First Photo of Granduncle Found on His Headstone: 52 Ancestors 2024 Prompt “Tombstone”

Headstone Provides Only Photo of Granduncle Emil Jandejsek

Emil William Jandejsek: 1882-1928 (Maternal Granduncle)

 

Sometimes family photos pop up from the strangest sources. That’s what happened as I was researching my husband’s granduncle, Emil Jandejsek. I found the Findagrave entry for Emil and his second wife Mary or Marie, and the entry included a photo of the Jandejsek headstone. Mounted on the stone with screws were photos of Emil and Marie—the only photos of them I have ever seen! A very happy discovery!

Emil Jandejsek tombstone at National Bohemian Cemetery in Chicago

Emil was the older brother of Edward Clarence Jandejsek, also known as Ed Jandy. Ed was my husband’s grandfather. Emil was the second oldest of Emanuel Jandejsek and Emily Tomsche’s eight surviving children. He was born in Trebova, Czechoslovakia on December 18, 1882. When Emil was quite young, the family emigrated to the United States, arrving in 1887 or 1888. The Jandejseks settled in Chicago, Illinois, an area that had a large number of Czech immigrants, providing a built-in support system.

Trebova, Czechoslovakia, the town where Emil was born

Emil had to take on responsibility at a young age. His parents needed his help to support the family. According to Ed Jandy’s memoirs, “…most kids went through 8^th grade…Few aspired to go to high school, and very very few to college.” Emil followed that pattern. Ed remembered that Emil first worked as a lumber hand. By the 1900 census, Emil was working as a silver plater at a metal plating factory; he was only seventeen. His younger brother Miles, only 15, was also out of school, working as a day laborer.

It is unclear when Emil moved out of his parents’ apartment to separate housing. His father died May 6, 1905. Emil married the daughter of another Czech immigrant family, a 23-year-old named Minnie Baxa, two months later on July 15, 1905. The young couple had a stillborn child the following year, and then had a daughter, Agnes, born May 27, 1908.

Emil and Minnie had a third child, a little girl, on March 10, 1910. Tragically, both the infant and Minnie died the next day. By the time of the 1910 census, Emil and little Agnes had moved back in with his widowed mother and his five youngest siblings. They all lived in an apartment on West 18^th Place near the railroad tracks in the Pilsen area west of the Chicago Loop. The building, which realty companies say is about 2600 square feet, was divided into four apartments, so the eight family members must have been crammed in, sharing beds and bedrooms.

Front of 18th Place apartment building

Aerial view of 18th Place apartment building, also showing Throup St. where Emil's parents previously lived.

Emil was probably eager to be on his own once more, which motivated him to marry quickly. On November 21, 1910, just eight months after Minnie’s death, Emil married nineteen-year-old Mary Roth; he was twenty-eight. They moved to a building on South Center Avenue where their daughter Olga was born September 1, 1911.

When Emil completed his World War I draft registration card, he was still working in the metal plating business as a metal buffer. He, his wife, and two daughters were living in a two-story brick building at 2520 South Troy on the southwest side of Chicago not far from the suburb of Cicero. I have been unable to find the family on the 1920 census, but believe they were still living in the same area.

At some point in the late 1920s, Emil’s marriage disintegrated. On March 4, 1928, Emil died when he fell asleep while smoking his pipe. According to the news article below, the pipe set the bed on fire. The newspaper reported that “firemen from a local station found Jandejsek in an unconscious condition, as a result of the thick smoke in his bed room. They worked valiantly over him with the pulmotor but their efforts proved futile.”

The article went on to note that Emil was separated from his wife, who lived about five blocks away. Emil was only 45 years old.

Despite their separation, Mary Roth Jandejsek did not remarry after his death. She died September 20, 1931 at the age of only forty. I am not sure of the cause of her death.

Emil’s daughters Agnes and Olga each eventually married. Agnes married Eugene Diem, and they had a daughter, Lavergne. Agnes divorced Eugene, and at the time of the 1940 census, she had moved in with her half-sister Olga and was working as a librarian. Olga was a telephone operator. Olga married Francis Vladish in 1944 at age 33. The couple had no children.

Emil and Mary were buried together at the Bohemian National Cemetery in Chicago. The stone included the photos of the couple that I have added to their profiles on Ancestry. I am so grateful for this special tombstone, and for the wonderful Findagrave volunteers who made it possible for me to find Emil’s portrait.

 

Sources:

"Falls Asleep, Bed Burns, Man Suffocates." Suburban Leader, Cicero, Illinois. March 8, 1928.

Photos of Emil Jandejsek headstone courtesy of Findagrave and photographer Grave Recorder. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/137031952/emil-william-jandejsek

Photo of Ceska Trebova, from Wikimedia Commons. Photographer Marek Stránský, File permission by Nostramanus. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Ceska-Trebova-Zeleznice-Nadrazi-1.jpg

Photos of Jandejsek homes from online listings of various realty companies.

Memoir of Edward Clarence Jandy. Family records.