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A century-old trade journal shouldn’t be the most gripping thing you’ll hear about this week, but here we are: a 1915 issue of The American Lumberman unlocks the intertwined stories of Chicago’s Czech community in the aftermath of the Eastland disaster. We trace a death notice—Julia Kolar—through a maze of addresses, parish ties, and workplace notes. We then follow the thread to meet another victim, Anna Molitor Kolar, and a survivor, Ellla Kolar, whose voice would carry from South Millard Avenue to Milan.

We walk through the exact research steps that make lost lives legible again: cross-referencing historian George Hilton’s Appendix D (Eastland: Legacy of the Titanic), combing the Eastland Memorial on Find a Grave, verifying Czech-language obituaries from Denní Hlasatel (Czech language newspaper), and balancing crowdsourced pages with original citations.

As the puzzle comes together, it reveals the deeper structure of a neighborhood economy built on lumber yards, monthly home payments, and mutual aid. The result is part genealogy guide, part community history, and part recovery of cultural memory.

Survivor Ella Kolar’s arc is a standout. A 1920 passport application shows her heading to Italy for vocal study; press clippings welcome her back for a River Forest reception; and a half-page notice in the Musical Courier confirms representation, bookings, and momentum. Critics in Boston hailed her as a “newly risen star,” and her community claimed her with pride. While many records are accessible, there’s a gap in research, signaling that more work needs to be done.

If you love family history, Chicago history, Czech-American heritage, or the craft of archival sleuthing, this story has tools and heart in equal measure.

Resources:

• Kolar images and obituaries, 1915-07-27 TUE DENNÍ HLASATEL, Find a Grave
• Anna Molitor Kolar obit 1915-07-27 TUE DENNÍ HLASATEL and Find a grave
• American Lumberman (1915) and Musical Courier issues on Ella Kolar — via HathiTrust/Google Books.
• Kolar family records — FamilySearch.org

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The River Remained in Her Bones: A Recovered Eastland Story

A single line in a 1922 obituary can change the shape of history. We follow that thread to Chrissie McNeal Lauritzen, who survived the SS Eastland capsizing by clinging to the overturned hull, “was never well since,” and died seven years later from complications tied directly to that morning on the Chicago River. This isn’t just a moving story; it’s documented evidence that challenges the fixed perception of the Eastland death toll and reveals how disasters reverberate through families, records, and time.

We explore the documentation: a death notice from a Rockford newspaper, filled with names and places, reflecting the family connections that supported those words on the page. We also examine the genealogical methods that transform a single paragraph into a comprehensive family network.

Along the way, we meet Chrissie’s husband, Charles, through a 1917 passport application that holds a rare photo and a remarkable corporate letter from International Harvester. Those pages pull us inside wartime bureaucracy, frequent overseas travel, and how companies vouched for employees navigating citizenship questions and tightened State Department scrutiny during World War I. The documents don’t just fill gaps; they give texture to a home life shaped by illness, work abroad, and a daughter growing up in the long wake of 1915.

The takeaway is clear and urgent: numbers that become legend need revisiting, and primary sources—obituaries, passport files, small-town columns—can restore lives to public memory. We show how to read these records, why women’s names and maiden names are crucial for genealogical accuracy, and what it means to honor those whose suffering extended beyond the day of the disaster. Learn how a forgotten death notice rewrites the Eastland narrative and what it takes to update the historical record with care, clarity--and evidence.

Resource:

“Mrs. Chrissie Lauritzen Dies of Complications.” Rockford Morning Star (Rockford, IL), April 8, 1922.

• Book website: https://www.flowerintheriver.com/
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• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalie-z-87092b15/
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• YouTube: Flower in the River - A Family Tale Finally Told - YouTube
• Medium: Natalie Zett – Medium
• The opening/closing song is Twilight by 8opus
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A forgotten headline. A crowded dock. A father who turns back to a sinking ship and pulls a family friend through a porthole. In this episode, we follow the Rabe family—Fred, Delia, Grace, and Kenneth—from a terrifying morning on the Chicago River into the decades that followed, when work, service, and community stitched their lives into something livable again. We open the archive, and listen as Grace and Kenneth share their memories of that day, 84 years later.

Grace becomes a skilled comptometer operator at Western Electric, part of a large, highly trained cohort of women whose precision work kept the company running long before electronics took over. Kenneth rises through the company and never boards a pleasure boat without remembering the river. Fred advances to department manager, yet even after a 1999 article documented his rescue of family friend Anna Johnson, the act was never acknowledged. It’s another example of how an Eastland story can surface clearly in the record yet fade again, even when it should have been carried forward. Their obituaries turn out to be maps—Telephone Pioneers chapters, Eastern Star ties, addresses that trace moves across neighborhoods and seasons of service. Those details show how survivors rebuilt meaning through hands-on volunteer work, fraternal lodges, and a workplace culture that blended pride with mutual aid.

Resources:

• Northlake Herald-Journal (IL), December 1, 1999 — “Eastland Disaster All But Forgotten,” by Jennifer Giustino.

• Book website: https://www.flowerintheriver.com/
• LinkTree: @zettnatalie | Linktree
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalie-z-87092b15/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zettnatalie/
• YouTube: Flower in the River - A Family Tale Finally Told - YouTube
• Medium: Natalie Zett – Medium
• The opening/closing song is Twilight by 8opus
• Other music. Artlist