Flower in the River: A Family Tale Finally Told

Episode 100: A Milestone, A Synchronicity & A Heartfelt Thank You

• Natalie Zett • Season 3 • Episode 100

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100 Episodes of Flower in the River! 🎉
 
Can't believe we made it to 100! Let's look back at how this whole thing started, how Flower in the River has grown, and our mission to keep the stories of all of the people who experienced the Eastland Disaster from fading into history.

The Most Random Thing Just Happened...

So get this - Crista Cowan (you might know her as The Barefoot Genealogist) was asking about family history coincidences late last year. And if you've followed my ancestral detective work, you know this entire journey has been one wild coincidence after another! 😄I shared my story, and next thing I knew, I was sitting down with her for Stories That Live in Us! The episode just dropped this week and I'm absolutely floored by all your messages. Crista, you're amazing!

Why This Podcast Means So Much

Flower in the River isn't just about my book or my family story. It's about the people - the individuals whose stories have been overlooked, whose lives intersected with the Eastland Disaster but whose voices haven't been heard. We're running out of time to preserve these stories, and I refuse to let them be forgotten.

How I Find These Hidden Stories

You asked how I dig up these overlooked stories, and honestly? It’s equal parts detective work, magic, and a bit of obsession.

A Few Go-To Resources:

  •   Find A Grave (my second home) and Graveyard Posts on Instagram
  •  Chicago Genealogical Society (they probably think I'm moving in)
  • Chicago Public Library, Newberry Library, and Allen County Public Library's PERSI collection
  •  Google Books, HathiTrust, Illinois Digital Library, and old copies of The Sentinel
  • Wayback Machine and Internet Archive (for when websites ghost us)

What's Coming Up?

Next week we're diving into The Case of the Missing Grave Markers - and trust me, this one's wild.To everyone listening, whether you found us yesterday or you've been here since episode 1 - you're the reason I keep digging into these stories. Here's to 100 more

🎧 Listen to my guest appearance on Crista Cowan’s podcast!

 

Natalie Zett:

Hello, I'm Natalie Zett and welcome to Flower in the River. This podcast, inspired by my book of the same name, explores the 1915 Eastland disaster in Chicago and its enduring impact, particularly on my family's history. We'll explore the intertwining narratives of others impacted by this tragedy as well, and we'll dive into writing and genealogy and uncover the surprising supernatural elements that surface in family history research. Come along with me on this journey of discovery. Hey, this is Natalie, and welcome to Flower in the River podcast, episode 100. Can you believe it? I can't, and for this episode I had an entire plan for what I was going to say, but sometimes I don't know why I bother planning, because every single time something happens at the last minute. That flips everything upside down. But this is a good thing. This time it really was a delightful twist. So let me back up a little bit. Back in December 2024, and right now it's February 2025.

Natalie Zett:

As I'm recording, I saw a post from Krista Cowan on Instagram. If you're into genealogy, she needs no introduction and you probably know her. She is the Barefoot Genealogist and she's also the Corporate Genealogist for Ancestrycom. I have learned so much from Krista over the years. Never met her, but I've attended her seminars, followed her work and, honestly, I wouldn't be half as proficient with ancestry if it weren't for her. So she put out this request, I think around late November 2024, asking if people had experienced coincidences on their ancestral journeys. Well, well, if you've listened to this podcast or read my book or followed my work, you know that my entire journey has been one gigantic, bizarre, unexplainable set of coincidences. Or, as Jim Harreld of the Paranormal Podcast would say, it's too much of a coincidence to be a coincidence. That really has what's made me a believer in all of this, and so I responded online.

Natalie Zett:

I usually don't engage. I post a lot on social media, but I usually don't engage that much because of the time factor. But in this case I couldn't not share. I summarized how I stumbled into my family history, uncovered my connection to the Eastland disaster and, without even realizing it, ended up moving to an ancestral homeland which is here in Minneapolis, st Paul. And guess what? The next thing I know, krista invited me to be on her podcast, and the podcast is called the Stories that Live In Us, and I will put a link to our interview in the show notes. And I've been listening to it from the beginning and suddenly I was going to be on it. Whoa, that was an absolute thrill, to say the least.

Natalie Zett:

So we recorded I think in mid-December and with podcasts you never know when they'll go live so I had to sit on this news, which was torture. I didn't want to tell you about it until it became a thing. Then, this week, just this past week that would be around February 6th and 7th I woke up and saw this huge spike in downloads for my podcast and a surge in website traffic and I thought, oh, what's going on here? And it turned out that Krista had dropped that episode and I shouldn't be astonished at Krista's reach. But it's huge, it really is. So for that I am so grateful.

Natalie Zett:

The experience of talking to Krista Cowan she's warm, knowledgeable, gracious and, like all of the genealogists I should say the professional genealogists that I have worked with or have been influenced by she treated my family, in this case the extended Eastland disaster family as if it was her family. What I felt from her was the warmth, the care and also the concern about the history of the people of the Eastland. Thank you, krista, for that. I appreciate that more than I can ever possibly express. And so there's a lot of new listeners as of this morning and I want to welcome you. Thank you for all those downloads.

Natalie Zett:

And I want you to know too that this podcast isn't just about my book and my family Right now. It's about telling the stories of all these other families and individuals who were affected by the Eastland disaster and what I have found in my deep research that there are so many who have been largely forgotten and indeed were in danger of being permanently forgotten unless somebody did something about this, forgotten unless somebody did something about this. So I do this because many of the quote unquote official narratives are incomplete. They leave out a lot of other people and stories. And the other thing about this podcast I'm doing this research in real time. I feel this urgency and I go with that type of prodding, that inner prodding and intuition. And what I realized when I expanded my research into telling stories of the other people of the Eastland is that the more time that passes, the more of this information is going to be lost, because so much has been lost already. And that also informs my own urgency with wanting to get this information out there as quickly as I can.

Natalie Zett:

So every episode that I share with you pretty much is a first pass at uncovering stories but also documenting where I got this information from. That's one of the biggest things that has been missing from so many of the so-called official narratives about the Eastland disaster and what I do. Then I'll go back onto my website, fill in the gaps, correct any mistakes and prepare everything for permanent archival. In my case, it's going to go to the University of Minnesota, and the other thing I do for each one of these people is I create a family tree for them. I haven't yet published those with the bios that I have of these people, but I will do so. I just want to make sure that those two are checked for any errors or missing source citations.

Natalie Zett:

My family and most of the people who were aboard the Eastland were either working-class immigrants themselves or first-generation immigrants, largely from Eastern and Central Europe and Southern Europe too a lot of Italian people as well, and these are not the same types of people groups of people that were largely aboard the Titanic. Comparing the Eastland with the Titanic okay, they're ships, but they don't have much in common. I'm not sure why people instead haven't compared the Eastland with the General Slocum disaster. Those groups had much more in common with one another, and it is unfortunately true that certain groups of people don't get as much attention as others do in the society, and we do have to advocate for ourselves and for our history.

Natalie Zett:

So I started off my career in high school as a journalist, so that's lots of decades, okay. And I did this long before I became a genealogist, and for much of my early journalist career I was an investigative type of person. I uncovered some stuff and it was like whoa, and I've moved away from that. But what I've learned along the way is that a lot of what's considered history in fact is not properly sourced, and you'll hear a term called reasonably exhaustive research, and that's important in this case. Sometimes I can't get to the original source, but I can at least point you to the various sources that I have found that seem to echo each other Not that they're direct copies of each other, but they seem to corroborate what is being told. And the other superpower in all of this is looking at an individual's family tree, looking at where they lived, looking at their friends, their associates, their neighbors as well, and that's a nice segue that will lead me into another magical moment that took place in December 2024, and it's about Elizabeth Schoen Mills. If you know genealogy, you know Krista Cowan and you certainly know who Elizabeth Schoen Mills is, goodness knows.

Natalie Zett:

I talk a lot about Elizabeth in these podcasts, but for those who are new, you probably already know that Elizabeth Schoen Mills is widely regarded as one of the foremost authorities on genealogical research methodology and she has played a major role in shaping the genealogical proof standard and has set the benchmark for proper source citation, evidence analysis and rigorous research practices. Her book Evidence Explained is considered the gold standard for citing resources and evaluating evidence in genealogy, and she's also influenced countless genealogists through her work with the Board for Certification of Genealogists, bcg, and her seminars, articles and webinars. So what happened was through Legacy Family Tree Webinars. That's a site that has family history genealogy webinars highly recommended, by the way.

Natalie Zett:

So what happened with Elizabeth Schoen Mills is that the person who's running Legacy Family Tree Webinars was able to coax her out of retirement and for two years she was giving once a month webinars and I attended most of those and they coincided with the work I was doing on the people of the Eastland disaster. How about that for a synchronicity? And taking these seminars each month, they have given me more and more tools and guidelines and a lens and all that sort of thing, and her methods have completely shaped the way I approach not just the Eastland disaster research but my own family tree research and the people who I assist in uncovering their own family history, because I do a fair amount of that as well. And at the conclusion of each one of those monthly webinars I would often feel like, oh my God, do I not know anything about this stuff? But that is the sign of a good teacher as well. They really challenge you and they'll say this is great, but this is not enough. You really need to level up and you do if you stick with it and history, our families and in my case this huge extended family that was affected by the Eastland disaster, they deserve the best we can bring to the story. So at the end of those two years and that was toward the end of 2024.

Natalie Zett:

I missed the live session, the live training with Elizabeth, unfortunately, and the other thing, I missed the deadline to submit a thank you message for her final seminar and I was so disappointed. But then I thought why not just email her? Well, I did a little searching, I found her email address and I told her about how her work was helping me fill in all these gaps for the people who were affected by the Eastland disaster. So I told her about the work I have been doing to document these lost or underreported stories via my podcast and I told her how her lectures have guided me and shown me where I really need to get better. Here's the thing. It's an important part of who I am to express sincere gratitude and give credit to people who have helped me. It's just the thing that I do. I've realized, sadly as I've gone on in life, that not everybody does that, but I do.

Natalie Zett:

And when I wrote to Elizabeth I thought I hope that she gets that email. I wasn't sure that she would and I had no expectation that she would respond, but I just wanted her to know how much her work has not just helped me, but it's helped this history. So do you think she wrote back to me? She did and I'll tell you. When I saw that email come across, I widened my eyes and I thought pinch me, I cannot believe this. And the conversation I'll keep between us.

Natalie Zett:

I'm not going to share the details of it, but the nice thing is that both she and Krista Cowan know what I've been trying to do with the people of the Eastland, with all the people of the Eastland, all the families who were affected by this. Sometimes it's just important to know that somebody knows what you're trying to do and, as I've also said many, many times, I see myself as a curator or a conduit. But this podcast isn't about me. It's about the lost history of the people of the Eastland disaster, and these are people who should have had their stories told long ago, and I'm just here to try to make sure that that happens, person by person, community by community. And so here we are, 100 episodes later, a lot more to do, but that's all right. So now it's time to switch gears. So now it's time to switch gears and as 2024 came to a close, something new started happening.

Natalie Zett:

I began hearing from more people Mostly they were listeners who were also researchers and history buffs and they reached out asking about my process, my discoveries and my recommendations. One question that kept coming up was how is it you were able to uncover all this information when the bigger organizations seem to have missed that? I don't know and I am not trying to be coy with that I really don't know, because the information is out there and it's fairly easy to access. To answer the question of how do I keep finding these missing people? Well, part of it is magic, but that magic is accompanied by solid research skills, which I continue to improve upon, continue to improve upon. My background as a journalist taught me how to be very relentless when I'm looking for something and to be skeptical and to question given narratives. And those skills being thorough, persistent and knowing where to look still continue to serve me well today. Still continue to serve me well today.

Natalie Zett:

So let's go under the hood. I want to share some of the resources that I use to give you some ideas of how you might be able to use them, and they're useful not just for Eastland disaster research, but for anyone uncovering hidden history on their own family's past. Of course, a lot of this will be exclusively centered around Chicago, but hopefully it'll spark some ideas for you too. This podcast wouldn't be what it is without the many free resources that are available online, and these have helped me bring so many forgotten voices to light. Let me emphasize, too, that this work hasn't cost me very much at all beyond the time it takes to do it. You don't need a ton of money to do meaningful research. You really don't, at least the first pass through. You just need access to the right tools and a good internet connection. Right, and I'm not based in Chicago, which is challenging. I'll admit that if I were in Chicago, I keep thinking of all the people I could annoy at the Newberry or the Chicago Public Library, but I have to politely pester them from afar at this point.

Natalie Zett:

Okay, here are some of the resources I use. Are some of the resources I use? The first resource that I go to when I'm looking for people is generally Find a Grave. As of this moment and that would be February 2025, find a Grave has done more to document the Eastland victims than any single source. Yes, not every entry is cited perfectly or properly, but it's getting better all the time and, honestly, if you see something is not properly cited or the source of information is not woman called Jennifer I don't know what her last name is and that's okay, but you might know her for her Instagram identity as posts in the graveyard and she also has this incredible website and she documents the graves in various Chicago cemeteries with detailed, cited and professional-level storytelling. I tell you, when I first started reading Jennifer's entries in Posts in the Graveyard, I thought, wow, this woman doesn't just have incredible storytelling skills, she also backs up everything with source citations so you can find out where she originally got the information.

Natalie Zett:

And the other two institutions that have been invaluable for me are the Chicago Public Library and the Newberry Library. I've gotten to know people there, and both institutions have been fantastic at tracking down obscure newspaper clippings and archival materials for me. And also, too, if you don't know it, the Newberry has a digital collection dedicated to the Eastland disaster. Keep checking them frequently because they're making additions all the time, and they also have a sister site called chicagoancestorsorg, where they have a lot of information, too, about Chicago in general from that time period and earlier, and I've been able to cross-reference a lot of the information on that site along with the research I'm doing. Chicagoancestorsorg was where I found a lone woman mortician, listed amongst the morticians who cared for the Eastland disaster victims. How about that? And that discovery led me to create an entire episode devoted to this woman's life as well as to the history of women morticians at the turn of the 20th century. Who knew? Now, at least I do.

Natalie Zett:

Another source where you do need to be a member is the Chicago Genealogical Society. Their archives and their magazines contain stories that you won't find elsewhere. I have found a lot of information there about families affected by the Eastland, and through them I connected with a woman whose grandfather was a rescuer during the Eastland disaster, and it was a story not recorded anywhere else that I could find, but I was able to contact her, get her permission to share her story, and she even shared a family photo with me of her rescuer granddad. It was awesome. The next one is the Bohemian National Cemetery, and they have not only a dedicated Eastland memorial, but they also have extensive records and have provided crucial information on many of the victims and their families. They have a very involved group, friends of Bohemian National Cemetery, and they've even published a book detailing their own cemetery's history, which is awesome.

Natalie Zett:

Another resource is FamilySearchorg, a free genealogical resource operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints, that's, the LDS Church. It is one of the largest genealogy organizations in the world and provides access to billions of historical records, family trees and research tools, all for free. The LDS Church has a long history of preserving genealogical records, family search houses, user-submitted books that often contain firsthand accounts and family histories related to the Eastland disaster. I have found a number of stories that way as well, and to the best of my knowledge, these stories have not been told elsewhere, and the other one an oldie but goodie. Well, two oldies but goodies are Google Books and Hathatrust. Rolls off the tongue, doesn't it? Anyway, google Books, especially when used with advanced search techniques, has turned up countless rare texts and periodicals, and Hathatrust is another one of those incredible repositories for digitized historical books and documents. Needless to say, I have found all sorts of information with those two resources. Another more recent one that I found is the Allen County Public Library and PERSEE, that's, the Periodical Source Index. Persee is a treasure trove of genealogical and historical periodicals, many of which are digitized elsewhere.

Natalie Zett:

And there's the challenge, however. The Percy database led me to an article from none other than the Concordia Historical Institute detailing Grace Lutheran Church's experience in the Eastland disaster. Now, this was one of the few resources where I had to pay a nominal fee in order to get it, but it was worth it. Here's the weird thing I did find snippets of information that were obviously taken from that article, but there was no attribution for that article. So I serendipitously there's that word again found it through Percy and was able to get to the source that way. And the other one I should mention too is the Wayback Machine and the Internet Archive. I have found old websites that were devoted to the Eastland disaster. Earlier versions of those websites and a lot of those websites have come and gone and they did an incredible service to the Eastland disaster, but they're all but lost.

Natalie Zett:

Another major discovery came from the Illinois Digital Library. Until I found their archives here's the thing I didn't know how deeply the Jewish community in Chicago was affected by the Eastland disaster. That was not documented anywhere that I could find, by the Eastland disaster. That was not documented anywhere that I could find, and not sure why. But I decided, okay, it's time to share that information. And I got at least three episodes of information from this publication which was called the Sentinel. So the Sentinel, which was also known as the Jewish Sentinel, was a prominent weekly newspaper serving Chicago's Jewish community from 1911 until around 1996.

Natalie Zett:

So I hope all of this information inspires you and helps you to feel encouraged if you're running into any brick walls, which we always do when it comes to history or family history. Just to let you know that the information is probably out there, but it might take some work to find it. And I want to thank Krista Cowan again for a golden opportunity to be a guest on her marvelous podcast Stories that Live In Us and given me such an opportunity to talk about the history of the people of the Eastland disaster. Thank you, krista. Thank you to Elizabeth Schoenmills for all you've done to elevate the field of genealogy and family history. And did you know? Elizabeth was first of all trained as a historian and she's also a fiction writer. Apparently, there's no end to her talents and abilities.

Natalie Zett:

Next week, we will talk about a number of things, including the case of the missing grave markers. Yes, indeed, I've already done a short video about that, but I need to expand upon it to share more complete information with you, so stay tuned for that. So, for all of you new listeners I hope you keep coming back, but I want to welcome you and for longtime listeners, thank you so much for being with me on this journey and, in the meantime, take care of yourselves, take care of everybody else and I will talk to you soon. Hey, that's it for this episode and thanks for coming along for the ride. Please subscribe or follow so you can keep up with all the episodes, and for more information, please go to my website, that's wwwflowerintherivercom. I hope you'll consider buying my book, available as audiobook, ebook, paperback and hardcover, because I still owe people money and that's my running joke. But the one thing I'm serious about is that this podcast and my book are dedicated to the memory of all who experienced the Eastland disaster of 1915. Goodbye for now.

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