Whelan Headstone

Happy Halloween!

In honor of Halloween, I am posting cemetery photos this week. This is a photo of the headstone of my great-grandparents Timothy and Catherine (Markey) Whelan (or Whalen) and their son John. Like my parents, they are buried in Calvary Cemetery, Evanston, Cook County, Illinois.

I was very glad when I found out where my great-grandparents were buried, and was able to take a picture of the headstone. Even more exciting was the copy of the cemetery record that I received. (See below.) This is a 3 grave lot with 11 people buried in it. Seven of the burials were of children or infants. In fact, this cemetery record led me to discover that there were 3 sets of twins born to Timothy and Catherine. Most of the children did not survive long enough to appear in any census record. However, those born after the Chicago Fire of 1871 did appear in baptism records of Holy Name Cathedral. Who would've expected a cemetery record to lead to a baptism record? I sure didn't when I first saw this burial record, many years ago.

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.

The Great Chicago Fire of 1871

This week is the anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire.

This is a photo of my great-uncle, John Whelan, a survivor of the Chicago Fire. The family story is that as the fire was coming toward their house, they ran toward Lake Michigan for safety. But the father, Timothy Whelan, ran back to the house to lock the door against burglars, before joining the rest of the family. Their house was well within the burn district, on Chestnut near Franklin, so locking the door probably made little difference in the end.


This photo was labeled "John Whelann in his Johnny hat." As a young man, John (Jack) Whelan worked in a haberdashery as a model and then as a manager. Later he was with the steamfitters union, working off and on. He died in 1930, after being hit by an Illinois Central train at 27th street while shoveling the tracks.


Here are my favorite websites about the Chicago Fire:
The Great Chicago Fire and the Web of Memory
This is a great website containing images, eyewitness accounts and essays about the fire.

Progress of the Chicago Fire of 1871
The Encyclopedia of Chicago is a very useful reference. This link is to a map which shows which sections of the city burned in the great fire.