Thomas Eugene McGinnis – Many Branches, One Tree

Sentimental Sunday: Not About to Let Her Get Away

Benita (McGinnis) McCormick (1889 – 1984) Phillip C. McCormick (1892 – 1981) Phil McCormick had found someone special in Benita McGinnis, and he was not about to let her get away. On June 20, 1921, he went downtown to a diamond importer, August Rassweiler, where he selected a diamond engagement and wedding ring for … Continue reading

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday: Awkward Family Photo

The Thomas and Mary Jane (Gaffney) McGinnis Family What was going on in this picture? The best photos are sometimes the awkward ones, the ones that went slightly wrong and no one did what they were “supposed” to do. The time would have been about 1920 or so. Imagine the McGinnises, sitting comfortably at the … Continue reading

Sentimental Sunday: Sunday Dinner

Making Memories Around the Table Left to right: John Charles McGinnis Mary Jane (Gaffney) McGinnis, Alice McGinnis, Thomas Eugene McGinnis, (John’s wife) Edith (Hoag) McGinnis, cousin Eileen Kelly, and Benita McGinnis. Photo taken at the McGinnis home, 8336 Drexel Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, sometime between 1914 and 1920. Like many a family in the early twentieth century, my … Continue reading

Friday’s Faces from the Past: More Irish Mystery Cousins

Benita (McGinnis) McCormick (1889 – 1984) “Baby Maureen” is the only person we can (partially) identify in these pictures. Here she is, with (possibly) her parents and another man. Might her mother be cousin Bessie Quinn? More Mystery Cousins! As with the other photographs we’ve seen recently on this site, these come from … Continue reading

Mystery Monday: Is this Lizzie Gaffney?

Mary Elizabeth “Lizzie” Gaffney (1884 – 1960) Benita (McGinnis) McCormick (1889 – 1984) “My cousin poses,” Benita wrote under this photograph, taken in western Ireland in 1913. Could this be Mary Elizabeth “Lizzie” Gaffney? Compared with the photo below, there seems to be a strong resemblance, but it is hard to say for sure. … Continue reading

Traveling Tuesday: Benita Goes to Europe

Benita (McGinnis) McCormick (1889 – 1984) Benita McGinnis, about 24 years old, on the Cunard ocean liner R.M.S. Franconia, 1913. Sometimes I have to pinch myself when I look at these photos of my great-aunt Benita in Europe and realize they were taken exactly 100 years ago. After finishing her studies … Continue reading

Wedding Wednesday: Thomas and Mary Jane (Gaffney) McGinnis

Thomas Eugene McGinnis (1855 – 1927) Mary Jane (Gaffney) McGinnis (1858 – 1940) The photograph below comes from a page from the scrapbook of my great-aunt, Benita (McGinnis) McCormick, in honor of her parents, Thomas McGinnis and Mary Jane Gaffney. They were married on May 19, 1884, in Conneaut, … Continue reading

Funeral Card Friday: Mary Jane (Gaffney) McGinnis

Mary Jane (Gaffney) McGinnis (1858 – 1940) The front of this holy card, now faded reads, “Show us Thy face, and we shall be saved.” My maternal great-grandmother, Mary Jane “Janie” McGinnis, died at 7:15 in the morning of July 13, 1940, at the home of her eldest child, Benita (McGinnis) McCormick, of pernicious … Continue reading

Remembering Mary Jane and Elizabeth Gaffney

Joan Joyce (Schiavon) Huesca 1928 – 1987 In her own words (Part Two) On June 24, 1987, a couple of months before she died of lung cancer, my mother, Joan Joyce (Schiavon) Huesca began writing the story of her life. In this excerpt from her book, Joan Joyce Schiavon Huesca: … Continue reading

Thankful Thursday: From the Angels in Heaven

Joan Joyce (Schiavon) Huesca (1928 – 1987) It was still early morning on the Fourth of July, 1928, when my grandfather, Ralph Schiavon, still half asleep, rolled out of bed to answer the telephone. Doctor Thomas Doyle, the McGinnis and Schiavon family physician, was calling with good news. My mother, Joan Joyce Schiavon, Chicago, … Continue reading