Old News in the Chicago Genealogist

The Fall Chicago Genealogist, from the Chicago Genealogical Society, is divided into two parts:

The third installment of Virginia Dick's translations of items from the Illinois Staats Zeitung, July 1872 -- a unique window on post-Fire Chicago.

"Remembering the 1920s Decade," by Raymond E. Johnson, recalling Roseland, dirigibles, and a Model-T Ford. "Junk men drove their one-horse wagons down the alleys calling out a standard cry meant to be 'rags -- old iron," but each had his own version and none was intelligible."

Chicago Genealogist Summer 2009

The new issue of Chicago Genealogist has several goodies:

"Thomas Hatton Gravestock," by Richard Gravestock -- a warts-and-all account of the author's grandfather, a high-living saddler who deserted the British army and emigrated to the US, where he ended up with a family in Boston and one in Chicago.

"Illinois Staats Zeitung -- Part III, June 1872," translated by Virginia Dick. This German-language newspaper covered more than just German news!

"The University of Chicago: Remembering a Time," by Raymond E. Johnson, a memoir of Roseland and the U of C, 1939-1942.

"Harrison Technical High School: 1941," tr. Thomas J. Draus. List of graduates.

Chicago Genealogist Spring 2009

The bulk of the latest Chicago quarterly is occupied by another installment of Virginia Dick's translations of obituaries and news items from the German-language Illinois Staats Zeitung, including the discovery in March 1872 of the "carbonized remains" of Franz Heiselmann, a chimney sweep who died in the October 1871 Chicago Fire "when a burning house fell in on him on Division Street, from which he wanted to save a sick woman." The lingering aftermath of the fire plays a role in several of the excerpts.

In "Examination of Title," Craig Pfannkuche fills in the family facts around an old abstract of title from a property on the north side of 36th Place just west of Rockwell Street, including Corwith and Putman families.

Winter 08-09 Chicago Genealogist

From the current issue of Chicago Genealogist:

"Illinois Staats Zeitung Translations," translated from the German by Virginia Dick and submitted by Gail Santroch. First of a series, obituaries and news items 1861 through March 1872.

"Of Wealth and War: Samuel Lowe Writes Home," by Harold Henderson. Identifying the people Samuel asks after in an 1863 letter to my step-great-grandmother reveals something about Chicago society of the time as well as the ongoing war.

"Anna L. Smith: Chicago Suffragette," by Craig L. Pfannkuche with Nancy Merriman. Anna (1872?-1949) worked her way up in the feminist movement and the Democratic Party and by the 1930s had switched to Republicanism. "Anna's contributions to political freedom of action for women in Chicago have been overlooked by historians of women's progressivism in Chicago."