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…”
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)”
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?”
This photo was taken 73 years ago today. It shows Junior (George) Florenz Weil Continue reading “Today in the Family Tree: 18 March 1945”
Today, August 21, 2017, a total solar eclipse will roll across North America. For many, this will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. In Illinois, some people remember the partial eclipse experienced here in 1970 and 1979, but the last time Illinois residents experienced a full total solar eclipse was in 1869. This eclipse was the only time in the history of the state (established in 1818) that a total eclipse had ever been observed! As this Daily Herald article discusses, Illinoisans were building the State Capital building at the time, and attempted to commemorate the occasion with a monument at the capital. Since solar eclipses are such relatively rare occurrences, I wondered, which of my ancestors experienced a solar eclipse during their lifetimes? Continue reading “Solar eclipses in my ancestors’ time”
The Family History Librarian 