Genealogy

 

Here is what I have gathered so far:

Military Era Letters from Frank and Annabelle Rourke to Various family members.

Nanny’s very first Photo Album. Spanning ~ 1920 to ~1923

Early Letters from and To Verna Rourke. Some from when she was quite young, in her teens.

Early Elser Family Pictures.

Nanny’s Second Photo Album spanning ~1923 to ~1928.

Many interesting Audio files Copied from tapes made by nanny, dating back 50 years.

The “Shirt Cardboard Album” 1929 to ~1932. This album consists of pictures pasted on pieces of shirt cardboard. Early on they were likely bound by a piece of ribbon. The pictures span from 1929 to at least 1932. The early years of Steve and Verna’s marriage. I received about 5 more pages of this album from cousin Jenny, so it appears that this album was separated at some point. I added these additional pages in July 2012. The added ones have names of “shirtcardboard_bxxx” Thank you Jenny!

The Lake Eliza Cottage guest book. This book holds many interesting logs of things that were going on between 1961 and ~1974. You can download high res pictures (so you can read the text on the pages) by clicking on “original image” near the lower right of each individual picture. Cousin Suzy currently holds the Logbook.

Misc. interesting pictures that I thought cousins would be interested in seeing. I will add pictures here as cousins request special pictures. (For instance, the picture of Chris and my Mom sitting at the kitchen counter at the cottage was requested by cousin Sue. She asked if I had any pictures of the cottage kitchen area.. and I did!)

Here is a train trip to California that Nanny and Gloria took in 1961. Nanny really documented this trip! They visited Frank and Aunt Lou, and Aunt Flora and uncle Charlie along the way. (Uncle Charlie was Gramp’s favorite brother if Nanny’s note on the back is to believed.)

These photos came out of a small handbag photo album that Nanny carried with her between 1962 when it was created, and 1965, the last time it was updated from what I can tell. The small album was named “SOG with PIP” and inside was the note “Silly Old Grandma with Pictures In Purse.

These photos are all from the 1970’s. The black and white ones are from Nanny and gramps 50th wedding anniversary in Tinley Park at the VFW. Unfortunately I don’t really have very many pictures from this era. Most of these were in my mothers collection from over the years. I did not manage to get Nanny’s albums from this era.

This is almost all 1980’s at Nanny and Gramp’s (Rourke) house at Lake Eliza. Some of gramp’s last pictures. I also like to call this album the “sleeping album”, because Nanny took many pictures of people sleeping! This came from Cousin Jenny’s collection.

The Plana letters. This is a significant collection of letters from our GGrandfather Julius Plana. They span poems, to very personal letters that he seems distraught in, to the letters that he wrote while he went out west in 1931. (and somewhat abandoned his family for a time.) Special recognition to cousin Peter and Aunt Elsie Lou for their interest and encouragement.

A journal entry by my mom. (Verna Rourke Elser) I guess she wanted to highlight some interesting memories. And I’m glad she did!

Here are a bunch of pictures from an 1940’s album of nannys. I also received this from Jenny. Here Nanny and Gramps offspring are starting to move out on their own and create their own families.

Al and Verna Elser’s 50th wedding anniversary. This was held at the VFW in Tinley Park in 1995. It was attended by people in her wedding party (siblings, please give me the names of the wedding party if you can?) This is at the same place that Nanny and Gramp held their 50th wedding party ~20+ years earlier. There are some pictures of another family get together mixed in there.. But since mom had them in her anniversary album, I figured I would include them. I will ad more info as I think of it. (does anyone have an invitation to this laying around that i can get a scan of?)

Here is another group of early 70’s photos of things going on in and around the the Rourke house. There seems to be a large amount of Perry family photos here. Enjoy.

Here is Tribute to my mom, who died Sept 11 2011. A collection of pictures. Enjoy.