Novel Notes of Local Lore

Ula Wojcik was born on October 24, 1906 in Indianapolis to Samuel Szymanski and Wislawa Mazur, both of who had immigrated to the United States in 1903 from Poland.  Wislawa had been married [...]

Beatrice “Bea” Weber was born on February 12, 1903 in Chicago to Francis Moran and Sarah O’Toole.  Both Francis and Sarah were born in Dublin, Ireland, where Francis worked as a butcher and Sarah [...]

Ignac “Iggy” Rybar was born on September 23, 1926 in Trencin, Slovakia to Jacob Rybar and Amalia Laska.  Jacob worked as an “outdoor maintenance man” and Amalia cared for their three children: [...]

Irving McDonald was born on April 2, 1915 in Chicago to Wesley McDonald and Lucille Rickert.  Wesley was born in Pennsylvania but at some point moved to Chicago and began working as a mail [...]

Tereza Kadlec was born on October 4, 1897 in Olomouc, Moravia to Karel Hruska and Anna Jandacek.  Tereza was the second youngest of eight children (5 girls and 3 boys), all of whom lived to be [...]

Hyun Sang Choe was born on October 17, 1922 in a small village in Korea to Seo-Joon and Young Nari.  Hyun was their only child.  When Hyum was just a baby, his father died.  His mother never [...]

Elmer Densmore was born in Chicago on August 13, 1915 to Frederick Densmore and Ann Abrim. Both of Elmer’s parents were also born in Chicago, though Frederick was of Scottish descent and Ann was [...]

Caroline Alders was born on June 21, 1917 in Chicago to Fester Alders and Erna Hendricks, both Dutch immigrants who met on a ship to America in 1910.  Fester worked in a meat-packing plant in [...]

Lou Dean Rogers was born on May 25, 1936 in a small town in West Virginia to Herman Rogers and Maxine O’Toole, who was originally from Virginia.  Herman worked in a coal mine for forty-six years [...]

Thomas Bisky was born on June 30, 1910 in Brooklyn, New York, to Stefan Brzezicki and Magda Chmiel.  Stefan and Magda were both born in Poland where they met and married.  Not much is known about [...]