Julia Barbara Budilovsky Machova
17 May 1877 – 2 August 1904
Lillian “Lily” Budilovsky
13 January 1902 – 10 March 1923
Julia was the oldest child of 9 born to Vaclav and Johanna Budilovsky. By 1900, one of the children had died, but the other 8 were all living with their parents, and 23-year-old Julia was working as a clerk.
We have no way to know the full story, but it seems fairly clear from the records that in the spring of 1901, Julia became pregnant while still unmarried. Lillian was born in January 1902, and only Julia’s name is on the birth record which also lists Lillian’s original name as Lily Anna (which I love) and Lily does seem to have been her nickname. Throughout her life, even after her mother’s marriage 9 months later, Lily kept her mother’s family name.
In October 1902, Julia married a man name Frank Mack. Sadly, less than 2 years later in August 1904, Julia died, leaving Lily an orphan. If Frank was Lily’s father, he does not seem to have claimed her. There’s no indication that Julia had any more children who survived her, and if she did, they did not live with their mother’s family.
In 1910, Lily was living with her maternal grandparents and close-in-age aunt. In 1920, she was still living with them and working as a file clerk at a mail order company. Though the whole household shared a last name — now Anglicized to Budlove — Lily, an uncle, and 2 cousins were listed as boarders. I’ve seen this before, and it may have been something the census taker noted down for anyone paying rent at an address regardless of familial relationship.
I can’t find a death record for Lily, though she most likely died in Chicago. After her passing, mother and daughter were reunited, buried side-by-side, both with lovely cameos adorning their headstones.
RIP Budilovskys