Sunday 27 January 2013

My kinda town...Chicago

As a teenager, I was a fan of the band Chicago and loved their music; loved their album covers!! Now I discover a link...

Great great uncle, George Thomas Morris apparently moved there in 1907/8. I'd seen links on Ancestry and wondered if it really was him (too many American family history researchers see a Jones from Wales and think there's a link; Wales is small but there are more Joneses than you can shake a fist at) but I couldn't see any evidence.  Now I have an annual Ancestry Worldwide Membership and can see emigration documents, I can confirm the details. On the passenger listing for the SS Mauretania (no less!!) George and his family arrived in New York (en route for Chicago) on 26 Nov 1909. Mrs Morris of Ladywell Street, Newtown (Montgomeryshire. Wales) was named as 'nearest living relative in country whence alien came'.

I can follow the family up to the 1940 US census in Cook County, Chicago and would like to learn more about son (George William ) Marshall Morris as there's an uncanny sort of link to my maternal side where Marshall is used as a given name in the Stonehouse family (a branch of which also went to America)

6 comments:

  1. Welcome to GeneaBloggers. My first husband was a Jones. My daughter is researching them but I don't believe she has gotten back far enough to know where they started at originally. Maybe someday she will make a connection.

    Betty

    http://hooverhistory.blogspot.com/

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  2. Ruth, I share your frustration with researching common names from Wales. My particular frustration is Davis. There are loads of them...mostly not related to my line.

    Best wishes as you follow up on your Morris connection in Chicago. If you are researching the Chicago area, may I suggest joining the Facebook site, "Chicago Genealogy"? It is a great resource for situations like the one you are describing.

    I found your blog this morning, thanks to GeneaBloggers. Best wishes as you continue your research and blogging!

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  3. Ruth, Welcome to Geneabloggers. I just wrote a post on a connection I found of an ancestor to Chicago. Most of the investors in his silver mine were from there. The research took me into Chicago history.

    Regards, Grant

    http://thestephensherwoodletters.blogspot.com

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  4. Yes, welcome to Geneabloggers! You might also check out the following links, I've had some luck with them in finding my Chicago ancestors:
    http://www.newberry.org/genealogy-and-local-history
    http://www.chipublib.org/cplbooksmovies/poptopics/genealogy.php
    http://www.chicagogenealogy.org/

    Good luck!

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