Vote Early and Often!

Just kidding. It is an old Chicago joke. :-) Finding my Chicago ancestor, Timothy Whelan, in the Chicago voters lists made me think of that saying. The 1892 voters list indicated that Timothy was a naturalized citizen, but the date and court of naturalization were “not known.” It made me think that the voting clerks weren’t too picky about who they let vote that year.

One thing I’ve learned from using the Chicago Voters Lists is to check all years available. On the 1892 list, my ancestor Timothy Whelan’s naturalization details were unknown. However, the 1888 list indicated that he was naturalized in 1856 in the County Court of Cook County. Due to the record losses caused by the Chicago Fire of 1871, this voters list may be the only record that contains the location of Timothy’s naturalization.

Another lesson I’ve learned is to look for the ancestors’ siblings on the voters lists (and on all other available sources too.) I searched for a client’s ancestor (who died in 1890) in the Chicago voters lists, but did not find him. I then searched the available lists for the ancestor’s brother. I found the brother on the lists, and the fact that he was naturalized in Onondaga County, NY. This information lead to a breakthrough and helped locate the ancestor’s widowed mother and his other siblings in a previously unknown location.

The Chicago voters lists for 1888, 1890 and 1892 are available on microfilm from the Family History Library and online on Ancestry.com.

If you haven’t done it yet, don’t forget to vote today!

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.

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/