The challenge for Randy’s Saturday Night Fun is:

  1. Which of your ancestors were alive in 1909?
  2. Tell us where your ancestral families were living in 1909. What country, state, county,  city/town, etc. Who was in the family at the time? Use the 1910 census as “close enough.”
  3. Have you found each of these families in the 1910 census?
  4. Write a blog post about your response. Or write a comment to this post.
  5. Have fun. Learn something!


Here’s mine (those in bold are direct line ancestors):

Third great-grandmother, Amelia (a.k.a. Emilie), was living in Chicago, Cook, Illinois in 1910, with her son Heinrich “Henry” (my second great-granduncle) and his family.  Amelia is a mystery to me; she was married to a WACH and had three children.  She then married a SCHULTZ and had one daughter.  I have no idea what her maiden name is or the first names (and fates) of her two husbands.

Another mystery woman, my third great-grandmother, Bridget Ward, was living in Chicago, Cook, Illinois in 1910 with two daughters, Sarah and Rose, and Sarah’s husband Timothy McMAHON.  Again, I have no idea what Bridget’s maiden name is, or the first name of her husband.  I am not able to find her after 1910 in censuses or death records.

My second great-grandmother, Mary (or Anna or Marie) BRAUN Stoffel, was living in Chicago, Cook, Illinois with her seven children:  Henry C, Anna E, Margaret, Charles L, Elsie A, William, and George.

Thomas Robert CAHILL, my second great-grandfather, was living in Aurora, Kane, Illinois in 1910 with his wife, Margaret “Maggie” MILLETT and four of his six children, Margaret, Thomas Michael, John F, Robert Emmett.

My second great-grandfather, James Manly GARRISON, was living in Chicago, Cook, Illinois in 1909, when he died on 23 May 1909.  His wife, Sarah Jane “Jeanie” MULLIGAN was living in Chicago, Cook, Illinois in 1910 with her four children, James Norton, Joseph Webster, Emma Jane, and Robert Parks.

My second great-grandparents, Herman LEPPIN and Minnie HAEMFIFLER, were living in Chicago, Cook, Illinois in 1910 with their four children, Alma Mary, Henry August, Herman Paul, and Charles F.

My third great-grandparents, Timothy McMAHON and Margaret RYAN, were living in Chicago, Cook, Illinois in 1910 with four of their five children, John Joseph, Nellie, Jerimiah William, and Elizabeth V.   Margaret’s grandson (through her daughter from another marriage), Francis J, was also living with them in 1910.

Emil Charles MILLER, my great-grandfather, was likely living in Chicago, Cook, Illinois in 1910, but I have yet to find him in the census.

My great-grandfather, George ROTTMAN, also eludes me in the 1910 census, but he was likely living in Chicago, Cook, Illinois.

My second great-grandparents, John SCHWARTZ and Margaret KRAMER were living in Aurora, Kane, Illinois in 1910 with their six children, Henry Ferdinand, John J, Catherine M, Mary J, Theresa K, and Herman J.