Send us Fan Mail

One forgotten newspaper article can change how a major tragedy is remembered. I’m picking up the trail from Edith Franklin Wyatt’s July 1915 reporting to recover the accounts of two priests she interviewed after the Eastland disaster. We continue to speculate why so many parish names and their losses vanish from the “standard” retellings of Chicago’s 1915 catastrophe.

First, I introduce Father Albert J. Dedera and Mary, Queen of Heaven Church in Cicero, Illinois. This church was touched by the Eastland disaster but largely absent from modern Eastland history platforms. I also share a moment of research serendipity that ties Edith Wyatt and Father Dedera to the 1909 Cherry Mine disaster, revealing how lives, disasters, and documentation can intersect unexpectedly. Along the way, I explain what genealogists mean by reasonably exhaustive research and why a single unsourced story is never enough.

Next, I focus on Father Bronislaus Czajkowski and Our Lady of Czestochowa in Cicero. I discuss the history of the Black Madonna icon and why it became important to Polish immigrants. Finally, I share a major discovery: full digital scans of the Eastland burial records for Our Lady of Czestochowa on FamilySearch, revealing important details that are missed when only a cropped image is shared.

If you enjoy genealogy, family history, Chicago history, or the Eastland disaster, this one is for you.

Subscribe or follow Flower in the River, share this episode with a history-loving friend, and leave a review so more listeners can find these missing stories.

Resources:

• HISTORY OF ST. MARY OF CZESTOCHOWA PARISH, Cicero, IL
• History of Mary Queen of Heaven Church, Cicero, IL
• Black Madonna of Częstochowa
• A City of Sorrow, a Voice of Fire — Edith Franklin Wyatt & the Eastland
• St. Mary of Czestochowa Parish (Cicero, Cook County, Illinois), Record of Interments, pp. 47–49, burials recorded 27–29 July 1915 and 13 August 1915; digital images, FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org : accessed 4 June 2026), from parish register images.

• Book website: https://www.flowerintheriver.com/
• Substack: https://nataliezett.substack.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalie-z-87092b15/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zettnatalie/
• YouTube: Flower in the River - A Family Tale Finally Told - YouTube
• Medium: Natalie Zett – Medium
• The opening/closing song is Twilight by 8opus
• Other music. Artlist