As a family-tree tracing junkie and the son of a history professor, as well as inhabiting work and home spaces dating to the 1800s, Natalie and Tyler always have one eye on the past. Sometimes we unearth some treasures, and we always share treasure.
Great Grandpa Joe, Great Grandma Agatha, Grandma Hank (21) & Grandma Toni (19) on their wedding day, Great Grandpa Andrew
Have you ever told what you thought was an innocuous anecdote to someone you have known for a long time, only to find out you dropped a bomb on their world? Good bomb, bad bomb, even a neutral bomb can change everything you thought you knew or understood.
That happened to me last weekend in spades. You see, we took a trip down Midway (airport) way to my grandparents’ house for a multi-birthday dinnery-thing. Grandma asked that I bring my tools to give grandpa a haircut. So far, so normal. Then he tells me a little tidbit about his dad.
{left} Grandma Toni (21) & Grandpa Hank (23) on a Chicago beach in 1946; {right} Great Grandma Agatha & Great Grandpa Joe in sometime in the 19-teens
So in the middle of this haircut my 92-year-old grandfather tells his 32-year-old granddaughter, who has been a barber for 7 years (what I’m saying is, he and grandma have had a good long while to mention this) that his father, my great grandfather, was a barber.
Headsploady.
Over the past few years I have been tracing back my family tree, and although I have taken a march through American history back through the Revolutionary War and to mid-1500s Europe on my mother’s side, my father’s side is Polish.
The Webb clan (mother’s side), great great great grandparents Benjamin & Mary Lee with great grandpa Everett and his twin sister on Ben’s lap – Kentucky, about 1904
Between the difficult and often changing spellings, languages I don’t speak, and a whole lot of destruction last century, I haven’t been able to dig too far back, nor very deep. Hopefully when I get back to having time for personal projects I’ll get farther, but it’s been tough going so far.
This little gem threw me for a loop though. It has always seemed a bit odd to my family that as a quiet little hermit I would decide to go into such an…extroverted career. Well shit, maybe this explains it. It’s in the blood.
A sliver of the Kmiec clan (9 kids total), with Uncle Joe Jr. in the front there, who would fit in perfectly about Wicker Park these days
As we explore more history in our families, shop building and town, we will share more in these Time Travel segments. Because history is freaking cool.
Uncle Jim who gets his cuts at Beardsgaard nowadays (still has great hair, albeit silver these days), before going off to Basic in 1970, soon to go to Vietnam – caught smoking behind the garage with grandpa Joe
Have any awesome pieces of local history to share? Send us the details right here!
Basterd Prospector
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