Highlights of My Postcard Collection

Several years ago, when I was writing a blog post about my great-great-grandfather’s tin shop, I really wanted to find a photo of the small town where he had his first shop. The best photo that I found actually came from an old postcard from 1908. It was for sale for a few dollars on eBay, so I bought it! Since then, I’ve been on the lookout for old postcards that depict places where my ancestors lived. It is fascinating to imagine my relatives strolling down those old dirt roads or visiting those long-gone businesses.

In the past several years, my postcard collection has grown to about 900 postcards. Most of these postcards are from Northern and Central Illinois, where many branches of my family are from, but there are also other categories that relate to my interests, such as historic trees, libraries, and steam engines. I decided that these unique cards were too good to keep all to myself, so I scanned the oldest ones and organized them into an online collection. See the whole collection here!

Please enjoy a gallery of a few of my favorites!

DeKalb - N.I.S.N.S. - 1904 — My oldest postcard – from 1904! It depicts the Northern Illinois State Normal School, now called Northern Illinois University.

Continue reading “Highlights of My Postcard Collection” →

Each clover is lucky…

Weil_George_1980_onPorch — George Weil on his front porch, about 1980.

When I was still pretty young, I learned that four-leaf clovers were lucky. As a youngster, I would spend hours crawling through the lush clovers that grew in our backyard to try to find one. (I never did!) One day after yet another fruitless search, my dad told me about the four-leaf clovers that he used to get in the mail from his grandfather, George Weil (1889-1981). He told me this story: Continue reading “Each clover is lucky…” →

Where is Conrad August? (an update)

In a previous post, I described my search for my great-grandfather’s brother Conrad August Weil. I have recently returned from my brief research trip to Pittsburgh, and I wanted to share some exciting findings!

When I went to Pittsburgh, one of my primary goals was to find out of the Conrad Weil who married Evelyn Simon was the same Conrad Weil Jr. from my family. The short answer is, yes, he is! My next question was, where did he go after that? (I still don’t know!) Continue reading “Where is Conrad August? (an update)” →

Where is Conrad August?

One of my genealogical mysteries is the brother of my great-grandfather George Weil. The brother’s name is Conrad August Weil, born in 1895 in Pittsburgh. He grew up with his siblings, attended Concordia Orphans’ Home (read more about this orphanage in this post), and then disappears. Here’s a timeline of everything that I know about his life: Continue reading “Where is Conrad August?” →