ROOTS                  °

Send pix of your parents, grandparents, and beyond. See below for those we have so far.

*Quiz: Born in Java? Relative murdered in Wild West? Is Greek? Father two-timed? Mother born Bolivia? Captured by Pancho Villa? Ancestors came with William Penn?

*Katie Knowles:
Mother: Josephine Rebecca Knotts, born April 8, 1906 I believe in Southern California. She grew up in Mexico where she met my father when she was three, he four. She got her BA from UCLA and her PhD in Psychology from Stanford and helped develop the Stanford Binet IQ test under Lewis Terman. She taught herself accounting and became the accountant for the company my father started. Her mother's uncle was kidnapped for ransom by Pancho Villa.
Father: Hugh Shaler Knowles, whose family arrived on Cape Cod in 1622, was born in Hines, Iowa, Sept 23, 1904. Grew up in Mexico during the Mexican Revolution. Graduated from high school at 14, ran away to sea as a radio operator and later earned his way through Columbia Univ. shoveling coal. When I was born he was VP of Zenith, but when I was nine he started his own company which later became Knowles Electronics, dominated world market for miniature hearing aid microphones. Had 50 patents in that field. His microphone was on the moon, on Mars, and in Watergate. On his deathbed his one regret was not having spent more time with his children.
Me: born July 15, 1941, in Oak Park. Older sister, Margaret, and deceased older brother, James Edward. We lived in River Forest until we moved to Glen Ellyn when I was nine. I was a latchkey child when there wasn’t a word for it because mothers did not work in the 1950s. I went to Stanford and majored in German and French. In 1965 I married Keith Robert Bentz, a teaching assistant at Stanford; divorced in 1967. In 1969 I married Paul Arthur Strasburg, also a Stanford graduate, with a PhD from Princeton. We lived in NYC for fifteen years where he worked for Ford Foundation and Vera Institute of Justice and later served Mayor Koch as Commissioner of Juvenile Justice. We spent two years in Paris from 77-79 where he worked for French Ministry of Justice. In 1982 we returned to CA, where he directed Volunteers in Asia at Stanford and started International Development Exchange. We divorced in 1991. We have two children: Gregory who is 38 and unmarried and Laura who is 42, and divorced with two children: Kyle, 21, and Brooke ,16. I now live in Laguna Beach, CA near my daughter and grandchildren. I taught German and French in high school, stayed home when the children were young and founded my own nonprofit in 1994, Healing Environments. It has brought me great joy to bring support to those with life-threatening illness and comfort to those who are left bereaved.
DNA: not yet.
Long Form: Click here. Includes Pancho Villa.
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*Cliff Argue:
Mother: Marie Zonars, born Dayton, OH. Her mother Evanthia Floridis, (1889-1930); her father Harry (1884-1967) owned a confectionary business, and also had for a long time exclusive rights to distribute Coca-Cola fountain syrup in the area. Mom graduated from high school with honors, went to Miami Univ. of Ohio for a year, then helped at the candy company before marrying Dad. She very much enjoyed writing poetry. ~~ My family on both sides had its roots as ethnic Greeks living in a Turkish town in Thrace. Today it's Kirklareli, but at turn of 20th Century it was known by its Greek name Saranta Ekklisies (“Forty Churches”). All four grandparents emigrated to the US 1900-1914, well before the population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923. Family lore: my maternal grandfather’s brother, the first to arrive, was supposed to go to Dayton, TN, but was put on a train to Dayton, OH. He liked it there, and soon relatives joined him as did others from the same town.
Father: Theodore Argue, born in Saranta Ekklisies, came here as a child. Like many immigrant children, he went to kindergarten knowing no English. He did well, later graduating from U of Mich. in Chemical Engineering and worked in the rubber industry for many years in various management positions. During WW2, Dad served in the Army, in Europe, rising to full Colonel. His mother was Irene Eustath (1884-1962); his father, Clifford (1886-1941), was a carpenter who worked in the auto industry.
Me: born in Dayton and lived there until summer before my freshman year at GHS when we moved to Glen Ellyn.
DNA: not yet.
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*Linnea Asplind:
Mother: Marion Lachman, born 1917 St. Louis of Danish immigrants, starting with my great grandfather, Axel Valdemar Koefoed who became a rancher in NB and later an entrepreneur in Chicago. One of his sons was murdered in CO over water rights. One of his daughters, Dorothy (born 1891) was my grandmother, and her daughter, Marion, was my mom. My mother’s father was German, English and French going back to Jacob Keeler, born in Saxony, came here 1729, descendants eventually settling in Lancaster, PA area. Hannah Keeler born 1850, married Jesse Lachman, born 1848. My grandfather, Josiah Keeler Lachman, born 1886 (one of eight), married Dorothy Koefoed; three daughters.
Father: George Eric Asplind, born 1919 in Chicago, of Swedish descent. He was the youngest of five (a brother died in the 1918 flu epidemic). My grandfather, Carl Gustav Asplind, was born in Mora, Dalarna, Sweden 1873 and my grandmother, Johanna Margreta Osterdahl was born Stockholm 1883. I know my grandfather drove the first postal truck in Sweden, but that was not enough for him and he emigrated to the US, his family following in 1906, arriving on the ship Arabia. They entered through Boston and settled first in DeKalb. All my grandparents seemed very creative doing woodworking, sewing, cooking and writing, rather adventurous to do the things they did. How I wish I could have them all at my table and hear their stories!
Me: Family moved in 1920s to Lombard.
DNA 1/2 Swedish and 1/4 Danish and the remainder is German/French/ English. With the German being the greater part of that quarter.
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*Hardy Wieting:
Mother: Euneece Crowley, originally, born 1915, then Larsen, then Whalen -- all before getting married. Larsen is her mother's maiden name. Mom was born Crowley because Harriet Larsen had married Irish. Divorce followed when my mother was a toddler (no contact with dad until once or twice after she married, then only by accident). (She did, however, remember a visit with him, age 3. Also reciting a poem for some lads in MI, off to fight in WW1: "I am a little girl/ I have a little curl, right in the middle of my forehead/ When I am good, I am very, very good/ When I am bad, I am horrid.") To keep her from her father, she was sent off to be raised much by her Norwegian-born grandmother (Petersen) in Clintonville, WI (grandfather half Norwegian, half Swedish, died young). Attended Lake View High School (Ashland Ave, Irving Park intersection) as Euneece Whalen because her mother had remarried, to a Canadian who died youngish. Top student, but denied college because uncle who was to finance it (advertising exec who started the IGA food stores) got wiped out by the Depression.
Father: Hardy, Sr. His mother, Beatrice, was a Hardy, which is how dad and I got the name. (Her mother was a Dragoo). My guess is Hardy is Scottish (fondness for saving $$), but could of course also be English -- or even French, beautiful French singer/actress, Francoise Hardy. I'm pulling for French. His father was, I guess, of Austrian descent, since Wieting is town in Austrian Alps. Apparently, emigrated long ago. Dad's branch ended up in Louisville, but there's a Wieting opera house in upstate NY, also one in Iowa. (I love opera). My father had three siblings; only oldest was able to attend college before Depression hit. Attended LV HS. He didn't serve in WW2 through good luck: FDR signed Selective Service Act Sept 1940, and my father was in first wave of draftees -- but they deferred anyone married. Second wave deferred anyone with children (yours truly). Third wave anyone with any physical defect -- amblyopia (lazy eye), which I inherited. By fourth wave, war ended. His career was as a photog for the Chicago Tribune.
Me: lived in Ravenswood neighborhood of northern part of Chicago (near LV HS) till 4th grade, then Lombard. Most interesting part of Ravenswood, to me, was nearby Graceland Cemetery, whose brick walls we'd climb over to find ourselves in a green and pleasant land. Only much later did I discover how many famous people are buried there: eg, John Peter Altgeld, Philip Armour, Marshall Field, Cyrus McCormick (yes, of reaper fame), Allan Pinkerton, George Pullman, Louis Sullivan, László Moholy-Nagy -- and most amazing of all, Kate Warne. Not yet there when I was stepping on graves: Ernie Banks and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Career at Science Div, The Nature Conservancy, propagating in each of the 50 state governments the data system we'd invented for determining which species are endangered, where located, how to protect ("Natural Heritage Programs"). With Susan Lukowski adopted a baby girl from China, born 1995, and named her Alexandra Wieting-Lukowski.
DNA: Not yet. One thing adoption teaches about family: DNA of interest, but it's not about DNA. My only sibling, my younger brother, had his done, and was totally surprised to find no German/Austrian, just Scandinavia, Scots, English, Irish, especially as we had just learned we are paternally descended from a Dutch-German, Henry Anton Wieting (1832-1917).
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Note to classmates: Please prepare your roots in above format and at above length (Short Format or SF). Send to glenbard59@gmail.com.
If you'd like to prepare something longer as well, do so! That's the Long Format or LF and can be as long as you want, in the style you want, and pretty much in any format. We don't have enough room on this page for LFs, but we'll put yours up in the website files and then put a link to it in your SF. But send LF in a separate email, LF is far from necessary, but some people want to do it (and more power to you!).
SF = short format, shown here.
LF = long format, click on link at end of SF to see.

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PIX

For Rootsters: send in a pic of your parents/ grandparents/ and beyond. We'll colorize and post here.

Neal: My brother Richard, me about 11 years old, my parents, Dick and Marie Whitecotton in Door County.

Tom: My mother Carmen in about 1967 with her father, Arturo Arguedas, and mother Esther recovering from an accident, her sister and a niece .
My father Marv on right with his brother and Mother, Lesley Hill Chandler from Kansas, about 1905.

Hardy's parents; his mom with her mom, Hattie Larsen, on right. Great-great grandfather, Anton, grandfather, Frank, Great-grandfather James Wieting.

°            MORE ROOTS            °

*Homeland: In honor of Cliff's forebearers here's a link to an article about one of its islands. Send us/honor your roots, and we'll look for similar links. Chios

*Margie Shaw:
Mother: Agnes Louise Wagenknecht (1904-1992), born Chicago but moved as a child to Oak Park. A classmate at Oak Park High was McDonald's founder Ray Kroc (who paid for the 50th reunion). Ernest Hemingway was a few years ahead of her. After OPHS, she worked at Cracker Jack as a stenographer (shorthand). Her parents emigrated from Germany and Czechoslovakia.
Father: John Christie Shaw (1901-1955), emigrated from Scotland in his early twenties, took a job at Sears, rented a room in my grandmother’s house in Oak Park. "The rest is history” -- Not so fast! He had a fiancée back in Scotland who decided to make a surprise visit. She wanted to look her best, so first went to a local hair salon. My mother was having her hair done there also and overheard the fiancée's plan. The Scottish brogue and her reference to “John” made it easy to put two and two together. My mother forgave the two-timing, but the fiancée did not. Back in Scotland she sued Daddy for breach of promise.
Me: My parents rented in Maywood where my older sisters Mary and Joan were born. In 1937 they bought a foreclosed house in Lombard for a little over $7,000. I was born there and spent my entire elementary, high school, and college years there. In 1967 my mother sold the house to Mary (and husband Jerry Giesler) who made wonderful additions and restorations. In 2000, after 63 years in the family, the house was sold. 334 N. Charlotte St. holds so many memories, both happy and sad, I make a point of driving by every five years during our reunion. Delighted to report the new owners have taken good care of it. Ditto grandmother’s house in Oak Park, now over 100 years old.
DNA: not by me; but by my sister Joan. No alarming family secrets, but it did detect an unusual gene in our Cave Man ancestors. Joan says the gene proves our family is exceptionally highly evolved. Maybe that's why I never got my wisdom teeth.
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*Debbie Drew:
Mother: Irene De Ella Genke was born October 2, 1905, in Terre Haute, Indiana, to William Genke and Sarah Ann Wilkinson. The family moved to Chicago when she was young and she grew up in the city. William Genke, was born Wilhelm Friedrich August Jahnke in Rossow, Pomerania, in 1877, but was brought to America by his parents in 1881. They settled in Milwaukee, WI, but William later sought work in Terre Haute. Sarah Ann Wilkinson came from a long line of folks who had been in America for generations. These ancestors have allowed me to join the Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War, the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Colonial Dames of America.
Father: Harvey Alvin Drew was born on a farm south of Downers Grove, Il, on September 22, 1890. He and my mother met on a Christmas cruise to the Caribbean. A WWI veteran, Harvey, worked for Thomas A. Edison Inc. in Chicago. His father was Arthur Clinton Drew whose ancestors came from Norfolk, England . Harvey’s mother was Salome Lehmann whose ancestors came from Alsace in France but the people spoke German. The English and German farmers settled in separate villages (more or less) south of Downers Grove IL. These were called Lace (German) and Cass (English). The cemeteries still exist, but most of the farms are covered with suburbs today.
Me: Deborah Irene Drew grew up first in Downers Grove, IL, and then we moved to Glen Ellyn when I was in 3rd grade. I went to Ben Franklin School, then the Jr. High and finally Glenbard. After high school I went to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. There I got a masters in Biology and married a chemist, William Kaska, in 1964. He was hired by the University of California Santa Barbara, and we immediately moved west. We have lived here ever since. I got my Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in 1980 and worked in the Department of Biological Sciences until 2002. Bill and I have 4 children who are spread all over, San Diego, Florida, North Carolina and Hungary. Now I play oboe in the Santa Barbara Prime Time Band. I have also been interested in genealogy for years and years and researched all my roots back as far as I can. My brother Don, was a dear friend my whole life, but he died a few years ago. I miss him.
DNA: of course I had my DNA analyzed by Ancestry.com as well as that of my husband and son. The results have been simply fascinating. I have found relatives from Pomerania and England as well as the colonial folks. My husband’s DNA revealed a relative no one knew about. She was illegitimate and I helped her discover who her father was via DNA. He was still alive, but sadly denied the connection. However, DNA doesn’t lie and the evidence was clear. This search helped me to better understand the whole DNA paradigm. It is a powerful addition to traditional genealogy. But keep in mind that you may discover secrets that have been hidden and may be disturbing. Oh, and the weakest part of DNA analysis is the ethnicity. Take it with a grain of salt. The reference data are not sufficiently complete to yield very accurate information.
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*Pat Galligan:
Mother: Helen Gallagher, born Escanaba, MI. Grandmother: Margaret (Big Neall) Gallagher, born Beaver Island, MI. Grandfather: John (Johnnie White) Gallagher, born Arranmore Island, Donegal, Ireland. I travelled there to see it. Great grandmother: Mary (Barney) O'Donnell, born Aranmore. Great grandfather: Neal (Big Neal) Gallagher.
Father: William D.Galligan, born Scotia (Eureka) CA. Grandmother: Ione Wilson, born New Buffalo, MI. Grandfather: William E. Galligan, born Bangor, MI. Great grandmother: Minnie Phillips, born Chicago. Great grandfather: Charles Wilson, born NY. ~~ Everyone on both the small island off the north Irish coast (Aranmore) and Beaver Island in Lake Michigan was named Gallagher or O'Donnell, so they needed nicknames to tell each other apart. Many eventually moved to Chicago to find jobs. My mother's father was a marine engineer and died in a shipwreck on Lake Superior when my mom was two. My dad's dad was the superintendent of Pacific Lumber and was killed in a labor dispute when my dad was two.
Me: born in Chicago, moved to Glen Ellyn when I was eight. My father, who had been a theater manager in Chicago, bought a small chain of motion picture theaters in three suburbs, Glen Ellyn, Lombard and Villa Park.
DNA: not yet.
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*Mike Menard:
Mother: Rose Wardenski, born Chicago. Her parents were Stanislaus (Stosh) Wardenski and wife Agnes who hailed from Modiszewko, both born Poland, when Poland did not exist as a separate country. Stosh's mother was Martianna. Agnes' parents were Michael and Michalina Basinka. I believe the Wardenski's emigrated in 1905 to the US via Baltimore and then headed to Chicago, specifically the Back of the Yards neighborhood near the south side stockyards.
Father: Walter Menard. My paternal grandfather was Euclide Menard, who hailed from St. Remi, Quebec, Canada. Family originated, I believe in Brittany, France. An orphan indentured to an English farmer, from whom he learned English. Enabled him to move to Chicago for the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893 where he met and married Cecelia Kavney, fresh off the boat from county Leitrim, Ireland. She grew up in a hamlet near Drumshanbo, today four one-foot high fieldstone foundations overlooking Lough Allen, the headwaters of the River Shannon. When her parents died, the oldest brother got the farm; all the other siblings took off for the USA. One of her sisters went to Bloomington, IL and became a nanny in the home of Adlai Stevenson, father of the Adlai we know, and moved to DC when Stevenson became VP to Grover Cleveland. ~~ While working as a janitor at Elmhurst Hospital one college summer, I saw a woman on a cart who looked like my dad. I checked her wrist band and found it was my grandmother, Cecelia, whom I'd never met. I also saw a man that resembled my dad and found that he was my uncle who was taking care of her. I met Euclide once on a 1953 visit to St. Remi. He'd forgotten his English as there wasn't anyone in town who spoke it.
Me: born Elmhurst, moved to Lombard when I was four.
DNA: 40% east European, 40% Irish, 6% Scandinavian, and some other various and assorted ethnicities.
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*Neal Whitecotton:
Mother: maiden name Cox, of English descent. My maternal grandmother also English (Throgmorton); paternal grandmother was a Williams, a name which is Welsh or English.
Father: also English descent. Whitecotton route in the New World seems to have been VA to GA to TN to IL. My parents' route from far southern IL to Chicago occurred in early 30s as they headed to the big city to find jobs. My parents met as mom taught first grade in a rural school. Dad would pick up his little brother on the way home from high school. Little brother became my uncle, the school marm and high school kid (same age, actually) became my wonderful parents. They moved from Chicago to Lombard about a year before my 1941 birth. Our surname? Based on genealogical records: About 12 generations ago, in colonial VA in the 17th century, John Cotton married Ann White. A child, born c.1635, was named William White-Cotton. John had been born in Devon, England about 1615. His father and grandfather were named Edward and William Cotton, respectively. The hyphen was dropped, and the rest is family history. I could write a book, and must end this before I do so.
Me: Lincoln School for kindergarten, St John's Lutheran for grades 1-4. Then back to Lincoln for 5 and 6 (Mrs. Henry and Mr. Larson). Lombard Jr High 7th and 8th. We seldom ventured west from Lombard, having relatives in Chicago, and of course our "big shopping" destination (Sears, Roebuck) was Elmhurst. Entering Glenbard in 1955 was an adventure into new territory.
DNA: not yet.
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Brittany

Arranmore and Beaver Islands