The Names We Share

Recently I have been fleshing out my SULLIVAN/HUFERD family trees to print copies for the upcoming SULLIVAN Family Reunion. In doing so, I have been making some fun little discoveries, like the fact that my Grandpa SULLIVAN's 1st cousin, Margaret SULLIVAN, was married to a U.S. Representative. Pictured above: Portrait from the wedding of Margaret SULLIVAN and Neil LINEHAN, June 30, 1920 in Chicago, Illinois.   Pictured above: Neil J. LINEHAN Neil J. LINEHAN was elected as a Democrat to the 81st congress from 1949 to 1951, losing his reelection bid in 1950. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois's third district. This district has been home to a significant Irish-American population for over 150 years. Numerous generations of my ancestors from different branches have lived in this district, including me. This district includes the Bridgeport neighborhood on the south side of Chicago.

My maternal grandparents, Ed SULLIVAN and Miriam HUFERD Sullivan, met during their college years. They both attended Chicago Teachers College (CTC). My grandfather was 2 years older than my grandmother. He enlisted in the army not long after he started his first year at CTC. When he returned from World War II and re-enrolled at CTC, he was just a year ahead of my grandmother. The above photograph is of Ed and Miriam on a date some time before they were married. While searching yearbooks online, it was quite fun to find the two of them next to each other in club photographs in the 1947 Chicago Teachers College yearbook. My mother said they were already dating by this point. Below is one of the CTC 1947 Student Council Class representatives photographs. Ed and Miriam are in the middle row, 5th and 6th from the left:   Below is the CTC 1947 International Relations Club. Miriam and Ed are in the middle row, 9th and 10th from the left:  

My maternal grandmother, Miriam (HUFERD) SULLIVAN, was a kindred spirit of mine. She was an elementary school teacher and avid artist, as am I. When I graduated with my degree in art education, she told me she wished she had become an art teacher. As I researched my genealogy, I came across her yearbooks from Chicago Teachers College and discovered she was on yearbook staff and even served as one of the editors, just like me. As I dug through the yearbooks to glean as much information as I could about my grandmother and her time in college, I noticed a drawing on the inside of the cover of her senior yearbook. In the drawing, there is a woman sitting on a stool working on an observational drawing. I thought to myself that it looked like my grandma and wondered who created the drawing. I looked at the bottom of it and sure enough, there was her name. Here is the artwork my grandma co-created for the Chicago Teachers College 1948 yearbook:   And here is a detail of her name at the bo...

The fact that my Great-Grandpa Blue was a Chicago Police Officer is one of those family history facts I feel like I've always known. When my Grandma Blue passed away and I was helping pack up the house, we found his retirement badge, physical evidence confirming to me it wasn't just a family story. As I began to dig deeper into my genealogy, I found his occupation listed a "policeman, city" on the 1950 U.S. census. Then I found his obituary, which listed that he had been a Chicago police officer for 20 years and retired in 1963. This means he began his career with the Chicago Police Department in about 1943. I also found him quoted and pictured in the "Surburbanite Economist - Beverly/Suburban Edition" issue from June 25, 1952 in a section called "Penny for Your Thoughts" where he discussed fishing. His occupation was listed as "city policeman" and his listed address matched what I had found for him in other records from around that time....