Abstract:
Chicago has long been fed by migration and since its founding close to two centuries ago. The chronicling of eight branches of the author's family tree that, over the course of eighty years, made the Windy City their home. Stories and recorded the Windy City their home. Stories and recorded Stone family, who have tales of migration and Irish immigration that are likely as old as America; the Thulis family and their tale of Irish displacement, discrimination, and eventual success; the German Cooks who have stories set during the Gold Rush; the Adomeit family, who came from the Prussian city, Konigsberg, now destroyed; the Norwegian- Swedish Ammeson family; the Swedish Westrings and the saga of the Venerable Hattie; the Gaspers from Alsace-Lorraine; and the Russ and Lakefield families whose origins disappear into early America. Additional appendices provide further information about where and who lived where, based on U.S. Census records, vital records, and other documents; family trees help illustrate the lineages discussed; and a spotlight is shined on one ancestors travels during the Second World War; an appendix focusing on the origins of family names wraps up the document.