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!

Theopolis Deneau

Well, because I continue to hit brickwall after brickwall with my GG Grandparents Charles and Katherine Ball, I have decided to change course for a short while. Believe me, I am not giving up on researching Charles and Katherine, just taking a short break from their branch of my family tree.
Theopolis Deneau or Theophile Deno (Denno) is another one of my maternal GG Grandfathers. Theopolis married Belle Boudreau in January of 1881 in Newton County, Indiana. Unfortunately he died in June of that same year. At this point in time it seems that there is no death certificate for Theopolis. His death is not listed on the Newton County death index. I have been in contact with Newton County, Indiana GenWeb Coordinator Beth Bassett who has been an absolute gem! I asked Beth if there may have been a death notice published in the local Kentland, Indiana newspaper. The reason I was focusing on the Kentland area was because Theopolis and Belle Deneau's daughter Eva Belle was born in Kentland, Indiana in December of 1881. Despite researching the Kentland Gazette for the entire year of 1881, Beth was unable to locate any information on my GG Grandfather. Beth informed me that newspapers "very seldom printed obits for people unless they were business people, or church people." I cannot thank Beth enough for all the time and effort she put into to helping me with my family research. Theopolis may have died in a different town or even a different county in Indiana. I really don't know. I believe that he is buried in the Dehner Cemetery (AKA, St. Anthony's Cemetery) in Benton County, Indiana. Without a death certificate or a published death notice I might not get too far, so my next area to research will be the Dehner Cemetery. Cemeteries should keep burial records, I might just get lucky. A burial record may also give me the town Theopolis resided in at the time of his death. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I may learn more about another GG Grandfather! A road trip may be in my future!

Mother's Day, 2008

Lucille Hanaway Guinee

1912-1998

Yesterday would have been my grandmother Lucy's 96th birthday! I am very fortunate to have MANY wonderful memories of my grandmother. My mother, sisters and I grew up less than five miles away from her home. After church on some Sunday's we went to her home where we enjoyed a fried chicken dinner, homemade mashed potatos, sweet corn, salad-with her own homemade oil and vinegar dressing and of course dessert--homemade chocolate cake and chocolate frosting. I can still see the blue metal cake saver sitting on top of the cart in her small breezeway kitchen. My mother and grandmother would chat with each other while my sisters and I went to the park or played outside.

On most Sundays though, we went out to visit our relatives in Indiana. My grandmother Lucy was born and raised in Indiana and that is where even to this day, most of my relatives live. We would travel to Gary, Crown Point, and Hebron visiting my Aunt Mabel, Aunt Toots, Aunt Berniece, Uncle Homer, Uncle Jim, and my grandmothers other siblings and all their families. There are a lot of relatives in Indiana! Many of my relatives were farmers so this "city girl" loved the "country". I loved playing in the barn, swinging on the truck tire swing, running in the crops, getting close (but not too close!) to the farm animals. Little did I know how much those visits would mean to me someday!

So, to my grandmother, my beloved mother, my many aunts, my sister, thank you for the memories! Thank you for being terrific role models of mothers! Happy Mother's Day!

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.

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!