Small Hint For a Large Event

As I come to the last of the papers kept in the collection of Agnes Tully Stevens, I run into wisps of hints that seem so simple, yet cause so many problems.

In this collection, I found two tiny newspaper clippings which, unfortunately, omitted the publication name and date. Both of them are for obituaries, which I will take on as my project to figure out this week.

The first one seems straightforward enough: it supplies the name (tantalizingly, another Tully), the month and day of death (but not the year), and the address where the subject lived. Finally, it gave that clue of last resort: the name of the cemetery.

From the name—Julia Tully—I was able to find her death certificate on FamilySearch.org, although the date of her death placed her within that range of years in which precious little was divulged on the document. I did find that she was born in Michigan. However, for those remembering that new Tully line I’ve just discovered from Michigan, don’t think it will be that easy: the death certificate gives her age as just under twenty years, putting her birth at approximately September of 1870. Of that Tully line’s six children, there was no listing for a Julia in the 1880 census.

The address fairly seemed to scream, “Check me!” And so, to Ancestry.com it was, to try my luck for a Tully family on 217 Stephenson. For whatever reason, I couldn’t manipulate the pages for the 1890 Chicago directory, and the 1889 directory yielded no viable results.

Thankfully, though, I have one more recourse: call the cemetery (Mount Olivet) and see if there is a Tully family plot there that includes Julia—and lists her parents’ names also.

Then, all I will have to do is muddle through how to connect this Tully line with our own.

We are pained to record the death of Miss Julia Tully, of 217 Stephenson avenue, on Sept. 1. She died of consumption, and was buried in Mt. Olivet Cemetery on Wednesday. The funeral services were held in Holy Rosary Church, and the attendance was very large.