My father George Davis passed away in February 2020. My parents (Louise Eleanor Schlick and George) were married in August of 1959. Louise’s grandfather was Casper Schlick. Casper lived on Mack Road in Warrenville, Illinois.

When our relatives die we find ourselves mourning their loss. Another aspect of a relative passing away is the housekeeping and often mundane tasks that come with their passing. There may be estates to settled with our lawyers and the court system. On other tasks that needs to be done is going through their personal belongings they leave behind. What does one do with all of the stuff they leave behind?

My father left behind a few personal items of interest to my personal quest to pull together the fabric of his family’s history. At first it did not appear to be too many documents or letters left behind. However, I was wrong in my assumption. I have found several documents, and documentary paper fragments and many photos left behind as I began pulling together and reviewing materials this past summer.

George’s Grandmother Mary Agnes Adelsperger Davis was an important influential person in my father’s life. My dad spent most of his young life in the Englewood neighborhood on Chicago’s Southside. When things got rough at home Grandma Mary would be there to take my dad out of his cramped apartment and treat him to a meal and ice cream sundae at the the S.S. Kresge Co. lunch counter located near the Sears store at 63rd and Halsted. Afterwards, she would take him to see a show and movie at one of the many local theatres in the Englewood neighborhood.

My dad also recalls a train ride with Mary when he was twelve years old out west to Cody Wyoming to visit the Buffalo Bill Cody Wild West Museum and the National Parks. It was memorable trip. Memorable not only due to the places they visited but due to his Grandmother suffering a heart attack at one point during the trip. They had to stay longer than anticipated at a local hotel until she recovered enough to travel back to Chicago. The good news is that she did recover and both her and my father made it back to Chicago. I cannot imagine what my dad felt during this trip and at the age of twelve.

Through the use of Ancestry, Family Search and Newspapers.com websites I have begun to gather the treads of my father and his Adelsperger family line. Many of the fragments and threads still need to be sewn together.

This is what I know at this point of my research: “Mary Agnes Adelsperger [See photo below] was born on 21 August 1878, in Centre, Pennsylvania, United States, her father, Joseph Alexander Adelsperger, was 26 and her mother, Clara C Katen, was 20 at the time of her birth. Mary met and then married Stuart Vernon Davis on 27 April 1897, in Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States. They were the parents of at least 1 son, George Germaine Davis. Prior to moving to Chicago Mary is shown on the 1880 Census as living in Rush Township, Centre, Pennsylvania, United States. Mary’s husband Stewart worked for the Chicago L line as a driver. Mary worked as a clerk for a local department store and later a cleaning person for a couple in the Beverly neighborhood area of Chicago. She died on 20 February 1958, in Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States, at the age of 79, and was buried in Worth, Cook, Illinois, United States“. It was unfortunate that my father was not in Chicago to say farewell prior to her death. George had been drafted into the U.S. Army around the time of his Grandmother’s death and was deployed as a missile transport driver in Germany on the front lines of the Cold War.

One of the photos I ran across in one of the boxes my dad left behind was an Adelsperger Family photo. The photo was taken at Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Adelsperger’s golden wedding anniversary party held in Hammond Indiana at the Lyndora Hotel.

Here is a list of the people in the above photograph. This information was obtained via a posting of the above photo in Ancestry.com entry for the Adelsperger family. Back row of photo: Helen Adelsperger Gruzella (Granddaughter), Florence Brase (sic Brose) Adelsperger (Wife of James Adelsperger, Frances Einbecker Adelsperger (Wife of James Katen Adelsperger), James Adelsperger (Grandson), Emma Adelsperger Carlson (Daughter) and husband Gus Carlson, Josephine Adelsperger Campbell (Daughter) and Husband Edwin Campbell, Adeline Adelsperger (Granddaughter) and Mabel Adelsperger (Granddaughter). Front row: Geraldine Adelsperger (Granddaughter), Frances Adelsperger (Granddaughter), Clara Katen Adelsperger, Joseph Alexander Adelsperger, Gus Carlson, Jr. (Grandson), and Evelyn Adelsperger (Granddaughter).

I will be posting more concerning my Adelsperger family line in the future.