A part of my pathway

Good Morning, My name is Kerry Bailey. I was born and raised on the southwest side of Chicago, IL, USA some 58 yrs ago. I have been a widow for 17 yrs. I have two daughters who were 5 and 9 when my husband died unexpectedly in 1992 while he was away on business. This was not my first loss. I had one other daughter, Cassandra Jewell, who we lost in 1984 at three and half months old following open heart surgery due to congestive heart failure. My two daughters and one 3 year old grandson now live with me in Lakewood, WI.

My love for history as I think about it began when I was just a young girl. I spent many hours with my father who grew up during the depression and prohibition in Chicago near 55th and Halsted in the Visitation Church Parish. He spent some of his growing years living with extended family next door to the great Chicago mayor, Mayor Richard Daley, Sr. (Hence my connection to the political world) My dad, Timothy J. O’Connor, IV, (Doc) walked and talked the history of Chicago as if he’d been a part of so many historic events. He may very well have. I don’t know for sure, but he knew a lot and taught me a lot.

Jumping ahead a few years, I was working on a project that frequently took me to the archives in Cook County and Chicago. A friend of mine, Snack, asked if I could find her mother. (Oh, Maggie Mae where are you? A book I plan to write someday) I did, with sad results. I learned that her mother, whom I had only met once or twice had died a few years earlier. Snack never got to know her mother growing up. As I found during the research, each girl child was raised by their respective grandmother or aunt. In her case it was sometimes both. This was the case in at least three generations before her, going back to Ireland.

While researching for my friend Snacks mom, it was brought to my attention that her mother had married a man, John Quadbach, who had been a taxi driver. He borrowed money from Margaret O’Rourke, prior to their marriage, to open and run a nightclub, The Granada Café. It was located on the southeast side of Chicago near 86th and Calumet Street. It took me a while, but what history I found about this Café to this day could become a fantastic historic book and movie. I have a large collection of court and vital record papers, notes to prove its ownership and the wild things that occurred there. The days of prohibition, J. Edgar Hoover’s men knocking on the door to close the Café down, the mob shooting of a prominent mob members gang, that was heard on live radio, to the time that Guy Lombardo and his brothers became well known at this Café, not in New York as some think. They were performing live on-air on WMAQ Chicago radio when the gang member was shot. There is more of this historic time in my head and on paper so I won’t go into it all here.

Moving ahead here. Home computers were only a thought at the time and luckily my late husband was a wizard. He worked for Illinois Bell Telephone Co., as a middle manager whose job it was to develop and oversee the installation of what many have for years used to call from state to state, country to country. He worked on the development of 911 and prior to his employment with IL Bell, a part of the navigation system for Apollo 11.

By the late 1980’s I had already started researching my late husband’s family, the Bailey’s. At the time Symphony and DOS were the only programs available. With his knowledge he wrote a software program for me to use, which was probably one of the few first family tree programs. I joined Prodigy.com, one of the first website server’s used by genealogist. Through Prodigy I met many researchers including Myra Vander Poole Gormely and Julia Case, both prominent in the field of genealogy and Alvie Davidson, a Private Investigator and avid genealogist. By 1991 I also met a small group of researchers whose ancestors were also from the southeastern states of Virginia and Kentucky, with Kentucky being my focus. Becoming more frustrated that there was very little information available and my husband was away again for business, I packed up my two daughters and headed south to Eastern Kentucky. This was the start of a new beginning. We found ourselves traveling the major highway and into remote one and two lane roads. That is another story that goes in there but will hold onto that one for another time.

Once we arrived at our destination, the Town of Campton, in Wolfe County, we found ourselves in the county library which is no more than the size of a small bedroom. We were greeted by the librarian who helped me find and go through the oldest known records to find proof that the Bailey’s did live there. You see, the Bailey’s to this day, have had a habit of moving a lot. They not only lived in Wolfe County, but also in Breathitt and other U.S. states before my connection finally landed in Oconto County in northeastern Wisconsin.

Upon our return from our research trip to Wolfe and Breathitt Counties, I wrote to my friends on Prodigy’s Eastern Ky board, that whoever could within a few weeks time, meet in KY so we could all research to our hearts content. The replies were outstanding but sadly, none could pack up quick enough nor get their mobile homes packed fast enough to head to KY. A few of the researchers suggested that we plan to meet the following year when everyone could save up enough to make the trip. This was the beginning of where and what I started to become known as The Eastern Ky Searchers Seminar. After more discussion and offerings to help organize the group, a small group of us headed by myself and Angie Turner of Dayton, OH, ran with the idea of recruiting speakers and vendors. What started out to be a handful of us on Prodigy turned into almost 100 who attended the first Seminar and over 20 major vendor’s. The Seminar lasted for a few more years. We lost a few of our members over the years due to distance and their passing on. Following each years Seminar and suggested locations by attendee’s, my daughters and I would travel to one or two of the locations to scout out the accommodations and closeness to record holdings. Our goal was to bring the Seminar to various county locations where attendee’s interest in vital records and resources were their focus.

We saw a lot of Eastern Kentucky over the years. Our most memorable was our time in Frankfort. Mine was at the State Historical Society records room and for all us the old book store across from the Society. I enjoyed meeting all of the friends I had made through Prodigy. Another was meeting one of our long lost long distant relatives, David Smith, President of the Knott County Historical Society in Hindman, KY. Meeting David is another story in of itself as well. Another was the darkened one lane road tunnel on Hwy. 11 from Morehead to Campton. Meeting Myra and Julia is a time I will never forget. It was great fun and yet, a learning experience too. They both taught me things that has to date, helped me in my researching process.

Prior to and following the years after the Searchers Seminars I continued to do my own research and expanded into doing it for others privately and as a volunteer. As an independent contractor I worked for a weekly newspaper as an editor and photographer for three publications under the direction of its owner, Arlene Nick, in Batavia, IL. The paper was sold and within a year or so Ms. Nick passed away. (Another life experience)
During the mid to late 1990’s economic downturn and with my experience of organizing the Seminar people in the Batavia area were without jobs. I organized a Job Fair which brought people and their resumes from far and wide, and in and out of state.

I have had a wide variety of positions from a board of director in not-for-profit groups, an editor, a sales rep, an organizer, and, of course, a cook and bottle washer.

Some day down the road I hope to continue the story of my pathway that started some 58 years ago.

11-15-09/1:48 p.m.