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In this episode, I bring to a close my journey through Edna, His Wife by Pulitzer Prize–winning author Margaret Ayer Barnes, a novel that paints a hauntingly intimate portrait of a family navigating life in the shadow of the 1915 Eastland Disaster.

This final section steps past the catastrophe itself and into the tangled aftermath: the paperwork of loss, the quiet unraveling of marriages, and the daily rituals of mourning that linger long after the headlines fade.

Through Edna’s sorrow, Barnes reveals how loss reshapes who we are, transforms our connections, and changes the very tempo of our lives.

A mysterious letter from a figure in Edna’s past, with no return address, becomes a lifeline to her former self, a reminder that identity endures despite shifting circumstances. I also explore how memory, literature, and genealogy weave together, and why honoring history through careful research is so vital.

I recount the thrill of finding an autographed copy of Barnes’ novel and reflect on the deep responsibility storytellers and genealogists share to preserve history with honesty, compassion, and devotion.

Resources:

• “Miss Cornelia Otis Skinner Skillfully Presents ‘Edna His Wife,’” The Washington Daily News (Washington, D.C.), February 22, 1938, accessed via Chronicling America, Library of Congress.
• Edna His Wife, Broadway production, December 7, 1937–January 1938, Little Theatre, New York, Internet Broadway Database (IBDB).
• Margaret Ayer Barnes, Edna, His Wife: An American Idyll (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1935), accessed via Internet Archive.

• Book website: https://www.flowerintheriver.com/
• Substack: https://nataliezett.substack.com/
• 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

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A single newspaper review from 1938 turned this story on its head.
Digging through Chronicling America, I stumbled upon a mention of Cornelia Otis Skinner's one-woman show—a performance inspired by Margaret Ayer Barnes's novel Edna, His Wife—and it included a "sensational scene" set on the Eastland. That brief reference shatters the myth that Chicago's 1915 disaster simply faded from memory. It never vanished. It lingered in novels, on stage, in film, and in poems.

I retrace that rediscovery, then plunge into vivid passages from Barnes's novel: morning chatter, a ringing phone, a name called out. The Chicago River teeming with people. A stranger thrusting a peach crate into a woman's arms. In the armory—now a morgue—the coroner pleading with a restless crowd to let grieving families pass. Headlines scrambling for blame. Two sisters selecting gloves, pews, and pallbearers.

These scenes press close because they ring true: the sound of shock, the way loss rearranges a room, a city returning to work beneath the glare of searchlights.

I also pause to ask a larger question: what other stories have been hiding in plain sight? Barnes won a Pulitzer, yet her Eastland chapter is rarely—if ever—mentioned today. Skinner crafted a powerhouse performance from that book, but her credit faded into the background. This story was waiting to be found.

Why wasn't it?

Here, genealogy, local lore, and literature intertwine—revealing how culture preserves memory even when research falls short.

Resources:

• “Miss Cornelia Otis Skinner Skillfully Presents ‘Edna His Wife,’” The Washington Daily News (Washington, D.C.), February 22, 1938, accessed via Chronicling America, Library of Congress.
• Edna His Wife, Broadway production, December 7, 1937–January 1938, Little Theatre, New York, Internet Broadway Database (IBDB).
• Margaret Ayer Barnes, Edna, His Wife: An American Idyll (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1935), accessed via Internet Archive.

• Book website: https://www.flowerintheriver.com/
• Substack: https://nataliezett.substack.com/
• 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

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In this episode, I finish reading “Catastrophe on the Chicago River,” a Czech-language article by Josef Mach Sr. from 1916. The piece delivers a searing, firsthand account of the Eastland Disaster’s impact on Chicago’s Czech community: families shattered by the loss of multiple members, a grieving husband driven to despair after losing his wife, and three hundred funerals unfolding in just three days.

But then, an unexpected detail rises to the surface.

Near the end of the article, a name appears: Anton J. Cermak. Chief Bailiff. President of the Czech Assistance Committee. The man who would later become Chicago’s first and only foreign (Czech) born mayor—and who would die after the 1933 assassination attempt that also targeted Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Cermak didn’t just oversee a relief fund. According to a 1934 Czech publication, he rushed to the scene, worked without rest for days, and may have never fully recovered.

This was not a new discovery. The Eastland Memorial Society had already traced Cermak’s connection and shared it on their website. When the organization dissolved, that knowledge was left behind. It lingered, preserved yet hidden, waiting in the Internet Archive.

And this cycle repeats itself.

The research is out there. The documentation survives. But when groups dissolve, authors move on, and sites go dark, history sometimes slides back into the river—not because it was never found, but because research gets reduced to a highlight reel and bullet points.

As Elizabeth Shown Mills reminds us, genealogy requires reasonably exhaustive research. That standard doesn’t expire. It doesn’t end when a book gets published or when a historical organization closes its doors.

The Eastland story needs researchers who will keep digging, keep translating, keep connecting the dots, because the cycle of endlessly “rediscovering” what was already known is wearing thin.

Resources:

• Kalendar Hlasatel: Pro Čechy Americké na Obyčejný Rok 1934. Chicago: Tiskem a nákladem Denního Hlasatele, 1934.
• Náše Rodina, the journal of the Czechoslovak Genealogical Society International
• Amerikán Národní Kalendář (1916)—Chicago Czech annual almanac
• Eastland Disaster Victims on Find a Grave—where the restored photos are being added. (Note: Eastland Disaster Victims on Find a Grave is where you will most likely find bios for the majority of those who died on the Eastland. There, you can also contribute.)
• Scriptum.cz—the Czech d

• Book website: https://www.flowerintheriver.com/
• Substack: https://nataliezett.substack.com/
• 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

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We journey deeper into "Catastrophe on the Chicago River," a century-old chronicle of the Eastland Disaster as seen through the eyes of Chicago's Czech community. Josef Mach Sr. crafts a living, breathing account of the capsized excursion ship, trading headlines and statistics for the intimate details of lives upended. This narrative names names, lists addresses and funeral halls, and traces the ache that rippled through the close-knit Czech neighborhoods of Chicago.

As we move through the recovered text, you’ll hear eyewitness detail:

• rescue stories
• a man shouting “Jump!” to his family as the ship rolls
• a piano shattering in a crowded cabin
• workers using acetylene torches and cutting the hull while calls for help rise from below decks

The story traces the public rituals that shaped collective mourning: solemn processions winding past Masonic halls and freethought schools, wreaths stacked in fragrant towers, and Boy Scouts saluting an unknown child, "Boy 396," who, for a moment, became the city's own.

You'll learn why restoring provenance and footnotes is not a luxury in public history, especially since they've often been removed in later retellings of the Eastland Disaster.

We also explore the cultural backbone that transformed sorrow into unity. The Sokol movement, which began in Prague and flourished in Chicago by the 1890s, wove communities together through gymnastics, choirs, discipline, and civic engagement. These bonds fueled the collective response after July 24, 1915.

This is archival recovery pulsing with life, where immigrant newspapers, neighborhood ties, and meticulous citations draw the past close enough to touch.

Resources:

• Pages, Faces, and Names Restored - A Czech Eastland Breakthrough
• Náše Rodina, the journal of the Czechoslovak Genealogical Society International
• Amerikán Národní Kalendář (1916)—Chicago Czech annual almanac
• Eastland Disaster Victims on Find a Grave—where the restored photos are being added. (Note: Eastland Disaster Victims on Find a Grave is where you will most likely find bios for the majority of those who died on the Eastland. There, you can also contribute.)
• Scriptum.cz—the Czech digital archive where the original text and images were located

• Book website: https://www.flowerintheriver.com/
• Substack: https://nataliezett.substack.com/
• 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

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When Research Starts Talking Back

What happens when your research doesn’t just sit there quietly… but starts nudging you, whispering, insisting you dig deeper?

In this episode, I try something a little different. After sharing my 2025 retrospective, The Search Goes On — Coincidence. Clarity. Resolve., I handed that episode to Google’s NotebookLM—an AI tool many genealogists are exploring—and let it analyze the work.

The result? Two AI research companions, Eva and Max (NotebookLM’s AI hosts), listen to my last episode and talk back—analyzing the research, the discoveries, and the questions it raises.

What surprised me was where they lingered: accountability, documentation standards, and how historical tragedies are sometimes framed and fixed in place.

It’s thoughtful. It’s a little strange. And it’s unexpectedly illuminating to hear your own work reflected back by an algorithm.

You’ll also hear me reflect on:

• provenance—and what gets lost without it
• pattern recognition and persistence
• the messy beauty of family history
• why history is never really “finished”—and why the inquiry must continue

Coincidence, clarity, and resolve all make return appearances.

What emerges is a case for clear sourcing, shared definitions of casualty, and open access.

Resources:

• The Search Goes On — Coincidence. Clarity. Resolve.
• NotebookLM

• Book website: https://www.flowerintheriver.com/
• Substack: https://nataliezett.substack.com/
• 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

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A single number can shape how we remember—until new evidence asks us to look again. This episode takes you inside another year of research on the people of the Eastland disaster, where a repeated death toll gives way to an evolving, documented estimate. I share how two overlooked victims surfaced through archival work, and why adding their names is crucial for families, historians, and anyone who believes facts should lead the story—not follow it.

This journey isn't just archival; it's personal and communal. I discuss the engine of citizen genealogy—focused work that chases one question until it yields—and how my background in writing, investigation, and IT shaped a method built on verification and transparency. We also confront a core challenge: there's no widely adopted standard for who "counts" as having died in the Eastland disaster. That vacuum allowed an estimate to morph into a brand.

A breakthrough in a Czech-language archive unlocked more than text. I found an original 1916 publication featuring over 140 photos of Czech victims—images largely unseen for generations. Uploading those photos to the Eastland Disaster Victims' Memorial on Find a Grave means family members can finally see the faces behind the names. One descendant left a memorial tribute, yearning for a picture that seemed lost forever. Sharing that photo reminded me why I do this work: a corrected record is not an abstraction; it's relief, recognition, and sometimes joy.

Resources mentioned:

• The Magic Part Is The Listening (Crista Cowan with Natalie Zett) (Stories that Live in Us podcast)
• ‘The hidden engine room’: how amateur historians are powering genealogical research (Guardian UK)
• “Every Life Matters to Me” (Lisa Louise Cooke with Natalie Zett) (Genealogy Gems - Premium podcast)
• Eastland Disaster Victims (Find A Grave)

• Book website: https://www.flowerintheriver.com/
• Substack: https://nataliezett.substack.com/
• 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

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In this episode, we return to Chicago's Czech community and uncover something extraordinary: an original 1916 Czech-language publication that didn't just tell the story of the Eastland disaster—it preserved more than 100 photographs of Czech women, men and children who lost their lives during the Eastland Disaster.

Many of these photos haven't been seen since the article was published in 1916. You'll hear how finding this rare primary source adds depth, texture, and nuance to our understanding of the tragedy.

🌊 What's inside

• Meet Josef Mach, the Czech-American writer who documented the Eastland disaster from within his community
• How the Czechoslovak Genealogical Society International's Náše Rodina helped preserve and translate this history decades later
• The discovery of the original Czech-language publication in a Czech digital archive—and the unexpected treasures inside: page after page of photos
• What it's been like extracting and uploading these images to the memorials on the EASTLAND DISASTER VICTIMS site on Find a Grave
• Why restoring original names for members of various immigrant communities is both an act of restoration and remembrance

Final thoughts:

There's a risk in assuming "the research is done." Spoiler alert: it isn’t.

Many aspects of the people of Eastland Disaster have barely been explored. This breakthrough reminds us that the research needs to continue. There's still so much to uncover, question, and restore.

📷 A living archive—one photo at a time

For many families, these uploads to Find a Grave may be the first public photo attached to their loved one's memorial. This work is ongoing, but it's already an incredible step toward restoring dignity, identity, and connection across generations.

Resources:

• Náše Rodina, the journal of the Czechoslovak Genealogical Society International
• Amerikán Národní Kalendář (1916)—Chicago Czech annual almanac
• Eastland Disaster Victims on Find a Grave—where the restored photos are being added. (Note: Eastland Disaster Victims on Find a Grave is where you will most likely find bios for the majority of those who died on the Eastland. There, you can also contribute.)
• Scriptum.cz—the Czech digital archive where the original text and images were located

• 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

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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 Chicago 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 Chicago Czech community claimed her with pride. In a way, she sang for all of them.

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

• Book website: https://www.flowerintheriver.com/
• Substack: https://nataliezett.substack.com/
• 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