A Court Opinion, a Draft Card and a Tax Roll
How a cottage that no family paper named was found, and how each generation’s tie to it was weighed: the order the records turned up, what each one states and who supplied it, how the photographs were graded, where the evidence conflicts, and what is still open.
Irish & Irish-American Research›The Three Thomas Hamalls›Full Methodology
The Research Question
Did three men named Thomas Hamall, each parted from his son by divorce, keep a tie to one cottage in Riverside, Illinois, and what does the record say about each man’s connection to it?
This is the researcher’s own family. Thomas Kenny Hamall was her father, Thomas Eugene her grandfather and Thomas Henry her great-grandfather. The starting material was her father’s: his memories of Saturday visits and a dog, a 1947 trip to Washington he called pivotal, his return to Riverside with her mother in 1998, an interview recorded for the Kennesaw State University Archives, and an envelope marked “Riverside House” that came to her through her mother after his death in 2010.
The first question asked was whether Thomas Eugene had owned property in Riverside. It was too narrow. Ownership would not explain why a cottage mattered to three generations, and no deed from father to son could be found. The question was widened from title to connection: where each man lived, where he was photographed, and what each record he left says about the place.
How the Research Unfolded
The address came from a lawsuit. Everything after it was read against that address.
The three men
Work on the Hamall line began with marriage records, and vital records and censuses fixed the three men apart: Thomas Henry (7 May 1880 – 28 January 1938), Thomas Eugene (23 November 1904 – 1967) and Thomas Kenny (21 July 1932 – 2010). The 1920 census lists Thomas Eugene as “Thomas Hepp,” under his stepfather’s surname, in his mother’s household.
The court case
A web search on the surname led to the published opinion in Hamall v. Petru, 331 Ill. 465. It supplied what no family paper had: the address, 291 Lionel Road, with the date of purchase, the price, what the cottage cost to build and who lent the money. Read in full, it also showed that the family’s account of the case had the parties the wrong way round (Step Three).
Draft cards and the address trail
With an address to test, Thomas Henry’s WWI draft registration placed him at 291 Lionel Road in 1918. Thomas Eugene’s WWII registration of 16 October 1940 showed his Chicago address struck out and the cottage typed over it. His son’s 1932 birth certificate, a 1939 First Communion keepsake and the 1940 census filled in the household’s moves before and after (Step Four).
The photographs
The envelope prints, two photographs at a Riverside bridge from the early 1920s and two at the U.S. Capitol from 1947 were compared for shared elements. Each claim the family made for them was then graded separately (Step Five).
The village newspaper
The digitized Riverside News, 1912 to 1963, held by the Riverside Public Library, returned the surname twice. On 2 May 1929 the paper printed April’s building permits, among them one to Thomas H. Hamall for alterations at 291 Lionel Road. On 29 September 1949 it printed the village assessment roll, which lists Emma E. Hamall on the west half of Lot 212, Block 1, Riverside Second Division: the cottage lot.
The Court Case, Read From the Opinion
Hamall v. Petru, No. 18255, 331 Ill. 465, 163 N.E. 338. Opinion filed 25 October 1928, on appeal from the Circuit Court of Cook County, Judge Ira Ryner presiding. The opinion of Commissioner Crow was adopted by the court and the decree affirmed. Charles V. Falkenberg appeared for the appellants and Henry F. Antes for the appellees.
In the family’s telling, Emma sued to take the cottage and Thomas fought her off. The opinion shows Thomas as the complainant, suing to undo his own deed of trust for his son once Emma’s judgment had been entered. The family remembered the conflict correctly and its shape wrongly. The record, not the memory, is followed on these pages.
Counsel argued a question of law about property worth more than the exemption. The court declined to reach it: “The record does not require a decision of the question argued.” The decree was affirmed on the facts found below. The case is evidence about this family and this cottage, and these pages make no larger claim for it.
The Address Trail, 1918 to 1950
A household that moved is easier to follow than one that stayed put, provided every address is tied to a date.
| Date | Record | What it places where |
|---|---|---|
| 1918 | WWI draft registration | Thomas Henry Hamall, 291 Lionel Road, Riverside |
| April 1929 | Riverside News, 2 May 1929, p. 1 | Permit to Thomas H. Hamall for alterations at 291 Lionel Road |
| 1930 | U.S. census | Thomas Eugene with his mother, Emma, at 4506 N. McVicker Avenue, Chicago, before his marriage that June |
| 21 July 1932 | Thomas Kenny’s birth certificate | Parents at 4869 N. Ashland Avenue, Chicago, the home of Margaret’s parents |
| 1936 – 1938 | Holland household (series Part 3, The Mystery Man) | Thomas Henry, widowed in 1936, with his sister and her sons at 2639 S. Ridgeway, Chicago |
| 1939 | First Communion keepsake | “Ashland” crossed out; 33 N. Menard written in |
| 1 April 1940 | U.S. census | Thomas Eugene, Margaret and Thomas Kenny, 7, at 33 N. Menard Avenue, Chicago |
| 16 October 1940 | WWII draft registration | Thomas Eugene: 4869 N. Ashland struck out, 291 Lionel Road, Riverside typed over it. Contact: Margaret Catherine Hamall, 4869 N. Ashland |
| 1945 | Florida state census | Thomas Kenny with his mother in Miami |
| 1949 | Riverside News, 29 September 1949, p. 15 | Emma E. Hamall assessed on the west half of Lot 212, Block 1, Riverside Second Division |
| 1950 | U.S. census | Thomas Eugene with his mother, Emma, in Miami-Dade County, Florida |
What the 1940 card shows
Between the census in April and the registration in October, the household on Menard Avenue broke up. Margaret is listed at her parents’ address; Thomas Eugene gave the cottage as his own. A residence on a draft registration was supplied by the registrant, in person, so the typed-over address is his statement, made in the months his household changed. The marriage ended in divorce about 1941, and in 1942 Margaret took their son to her parents in Miami. Thomas Eugene stayed in Illinois until 1949 or 1950.
The cottage lot
The west half of Lot 212, Block 1, Riverside Second Division, Section 36, Township 39 North, Range 12; 40 by 217 feet. The description comes from the property’s current legal description and agrees with the 1949 roll, where the land was valued at 1191 and the improvements at 1136. The house on the lot today was built in 1989; the cottage is gone.
An assessment roll shows who was taxed, not who lived there. A modern legal description can overlap an older one, so the plat dates for Lot 212 still need checking.
The Photographs, Graded One Claim at a Time
A photograph can prove a place or an object. It can rarely prove that two people photographed separately were there together.
| Case | Established | Consistent with | Not established | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The bridge early 1920s |
Both prints show the same Olmsted bridge in Riverside. The reverse of one is marked “Thomas E Hamall,” and his apparent age fits. | Paper stock and print style of the early 1920s, a range rather than a year | That the son attended his father’s 1922 wedding. The prints do not show the two men together or on one day. | Suggestive |
| The dog 1940 – 41 |
The same dog (markings, ear set, collar), the same chair and the same yard in both prints, from an envelope labelled “Riverside House” in a 1940s hand. | A date of 1940 to 1941, from clothing and the father’s documented residence; the son’s memories of Saturday visits and a dog left behind | Shared presence. Thomas Kenny appears in neither print, and a dog cannot place a person anywhere. | Suggestive |
| The Capitol 1947 |
Both prints show the same balustrade and dome from the same angle. One is dated 1947 on the back. | The ages fit, 15 and 42. Light and coats suggest the same season and time of day. The son’s own account places the visit at Easter vacation, 1947. | The journey. Thomas Eugene was living in the Chicago area, about 700 miles away; how and when he travelled is not recorded. | Proven the visit |
| The second man 1947 |
A second photograph at the Capitol shows Thomas Eugene with a man not named on the print. | Emmett John Holland (1909–1998), his first cousin: both men in the Chicago area, age 38, ear and face structure consistent across photographs of 1927, 1947 and 1968 | Emmett’s presence in Washington. His brother Edward Francis Holland (born 1906) shared the household and cannot be ruled out; no photograph of Edward has been found. | Suggestive |
Find a shared element. Verify it independently. Date conservatively. Argue against your own conclusion. Corroborate from a different kind of source. Publish the grade for each claim, not for the photograph as a whole.
The 1922 Cook County marriage return of Thomas Henry and Margaret A., which names the witnesses, for the bridge. A photograph of Edward Holland, from a yearbook, draft card, wedding or obituary, for the second man. The Saturday visits rest on the son’s memory and his father’s 1940 residence; no further record of them is expected.
How the Records Were Weighed
Each record answers some questions well and others badly. What it can be trusted for depends on who supplied each line, and when.
| Record | Who supplied the information | Trusted for | Used with care for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Supreme Court opinion | The court, from the trial record and testimony below | Dates, sums, deeds and parties, as found and affirmed | Anything the case did not need to decide; it records what was proved in court, not the whole of a family’s life |
| Draft registrations | The registrant, in person, to a local registrar | Residence on the day; birth date; the person to contact | The reason behind a change of address, which the card does not give |
| Censuses | Whoever answered the enumerator, not named | Who lived together, and where, on a date | Ages; surnames given for children (“Thomas Hepp,” 1920) |
| Birth and death certificates | Parents or physician at a birth; an informant or institution at a death | Date and place of the event; parents’ address at a birth | Secondhand details on death certificates, such as parents’ birthplaces |
| Newspaper permit lists | The village’s permit record, as printed | That a permit was issued, to whom, and for which address | Whether the work was done, and who lived there |
| Assessment rolls | The village assessor | Who was taxed on which parcel, and the values | Residence; legal descriptions that shift between plats |
| Photographs | The camera, with labels added by the family, sometimes later | Places, objects and the people in the frame | Who else was there, and on which day, unless the print is dated |
| Oral history | Thomas Kenny Hamall, firsthand, decades after the events | What he experienced and what it meant to him | Dates, distances and addresses, each tested against the records |
Where records disagree, the one made closest to the event by the person best placed to know is preferred, and the disagreement is recorded rather than smoothed over. A memory that the records bear out is reported as borne out; a memory the records cannot reach is reported as a memory.
Conflicts in the Record and How They Were Weighed
Who sued whom
The record saysFamily tradition: Emma sued to seize the cottage. The 1928 opinion: Thomas sued to cancel his own 1914 deed of trust after Emma’s judgment, and Emma appealed.
WeighedThe opinion, made from the trial record, stands. The tradition kept the quarrel and lost its order.
How the cottage passed in 1938
The record saysTradition: Thomas Eugene inherited it. Records: the 1914 trust deed for the son was undone by 1928; no deed from father to son has been found; Thomas Eugene gave the cottage as his residence in 1940; the lot was assessed to his mother, Emma, in 1949.
WeighedThe son’s tie to the cottage is proved by residence, not by title. How title passed between 1938 and 1949 is open.
Where Thomas Henry lived at the end
The record saysAt 291 Lionel Road in 1918 and the homestead in 1928, with a permit for alterations in 1929. From 1936 to 1938, widowed, in his sister Mary Holland’s household at 2639 S. Ridgeway, Chicago. No 1930 census entry has been found for him at the cottage.
WeighedBoth stand. The cottage was his home through the 1920s; in his last years he lived with his sister. He died on 28 January 1938.
“Thomas Hepp”
The record saysThe 1920 census lists Thomas Eugene as Thomas Hepp, in the household of his mother, Emma E. Hepp.
WeighedAge, birth year and mother agree. Enumerated under his stepfather’s surname, he is Thomas Eugene Hamall again by 1930.
When the second marriage ended
The record saysTogether at 33 N. Menard on 1 April 1940; separate addresses on 16 October 1940; divorced about 1941; Margaret and her son in Miami by 1942.
WeighedThe records fix the separation within six months. The divorce itself is dated about 1941.
Where the father travelled from in 1947
The record saysThe son’s household was in Miami. Newspaper evidence and the 1950 census place Thomas Eugene in Illinois until 1949 or 1950.
WeighedHe came to Washington from the Chicago area, roughly 700 miles. The visit is established by the photographs; the journey is not.
The name
Three men named Thomas Hamall, a stepfather’s surname in 1920, and two women named Margaret who married into the family, Thomas Henry’s second wife, Margaret A., and Thomas Eugene’s wife, Margaret Katherine Kenny. Identity was carried by birth dates, parents, spouses and addresses, never by a name alone.
Searches That Found Nothing
A search that finds nothing is evidence only when its extent is stated.
| Sought | Where and how far | Result |
|---|---|---|
| A deed from Thomas Henry to Thomas Eugene | Cook County Recorder of Deeds, grantor and grantee indexes under the three Thomas Hamalls, 1900 to 1950 | Not found |
| The 1911 purchase in the county property records | Cook County, 1911 to 1920 | Records incomplete; the purchase is known from the 1928 opinion |
| A will of Thomas Henry Hamall | Searched with the property records | None found |
| Thomas Henry at 291 Lionel Road | 1930 U.S. census | Not found |
| Custody records for either divorce | Cook County, 1907 and about 1941 | None found |
| A photograph of Edward Francis Holland | Family collections | None found |
Still Open, and What Transfers
Open questions
The cottage after 1938. How title passed from Thomas Henry to Emma E. Hamall, and when the family let the lot go. The next step is a Cook County grantor and grantee search for 1938 to 1950 under Emma’s names, Hamall and Hepp, and under the lot itself.
Who lived there, 1942 to 1949. Thomas Eugene remained in Illinois; whether he stayed at the cottage after his wife and son left is not recorded.
The 1922 wedding. The marriage return of Thomas Henry and Margaret A. would name the witnesses, and could put the son at the wedding or leave the bridge photographs as they are.
The second man at the Capitol. A photograph of Edward Holland could confirm Emmett or overturn him.
Lot 212 on the older plats. Whether the modern description of the west half of Lot 212 matches the parcel Thomas Henry bought in 1911.
What transfers to other cases
Read the opinion, not the story. A family can remember a lawsuit for ninety years and still have the parties reversed.
Look for the dispute when the deed is missing. Courts need dates, prices and descriptions, and their opinions keep them.
A draft card can catch a household in motion. Struck-out addresses are as useful as the ones that stand.
Search the small-town paper. Permit lists and assessment rolls name owners in years no deed has been found.
Grade every photograph claim separately. One print can prove a place and say nothing about company.
When three men share a name, never let the name carry identity.
This methodology page accompanies the case study summary. The summary presents the findings; this page documents how each was established. The records cited here are reproduced in the document gallery, and the six blog posts tell the stories behind them.
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