Category: Genealogy

One of the pleasures of researching family history, is stumbling across a good story. Sometimes they are love stories, or war stories, or funny stories. But recently I came across a poignent tragedy, a real tear-jerker.

In the last couple of weeks I’ve made real progress in searching my wife’s side of the family. The breakthrough came in locating information about two sisters of my wife’s GG Grandfather, Adam Geldmacher. Adam had two younger sisters, Victoria and Catherine, and I was fortunate enough to locate a living descendent of Victoria, Kathy, who has done much amazing work on her ancestors, and as genealogists so typically do, she gladly shared with me. Among the many names I was able to add to our tree thanks to Kathy help was Victoria’s daughter, Mary Stumpf, who married George Rinkenberger on August 16, 1887 in Farmdale, Illinois at the age of 19. From the information that Kathy provided, I saw that Mary died at the young age of 23, and I asked her if she knew anything about the cause of Mary’s death, and she had this story to share.

Mary and her husband William had left Illinois and moved to Kansas, and had recently become parents with the birth of their son George in February of 1891. Sadly, just three months later, on May 11th, 1891, Mary died of pnumonia. William returned to Illinois by train, bringing his wife’s body home to be buried. On the train ride, the baby cried and fussed, a dilemma that any parent traveling with a baby can sympathize with. And the other passengers complained to William, and asked him why he didn’t give the baby to its mother to be soothed. He let them know that he wished that he could, but that she was dead in the baggage coach ahead. With this revelation, other women on the train took care of the baby for the remainder of the trip.

The incident was supposedly witnessed by a train porter, who retold the story in a poem that was later put to music and published by Gussie L. Davis in 1896 in a song titled, In the Baggage Coach Ahead that went on to be a very popular song and the biggest hit of Davis’ career.

I set out to find the song and at the Library of Congress I found a recording of it from 1925, and on many other sites such as this one I found the lyrics. Read on to listen to the song and read the lyrics.

Listen here to the song (mp3 format), while you read along with the lyrics. And just try not to get choked up.

“In the Baggage-Coach Ahead“

On a dark stormy night, as the train rattled on,
All the passengers had gone to bed,
Except one young man with a babe in his arms
Who sat there with a bowed-down head.
The innocent one began crying just then,
As though its poor heart would break.
One angry man said, “Make that child stop its noise,
For it’s keeping all of us awake.”

“Put it out,” said another, “Don’t keep it in here;
We’ve paid for our berths and want rest.”
But never a word said the man with the child,
As he fondled it close to his breast.
“Where is its mother? Go take it to her,”
this a lady then softly said.”
I wish I could,” was the man’s sad reply.”
But she’s dead in the coach ahead.”

While the train rolled onward, a husband sat in tears,
Thinking of the happiness of just a few short years.
Baby’s face brings pictures of a cherished hope that’s dead,
But baby’s cries can’t waken her in the baggage coach ahead.

Every eye filled with tears when his story he told
Of a wife who was faithful and true;
He told how he’d saved up his earnings for years,
Just to build up a home for two;
How when Heaven had sent them this sweet little babe,
Their young happy lives were blessed;
His heart seemed to break when he mentioned her name,
And in tears tried to tell them the rest.
Every woman arose to assist with the child;
There were mothers and wives on that train.
And soon was the little one sleeping in peace,
With no thought of sorrow or pain.
Next morn at a station he bade all goodbye,
“God bless you,” he softly said,
Each one had a story to tell in their homes
Of the baggage coach ahead.

Ninety-five years ago, in 1910, seven of the eight individuals who would eventually become my Great Grandparents were living in Chicago. The eighth, arrived in 1911. I’m going to attempt to write about their lives and circumstances at the time, not from first-hand knowledge, but by blending information available and familiar to any genealogist; public records, family histories, and the recollections of their children and others who knew them. And the first couple that I will write about, is Victor and Rose.

Vitus (Victor) Dedera was the youngest of his father Adelbert Dedera’s thirteen children. Adelbert, a tailor, had come to America from Bohemia with his second wife, Marie, in 1881. They spent two years living in New York, working to save the money needed to continue their journey to Chicago, which they did in 1883. Adelbert had brought seven children with him from Bohemia, and another had been born while in New York. Victor was the last of three more who were born in Chicago (two other children had died in infancy). A great deal of what I know of the Dedera’s comes from a family history written by Victor’s older (by eleven years) brother Adelbert (Albert). In 1910, Victor was nineteen years old and one of four children still living with his parents at 2809 Central Park Avenue. According to the Census, he was a “machine hand” working in a “machine shop”.

Like Victor, Rose Bicek was also the youngest child in a large family. Her parents, Martin and Marie had immigrated from Bohemia in 1883, bringing their two oldest children Marie and James with them. Rose was the last of four more daughters who were all born in Chicago. Martin had worked as a day laborer and teamster, and in 1910 at age 58 he worked as a watchman in a coal yard. Three daughters still lived with Martin and Marie in the home at 2818 Clifton Park Avenue (later renamed to Drake Ave). Sister Emma, married to Alfred Sengstock, a Wells Fargo clerk, lived there with their two-month old daughter Adeline. Bessie and Rose also lived at home when the Census taker visited their home in June of 1910. Rose had turned 17 in January, and both Rose and Bessie worked as servers at a “WholesaleN”?

Other family members lived nearby. Victor’s older half-sister, Marie Jenicek lived with her husband and eight children down the street at 2831 Central Park Avenue. Their twelve year old son Albert, would one day marry Marie Novotny, who at the time was a nine-year old living at 2859 Central Park Avenue.

In addition to living near family, it jumps off of these census page how people chose to live among their own ethnic groups. For page after page, the place of birth of the individual’s parents is listed as ‘Aust Bohemian’. By the 1920 Census, following the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in World War One, the label would change to ‘Bohemia’ or ‘Czechoslovakia’.

But back to Victor and Rose. My grandmother, Marion, tells me that they enjoyed singing together. And that on walks in the neighborhood, Victor would visit with Rose on her families front porch, and join them in singing a few tunes. I haven’t yet found the exact date when they were married, but in the 1930 Census, Rose was reported as having married at age 20, which she turned in January of 1912. And grandma, the oldest of the five children they would have, was born in 1913.

Maybe they hadn’t even met yet in 1910. But the Census that year tells the story. My Great Grandfather Victor didn’t marry the girls next door. He found her a block over.

for further reading:

Czechs and Bohemians
Encyclopedia of Chicago

The Bohemian People of Chicago
by Josefa Humpal Zeman

Tonight my Casey searching took me to Genealogy.com’s Casey Family Genealogy Forum, looking to see if they offered a news feed so that I could pull entries into my Casey Surname DNA Project site.

The first entry caught my eye, initially because the word ‘Chicago’ was in the title, and my Caseys are from Chicago. It turned out to be an obituary reprinted from the Chicago Tribune last Sunday for my Great Uncle Joseph Casey.

Joseph T. Casey, beloved husband of the late Lucille Catherine, nee Dore; devoted father of Jo Anne (Joseph) Baratta and Christopher K. Casey; cherished grandfather of Brendan and Jason (Lisa) Baratta and Christopher K. Casey Jr.; proud great-grandfather of Michael and Adam Baratta; loving son of the late John A. and Myrtle, nee Ross, Casey; dear brother of Margaret J. Sheehan; fond uncle of many nieces and nephews. WWII Veteran, having served in the U.S. Army Air Corps from 1942 to 1945 in the South Pacific. Joseph retired from the Chicago Police Dept. in 1974 after 28 years of service in Traffic Area 2, then spent the next 12 years working at the Beverly Bank. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to American Parkinson Disease Assoc. Memorial Mass Saturday, Feb. 18, 2006, 10:30 a.m. at St. Christopher Church, 147th and Keeler, Midlothian. Hickey Memorial Chapel, 708-385-4478.

Published in the Chicago Tribune on 2/12/2006.

I don’t think I ever met Joe. If I did, it was as a very young child before any memory I have. My thoughts are with him and his family.