Whalen Headstones

These photos are of two Whalen graves at Calvary Cemetery, Evanston, Cook County, Illinois. The graves are located in Lot 35, Block 23, Section U. I don’t know yet if these Whalens are related to my Whelans, also buried at Calvary Cemetery, but I hope to find out one day. Here are close-up photos and transcriptions of the headstones:



Michael Whalen
Husband of
Mary E. Whalen
Born Aug. 15, 1847
Died March 8, 1925
Rest in Peace



Mary E.
Wife of
Michael Whalen
Born in Chicago
May 25 1847
Died Jan. 13 1889
Rest in Peace

Calvary Cemetery Photos

In honor of Halloween, I will be posting some cemetery photos this week. This first photo is of my mom and dad’s headstone. They are buried in Calvary Cemetery, Evanston, Cook County, Illinois. Calvary is a large Catholic Cemetery in the Archdiocese of Chicago. It was founded in 1859, and was popular with the north side Irish (if a cemetery can ever be called popular.) I’ve seen many obituaries from the late 1800s that contained the words “thence by carriage to Calvary.”

The second photo shows the statue of St. Patrick near the front entrance to Calvary Cemetery. My parents’ grave is near the statue. In the background is Chicago Avenue, and the Chicago “L” tracks that go through Evanston and end in Wilmette.




Here is a link to the Catholic Cemeteries Archdiocese of Chicago website. It contains information about the consecration date, location and current contact information for the 43 Catholic Cemeteries in Cook and Lake counties, Illinois.

The Skrobul Sisters

This is a photograph of the Skrobul Sisters: Veronica (on lap), Juliana (in rocking chair), Estelle (sitting on the ground), Josephine (standing, the oldest) and Ann (my mom, standing, with the big bow in her hair).

The picture was taken around 1921, probably near their home in Beckemeyer, Clinton County, Illinois. Not pictured are the younger siblings, Stanley, Anthony and Maria, who were born after 1921. Their parents, Antanas Skrabulis and Antanina Norvaisaite, were Lithuanian immigrants who married in Gary, Indiana in 1910. Antanas worked as a coal miner for many years.


This picture was unidentified until I brought it with me to a family get-together. Now I treasure it as a rare picture of my mom and her sisters as children.

Blog Comments Challenge

Kathryn at Looking4ancestors challenged other genealogy bloggers to visit and leave comments on at least 10 blogs this week. Well, I did it. I found alot of genealogy blogs that I hadn't visited before, and became a follower of some of them. Here is the list of blogs that I commented on:

1. Looking4Ancestors

2. Kimberley’s Genealogy Blog

3. 24-7 Family History Circle

4. GenBlog

5. The Educated Genealogist

6.Think Genealogy

7. The Ballycastle Blog

8. Genea-Musings

9. Photo Detective

10. Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter

Thanks for the challenge, Kathryn.

Cook County Vital Records—Another Update

Yesterday, at the Illinois State Genealogical Society’s 40th Anniversary Conference, a representative of the Cook County Clerk’s office provided an update on the status of their vital records digitization project.

The Clerk’s website currently provides access to 8 million records. Additional records are being added to the website regularly. These include: 1) records which become newly available under Illinois state law (births-after 75 years; marriages-after 50 years; deaths-after 20 years) and 2) older records which have been newly indexed and digitized. When I asked the representative for a rough estimate of when the digitization of the older records would be complete, she estimated it would be finished in 1-2 years.

The representative indicated that anyone who has a problem with a record that they download should contact the Clerk’s office by email. The office has retained the records in book and microfilm form, so if a download is unreadable, or does not match the index, they are able to help you get the record that you need.

The Cook County Clerk’s website can be found at: http://www.cookcountygenealogy.com/

Margaret Whelan Considine

This is a photo of my great-aunt Margaret. She was born in Chicago in about 1866, to Timothy Whelan and Catherine Markey. Margaret married William Considine, a Chicago policeman, on 11 July 1889 at Holy Name Cathedral. Her sister Frances and a friend named John Devony were witnesses. Margaret died on 8 December 1943 and is buried at Mt. Carmel Cemetery.

One story I’ve heard is that Margaret’s brother John would sometimes visit her in the evenings, while William was working. John came in the evening in order to avoid William, who wasn’t fond of him. But apparently, Margaret had some nosy neighbors, who began to gossip about her having a gentleman visitor when her husband wasn’t home. Seeing Margaret’s photo, I have a feeling that she had no trouble setting them straight pretty quickly.

I love the car in this photograph, and Margaret’s hat. I’d like to find out what the occasion was and where the photo was taken.

Whelan Surname--Alternate Spellings

I have seen the surname Whelan spelled in many different ways. Occasionally, it is spelled 2 or more ways in a single document.

Here are 21 alternate spellings of the name Whelan that I have found in my research. I'll add more as I come across them. If you have found one that I've missed, let me know and I will add it to the list.

Wallen, Whalan, Whaland, Whalen, Whalin, Whaling, Whallan,
Whallin, Whallon, Whalon, Whealan, Whealin, Whealon, Wheelan,
Wheelin, Wheeling, Whehlen, Whelan, Whellen, Whelon, Whilan

Sources: Chicago city directories through 1864