Category: Everyday Lives
Ewert-Wegners
Minna (Mueller) Ewert was born in Germany and came to the US around 1866. Her oldest, daughter Karoline (Lena) may have been born in Germany just before her parents left or in Illinois – there are conflicting reports – but her younger son Fritz (Fred) was definitely born in Chicago (1869). The first person interred […]
Erdmann-Harmons
Ferdinand Erdmann (1850-1912) was a woodworker as indicated by the beautiful carving of his trade tools at the top of this headstone. He and Sophia (Ebert – 1849-1941) married in 1881 and had two children, though they had left home by 1900 so are difficult to track beyond Sophia’s answer on that census. In a […]
Rose Berger
Budilovsky Sisters
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 […]
Philomena Scala Tamburino Lauletta
Maria Carmela Russo
Maria Carmela Russo born 23 May 1839, Laurenzana, Provincia di Potenza, Basilicata, Italy died 11 June 1898, Chicago There isn’t much to find out about Maria Carmela as she died in that census gap after 1880 and prior to the 1900 census (which is really quite a good one for fact-checking other records because it […]
The Benoits
John and Julie (Houle) Benoit John (1847 – 1903) and Julie (1845 – 1903) were both born in Quebec and came to the US as young people. There are some conflicting census records, but it appears Julie’s family emigrated when she was a toddler and several of her younger siblings were born in Illinois. John […]









