What was Eleanor Gehrig (Lou Gehrig's wife) mothers maiden name?

Question:

What was Eleanor Gehrig (Lou Gehrig's wife) mothers maiden name?

Family legend that she's a cousin but can't verify.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Nothing obscure about this. Eleanor Twitchell was the daughter of a very prominent Chicago family...her parents were Frank Twitchell (Commissioner of the Chicago Park District) and Nellie Mulvaney. They were married Feb 14, 1901 in Chicago.

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Pondered it overnight about how I'd go about proving any link. Try this (and keep in mind that all official Cook Co records burned in 1881 which is why you need the alternate route of the parish records)

1 Pull the marriage record from Frank and Nellie's wedding at the Cook County Clerk's office. Find out which parish married them and their home addresses before the wedding.

2. Call the reference librarians at the Harold Washington branch of the Chicago Public Library (big one on State by the Congress) and ask them to pull the 1905/6 city directories for Chicago and find the address of Commissioner Frank Twitchell (you could also call the archivist at the Chicago Park District, but the poor woman is tremendously overworked).

3. Call the Joseph Cardinal Bernadin Archives of the Archdiocese of Chicago (around the block from Old St Pat's around Des Plaines and Madison) and see if the parish that married Frank and Nellie is still open and which parish would have served the address where they lived at the time of Eleanor's birth in 1906...and whether it's still open (less likely, Prairie went way downhill in the last 100 years, but that's good for you). Any parish still open will have its own records yet. Any that are closed will have their records at the Bernardin Archives.

Pull the baptismal record on Eleanor to find out who her godparents were. Pull the marriage record to see which parish(es) baptized Frank and Eleanor. Then go back and get those baptismal records...much better than a birth certificate in this case. Keep repeating the process until you either find your family linking with hers, or until you clearly disprove it (which would be no later than 1830).

You could be done in under 2 days if you're in the area...a month if you're waiting for someone else to research it for you.