The Fellow Who Fell on the El

Martina Sheehan spent a recent Saturday morning delving into The Newberry Library's genealogy collections.

In the 1920 census, I see that as a teenager my grandma worked for the City Railroad, now the CTA, and lived with her family, including an aunt and two cousins. I ask my father about the Kilbey cousins, which elicits a gruesome memory: He remembers looking out at El tracks that ran past the elderly sisters’ home and seeing a man fall onto the overhead rail line, catch fire and shower the street below with sparks. Not exactly what I was looking for, but interesting nonetheless. [Link]

She also learned that her great-grandmother aged only two years between 1910 and 1920.