period. Where did my brain cells go??
Example-I have been searching for the names of Katharine Ball's parents, my GGG grandparents. They were not listed on Katharine's death certificate. Katharine's sister Julia died in April of 1928. Both sisters are buried in Oakwoods Cemetery here in Chicago. I contacted the Cook County Clerk's office for a copy of Julia's death certificate only to be informed that they had no record of it. (Cost $15). According to Oakwoods Cemetery, Julia died on the 24th of April and was buried on the 26th. That tells me, she had to have died close by. Where else could I find a death certificate if the county clerk doesn't have it? The cemetery doesn't have a burial permit either, which may have indicated where Julia had died. I tried to think of other places to find Julia Sommer's death certificate.
I tell people all the time, try different spellings for your ancestors. Many times names are misspelled on any document including vital records. Did I follow my own advice? After way too long a period of researching. A light bulb FINALLY went off. I was searching for Julia Sommer, but could a death certificate be under Julia Summer? Yes, I searched the Cook County death index and there she was...date of death matched! I requested a copy from Chicago Genealogy and within one day had a digitized copy of Julia's death certificate. (Cost $5.46, including PayPal fee) All the information matched with what I already knew...her date of birth, husband's name and address. Julia's son Phillip was the informant on the death certificate and he was quite knowledgeable. He knew Julia's parents names and where they lived! Galief Sommer and Elizabeth Rusch Sommer resided in Neckargemund, Germany. I now know the names of my GGG grandparents on another branch of my tree!
"If only..." can now be another lesson learned the hard way. Sure hope I don't need to learn it the hard way again. I am thrilled to add two more names to my research but also to have another direction to move toward finding even more ancestors!
What a great hobby!

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.

One piece at a time....

Today was absolutely a WONDERFUL day. One of my many brickwalls was toppled! Thanks to Cynthia at Chicago Genealogy I have a copy of the death notice of my GG Grandmother Katharine Ball which was published in the Chicago Tribune. She died in Kankakee County, Illinois on April 8, 1923. She was waked here in Chicago and is buried in Oakwoods Cemetery. So, of course you know where I will be visiting this weekend! Who knows maybe Charles is buried there as well. Cynthia was kind enough to help me along using the last known address for Charles and Katherine. I gave her the information, she used her resources (Chicago Death Index which is different from the Illinois State Death Index) and her mojo and down came my brickwall! I cannot thank her enough. Check out her website--Chicago Genealogy. I've used them quite a number of times now and have been very satisfied. Plus, they provide copies of marriage and death certificates for a far more reasonable fee than the Cook County Clerk's office and they are so much faster!
Katharine's death notice mentioned that she had a sister Julia. Another family connection! With a little time on my hands this evening I did a little searching and have requested Julia's marriage certificate (she married a man named James Sommer, how weird is that?) and both Julia and Jame's death certificates. Where did I request them from you wonder? Where else but Chicago Genealogy!
I know that I have mentioned several times about using the archives section of the Chicago Tribune. In fact I have access to the entire collection from about 1885 to the present time. Sometimes however, it can really be like searching for a needle in a haystack. I have a list of about 75 "Ball" death notices between 1907 and 1930. In the last two years I have only had time to search for about thirty four of those and of course, none I searched were the correct relative. Believe it or not, it is very time consuming to pull the film and look through it only to discover that the relative you are looking for is not the one published. Sounds like I'm whining, but once in a blue moon you hit the jack pot when searching through microfilm. Remember how lucky I was when I found the marriage announcement for Katherine and Charles? That was a great find!
So, I am clearly a happy amateur genealogist this evening.....I think I will have a bit of trouble going to sleep tonight, thinking of more paths to take with this new information....where will they lead????

Chicago Genealogy

It appears that Gussie L. Sommer may not be related to my family after all. I requested her marriage certificate and she and Paul were married at St. Paul's Church in Chicago. So, no double wedding for my Katharine and Gussie. I looked up Gussie and Paul's marriage on the Illinois State Marriage Index and found the certificate number. I recently found a more reasonable resource for obtaining a copy of vital records found in the Illinois State Archives. This resource is Chicago Genealogy. This resource is extremely fast, less expensive than the Cook County Clerk's office and super convenient! I emailed my request in the afternoon, received an invoice that evening, made a PayPal payment immediately and the next morning I received links to my vital record requests! Talk about service. No running to the mail box waiting for snail mail. Great job Chicago Genealogy ! Thank you.