52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #1 - Mae Hazel Follett

Mae Follett ca. 1910

This is #1 in a Genealogy Blog Challenge issued by Amy Johnson Crow over on her blog "No Story Too Small." The challenge is to write 52 blog posts on 52 ancestors through out 2014.

Mae Hazel Follett was born on the 25th of May, 1893 in Chicago, IL to immigrant parents. She was christened at St. John's Evangelist Church six months later. Her father, Charles, was from England, and her mother, Nora Sullivan, was from Ireland. The second of three daughters, Mae was only 5 years old when her father died of pneumonia in November 1898. At the time they were living on the 3000 block of South Canal Street in Chicago. 

By 1910, Mae, her older sister Sarah Ellen, her younger sister Catherine (Kitty) and her mother were living on 31st street in Chicago with their mother.  Mae was working as a Hair Dresser.

Mae with her sons (from Left to Right)
Edward Jr., Francis, and Gordon. ca 1922

In 1914, Mae married Edward Michael Donnelly, an Irish immigrant, at the Church of the Holy Angels on January 31st. Due to a quirk in the law, Mae lost the U.S. Citizenship she was born with because she married a non-citizen! She didn't get her citizenship back until 1936 when both she and Edward naturalized.

Mae and Edward moved to the South Shore neighborhood of Chicago where they started a family.  Mae had 4 children. Her first three children were boys, Edward Jr., Gordon, and Francis, and her last was a daughter named Dorothy.  Mae was a stay-at-home mother, as was normal in that era.

 They lived on Cottage Grove Ave on the South Side of Chicago for the remainder of their lives.  Edward passed away in 1951. Her son Edward Jr. died in 1964.  Mae soon followed and passed away on October 12, 1964.

Mae is my great-grandmother. Her son, Gordon, is my maternal grandfather.

Mae Follett Donnelly ca. 1960

*Blog post updated 1/10/14 to include picture of Mae with her sons.