My Trails into the Past

As I search my database for a person to fit this theme, I came across several who came to tragic deaths. Some by their own hand, some by accidental shootings, and some by accidents involving transportation. This story is about Joseph McFall (1836-1908) who met an untimely death on 6 January 1908, when he was run over by a Chicago, Elgin & Aurora train near the Seventeenth Avenue station in Maywood, a suburb north of Chicago, Illinois. [1]   The newspaper was rather graphic about the condition of his body; even the headline was sensational: “Cut to Pieces; Son Sees it.” That probably got everyone to read the article. [If you don't want to read the graphic description, skip the newspaper article.] It seems that the seventy-two-year-old had poor eyesight and perhaps didn’t see the fast-traveling train coming as he was crossing the tracks near the station. He was cut up pretty badly and because of the speed of the train, parts were flung far. What was most sad, was his son,...

Genealogists are great at documenting our ancestors’ lives but not so great documenting our own. I’ll write about what I’ve been doing the past week. This idea came from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing, who started this meme. Genealogy Blog Writing : 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 46—Poor Man . I wrote about Rev. Albert M. Hork, who had poor health. Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Your Number One Songs. We checked what the number one song was for our birth year, our 16th year, our high school graduation year, and I added my marriage year. Webinars/Study Groups Attended:     “US Military Soldier’s Homes” by Rick Sayre I attended the Monday Morning group and spoke about finding a Davey cousin who lives in South Australia. I joined the Thursday evening group but we had no Friday study group meeting this week. I presented at the Contra Costa County Genealogical Society about how to order military records. Then listened to Carolyn Williams present abou...