Novel Notes of Local Lore

Regina Dubala was born on March 24, 1923 in Chicago to Lew Wojciechowski and Stefania Mazur, both Polish immigrants.  Regina does not remember what type of work her father did, but she does [...]

Shirley Denenberg was born on November 24, 1923 in Chicago to Aleksandr Krasny and Marie Altman.  Aleksandr emigrated from Kiev as a young man and found work in Chicago making cigars.  Marie was [...]

Sophia Chalupa was born on July 17, 1918 in Chicago to Victor Fiala and Renata Doubek, both of whom were immigrants from Czechoslovakia.  Victor worked as a railroad laborer and mechanic in a [...]

Essie Maguire was born on May 26, 1916 in St. Cloud, Minnesota to Bert Andrysiak and Regina Walsh.  Bert was of Polish descent and worked as a farm hand.  Regina was of German/Irish descent and [...]

Randy Walsh was born on July 13, 1959 in Chicago to Tim Walsh and Genevieve Sutera.  Tim was of Irish descent, and Genevieve was from a Sicilian family.  Tim and Genevieve both worked for the [...]

Rahat Karim was born in Jerusalem on October 28, 1939 to Abdul Karim and Basma Nejem.  There were four children in the family, 3 boys and one girl.  Rahat went to the equivalent of elementary [...]

Antonia Pakulski was born on October 10, 1905 in Poland to Bartholomew and Gosia Kowalczyk.  Antonia was the youngest of seven children, and when she was just one year old, the family immigrated [...]

Gus Anagnos was born on April 1, 1931 in Chicago to Marios and Eva Anagnos, both of whom were Greek immigrants.  Marios worked in a bakery, and Eva cared for Gus and his younger brother, Andrew. [...]

Simona Novotny was born on November 25, 1901 in Blatnice, Czechoslovakia to Joseph Novotny and Pavla Adamik and was the youngest of nine children.  Joseph was a flax farmer who routinely traveled [...]

Wilma Ostrowski was born on January 7, 1909 to Adolf Achterberg and Lousia Keller in Stoddard, Wisconsin.  Both Adolf and Louisa were of German descent, but both were born in Wisconsin—Adolf in [...]