Case Study · Part II of the Hamall Family Series · Riverside, Illinois

The Three Thomas Hamalls

Three Generations, One Cottage

In 1911 Thomas Henry Hamall bought a lot on Lionel Road in Riverside, Illinois, and built a one-room cottage with money borrowed from his mother. He kept it through four years of litigation that ended in the Supreme Court of Illinois. His son gave it as his address when his own marriage came apart in 1940, and his grandson remembered Saturdays there for the rest of his life. By the time the research began, no one in the family knew where it had stood.

1 9 1 1 – 1 9 4 9

3 Generations

1 Cottage

4 Years in Court

38 Years on the Record

Irish & Irish-American Research›The Three Thomas Hamalls

The cottage at 291 Lionel Road, Riverside, Illinois, from the family's Riverside House envelope

The Challenge

A Cottage Without an Address

The family had a son’s memories and a few photographs in an envelope marked “Riverside House.” It had no address, no deed and no will.

Thomas Kenny Hamall (1932–2010) remembered Saturday visits to his father at a cottage in Riverside, a dog in a chair in the yard that had to be left behind, and a trip to Washington in 1947 that he called pivotal. In 1998 he went back to Riverside with his wife, Barbara, to find it. After his death the envelope passed through Barbara to their daughter, who is the researcher.

What the Family Had

Saturday visits to his father at “Riverside,” when he was eight or nine.

A dog left behind when his mother took him to Miami.

The envelope: the cottage, his father with the dog in a lawn chair, and the same dog in the same chair.

Two photographs at the U.S. Capitol, one dated 1947 on the back.

Three Men, One Name

Generation	Lived
Thomas Henry Hamall	1880–1938
Thomas Eugene Hamall, his son	1904–1967
Thomas Kenny Hamall, his grandson	1932–2010

What Stood in the Way

Two divorces. Each son was a small boy when his parents parted, in 1907 and about 1941.

No address. Nothing in the family’s papers named the street.

No deed, no will. No transfer from father to son was found in the county records.

Distance. From 1942 the youngest Thomas grew up in Miami, more than a thousand miles from Riverside.

Researcher’s Note

Three men carry the same name. Every record on these pages was tied to the right Thomas by birth year, parents and address, never by the name alone.

Hamall v. Petru, 331 Ill. 465 (1928), Illinois Supreme Court Reports

The Method

Reading the Records Behind the Story

A search for a deed found nothing. A lawsuit the family half remembered held the address, the price, the builder’s loan and the date.

The opinion of the Supreme Court of Illinois in Hamall v. Petru was read in full, and it did not tell the story the family told. Thomas Henry was the complainant, suing to undo a deed he had made himself. Every later record was read the same way: for what it states, who supplied it, and what it cannot say.

The Records

Supreme Court of Illinois, 25 October 1928 Lot bought 20 February 1911 for $300. Cottage finished that August with $400 from his mother, Kate, and $250 from others. Held to be his homestead, beyond the reach of a $2,500 support judgment. Court opinion

WWI draft registration, 1918 Thomas Henry Hamall at 291 Lionel Road, Riverside, seven years after the purchase. Government record

Riverside News, 2 May 1929 A village permit to Thomas H. Hamall for “alterations at 291 Lionel road,” the spring after the decision. Newspaper

WWII draft registration, 16 October 1940 Thomas Eugene Hamall’s Chicago address struck out and 291 Lionel Road typed over it. His wife is listed at her parents’ home. Government record

Riverside News, 29 September 1949 The village assessment roll lists Emma E. Hamall, Thomas Eugene’s mother, on the west half of Lot 212, Block 1, Riverside Second Division. Tax roll

Family photographs, 1922–1947 Graded one case at a time: what each photograph establishes, what it is consistent with, and what it cannot show. Photo analysis

Researcher’s Note

Two people photographed separately in the same place have not been shown to be there together. A photograph can prove a place or an object far more often than it can prove company.

WWII draft registration of Thomas Eugene Hamall, 16 October 1940, with 291 Lionel Road typed over his Chicago address

The Result

Three Men, One Lot

The cottage is on the record in the family’s hands from 1911 to 1949. Each generation’s tie to it rests on a different kind of evidence.

Thomas Henry bought it, lived in it and kept it. His son claimed it as his residence in 1940. His grandson’s memories are borne out where the records reach them and graded where they do not. The cottage itself is gone: the house on the lot today was built in 1989.

Where Each Finding Stands

ProvenThomas Henry bought the lot in 1911 and built the cottage with his mother’s loan

ProvenThe cottage was his homestead, held beyond Emma’s $2,500 judgment (1928)

ProvenThomas Eugene gave 291 Lionel Road as his residence in October 1940

ProvenEmma E. Hamall assessed on the cottage lot in 1949

ProvenFather and son at the U.S. Capitol in 1947

SuggestiveSaturday visits at the cottage, 1940–41: the son’s memory, the father’s residence, and photographs of the same dog, chair and yard

SuggestiveThomas Eugene at his father’s 1922 wedding

SuggestiveEmmett Holland, Thomas Eugene’s first cousin, as the second man at the Capitol

ExploringHow the cottage passed from Thomas Henry to Emma between 1938 and 1949

What the Opinion Changed

The family remembered Emma suing to take the cottage. The opinion tells a more tangled story. In 1914 Thomas deeded the property in trust for his son and kept a life estate. In 1924 Emma won a $2,500 judgment for unpaid support, and the chancellor ordered the trustee to convey the cottage back to Thomas. Thomas then sued to cancel the 1914 deed, and won. The court found a cottage worth less than $1,000 and a homestead the judgment could not reach.

Open Research Questions

How did the cottage pass after Thomas Henry’s death in 1938, and when did the family let it go? Who lived there between 1942 and 1949? Was the second man at the Capitol Emmett Holland or his brother Edward? A Cook County grantor and grantee search for 1938 to 1950 is the next step.

Full Methodology →

The full methodology sets out the court case as the opinion records it, the address trail from 1932 to 1949, how each photograph was graded, how the records were weighed, where they conflict, and what is still open. Every record is reproduced in the document gallery.

Full Methodology Document Gallery Timeline

The Series

Six posts follow the people behind the records: the lawsuit, the photographs, the man nobody has named, and the shape of a family that came close to ending.

Part 1 The Property War Four years of litigation to the Supreme Court of Illinois over a one-room house, read from the decision itself. Part 2 They Were Never Photographed Together What forensic photographic analysis can prove when the subjects were captured in separate frames, and what it cannot. Part 3 The Mystery Man A second man at the Capitol in 1947, the best name the evidence supports, and the brother it cannot rule out. Part 4 Mothers and Sons Three generations of mothers keeping house with their sons: not dependence, but an economic survival strategy in working-class America. Part 5 The Father Who Tried Thomas Eugene Hamall’s twenty-three years of rebuilding, and what the record shows about the son he was said to have left. Part 6 Three Generations of Shrinking and Expanding From Kate’s six children to a single surviving thread and back again: how child mortality and one marriage shaped a family line.

This case study is dedicated to Thomas Kenny Hamall (1932–2010), who kept the one photograph of his grandfather, remembered one pivotal trip, and held on to Riverside. Because he did not let it go, there was something to find.

Does Your Family Have a Story Like This?

Fragments of memory, a few photographs, a place nobody can find any more. Court opinions, draft cards and small-town newspapers often hold what deeds and wills do not. If your family has a story waiting for its records, I would be glad to hear it.

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