Tag Archives: genealogy

“Let Jim Run His Own Funeral” – Irish Laughter Through Tears

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At the end of the 98-hour day that my father died, it surprised me that the hardest part wasn’t hearing “He didn’t survive surgery,” but instead having to tell others–the slow pressing of numbers of the phone, knowing that someone’s life is going to be changed right after, “Hi Kev.  What’s up?”

In a strange twist of fate that afternoon, my three sisters, Katie, Colleen and Maureen were all en route to Detroit Metro within an hour of one another.  When they had left Chicago and New York, after our call from the hospital, they knew only what we were told—“Dad’s been in a bad accident—he’s in surgery.”  By the time they were air-born, my mom and I were told of his passing and taken upstairs to see his body.  … Read More… →

ID Those Old Snapshots! The Orson Starr House and “Lots of Love, Lois”

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HuffPost_Shared

You don’t meet that many women named Lois–perhaps Superman was kryptonite to that name after the 1940s.  But today I met one and was immediately reminded of another–someone I’d never met but I’m sure I’d like her.

As a family historian, I’ve always been grateful to the long-gone folks who took 30 seconds to identify people on the backs of their snapshots.  In the large shoebox of Brownie pictures I inherited from my grandmother, most with no notations (since it was obvious to her who they were!) I enjoy this note the most.

Lois_SignatureRead More… →

Building a Mansion to Last Forever–or at least 8 years

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This oddball-house that was torn down forty years ago keeps popping up–two years ago in a box of china and yesterday in an e-mail.

Henry Eastwood House in Ottawa

The certain things in life that Benjamin Franklin mentions, death and taxes, can also include another item–that certainty is anything but certain.  

In 1923 my great-grandfather Henry Kelly moved his law firm and large family to Detroit from Ottawa, Illinois where his Irish immigrant grandfather James had settled after helping build the Erie and Illinois canal systems as a mason.  

James had left Ireland with a conviction that he … Read More… →