“Family Archaeologist” explores a century of family letters, diaries, and artifacts, and how they illuminate history and our shared humanity. To get an overview of the blog, click: “Welcome to Family Archaeologist”
LATEST BLOG POSTS
Divorce, Citizenship, Birth, and Death – 1914
John Koroschetz, date uncertain John Koroschetz, my mom’s father, received his Certificate of Naturalization on November 6, 1914 (below). John had divorced his Austrian wife, named as Carolina, four months earlier. Yet this certificate still notes he has as wife, but with a different name, Charlotte: Name and residence of wife: Charlotte resides in Austria …and [...]
Desertion and Divorce
Austrian Clothing John Koroschetz, probably Chicago Tool & Die Maker Business Card: John Koroschetz After arriving at Ellis Island in 1908, and living for a time in Buffalo, NY, John Koroschetz eventually made his way to Chicago. I know very little of what he did in the six years between 1908 and [...]
Not a drop of water
S.S. Blucher-Hamburg America Line built 1902, The ship that brought Johann Koroschetz to America. Thanks to www.norwayheritage.com for image. Johann Koroschetz traveled to Hamburg to board the ship, the S.S. Blucher, destined for America, on August 26, 1908, at the age of thirty-seven. He’s the only one of my immigrant grandparents to leave from [...]
A musician’s lopped-off fingers
John Koroschetz, left, Austria, born December 27, 1870 At age twenty-one, on September 17, 1892, John Koroschetz, my mother’s father, was working in a machine shop (he was either a machinist or tool and die maker) in Graz, Austria, when something went terribly wrong. Was the machine mis-timed? Was he distracted for a moment? [...]
Paris Dress Design in Chicago
S.S. Geroge Washingtonphoto credit: www.norwayheritage.com Louise Woschkeruscha, my maternal grandmother, boarded the S.S. George Washington on March 8, 1913, a month after leaving three years of paid apprenticeship and another three years as journey-woman in the Viennese clothing salon of master dressmaker, Elise Vogel. […]
Locker room talk spawns interview
Joan Brunwasser, editor and interviewer See Joan’s interview with me here: Digging Up Family History “Hey, Linda! What have you been up to, lately?” Joan, a fellow-swimmer at our local YMCA asked me recently. So unfolded my tale of discovery and obsession of the last decade: getting to know dead people in ways I never [...]
The Masterpiece
Alöisia Woschkeruscha’s masterpiece, 1912 Alöisia (Luise, later Louise) Woschkeruscha, my maternal grandmother, apprenticed at Frau Elise Vogel’s dressmaking salon in Vienna, from July 1, 1906 through July 1, 1909 She received her beautiful “diploma,” the Lehrbrief, shown in the last post, A Pock-marked resume, signed by both Vogel and the Director of Vienna’s Dressmaker’s Collective (union or [...]
A pock-marked resume
Woschkeruscha Family, Leobersdorf, Austria, 1901 L-R Therese, Alöisia (Louise), Hans (later John Miller) Johann The story of my mother’s family began with my maternal grandmother’s mental breakdown during the “happiest days” of Lillian’s life–as she made wedding preparations for her marriage to my dad in the summer of 1942. (See More than I could [...]
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