I'm looking to find my family origins. It's difficult to track because I was adopted and my natural mother was also adopted. I do have some family information, but not much.

  Was able to find a 1940 Chicago census with the names of Sam (head), his wife Anna, and a daughter with the name of Eva, age 2, which would have been the age of your mother in 1940, as the census was taken in April of 1940, with your mother, who would have turned 3, a few months after this census was conducted..

As I am researching for others, I will continue to do further research for you as well in regards to your post too....

Quick question, would you know if the name Kapetanovic would be correct for the possible family name.. (the "e" would have a ye" sound) and/or do you know if they solely resided to their passing in Chicago, or had possibly moved to another state..? If you do not know the answers, please...no worries in the least lori..

- Dea

  Was able to find a 1940 Chicago census with the names of Sam (head), his wife Anna, and a daughter with the name of Eva, age 2, which would have been the age of your mother in 1940, as the census was taken in April of 1940, with your mother, who would have turned 3, a few months after this census was conducted..

As I am researching for others, I will continue to do further research for you as well in regards to your post too....

Quick question, would you know if the name Kapetanovic would be correct for the possible family name.. (the "e" would have a ye" sound) and/or do you know if they solely resided to their passing in Chicago, or had possibly moved to another state..? If you do not know the answers, please...no worries in the least lori..

- Dea

Dea,

Thank you so much for your help!  It probably is very likely that I don't have the correct spelling on the last name.

I tried to gather information on Ancestry . com, but got pretty confused.  I was trying to search using both my natural mother's original name and also her adopted name but got the two totally intertwined and gave up.  My husband wasn't too happy that we were paying monthly for the service while I was at a complete stand still.

The only locale of the Sam and Anna Miller family that I was aware of was Chicago.

I wish I had more to go on.  I truly appreciate your help.  Please let me know if you're able to find anything else.

Most sincerely,

Lori

Thank you lori for taking the time to respond back to me, as I do not often hear back from the OP of the question, and feel happy the times I do hear back fro the OP, so thank you lori for getting back to me and giving me your further thoughts in regards to the search.

And I fully understand how tricky searches on Ancestry, the National Archives etc can be, as back about 6 years ago, when I had just acquired the access and signup for Ancestry, I had NO clue what in the world I was doing, and what I was supposed to add for information, etc. Was almost in tears that very first day or two, as I had found (of all places) a WWI soldier's shave/signal mirror in its original case, with some handwritten info from the soldier himself, and about himself (just in case anything sadly happened to him, they would be able to id hs body, and also to get his personal effects possibly back to family as many soldiers did aside from their dog tags, to provide identification),  with his name, his division, dates he was wounded, and all. I was at a loss, as I was still Kermit the Frog green, and not knowing what info I needed to add, went upon here if you can believe that, hah and posted a question for help about that very soldier's case, and a man by the name of Elliot Scheider completely hooked me up., ( Thank you Elliot yet again from the bottom of my heart ) and provided some info for me about the soldier I was asking about. What got me to start kicking butt with Ancestry and all was when I had thanked him, and then asked if he was able to let me know where he got the info he did for me, (documents etc) so that I could print them out. When I did not receive a response, I looked at my pc, and at ancestry's search page, and told myself, "He didn't respond because he gave you information that utterly got you out of the gate, and on your way. Now, it's time YOU maybe need to start relying on yourself Deanna, and apply the info he provided for you, and give it your all to find the answer to the your question, by yourself, for yourself. So, get to it, and make him proud." And you know what, I figured Ancestry, Fold3, (which is even rougher to search on unless you are looking for a soldier or aviator from the UK which in that case, is a breeze..) NARA, etc etc and all out, and I got my answers. After that, there was no stopping me.

And so, wth that all being said (my apols for my long windedness btw) do not ever feel discouraged Lori with what you have tried to do, and have done as we ALL have been there, and all of us had to learn, and made many errors or doinkups in trying to find information to our quests, and even still flaking out from time to time with applying or remembering bits of info that we know we know, but are like..."Uhhhhhhh.." for a minute or two. I give you immense credit and respect, IMMENSE, that you took the time to do all of that on your own, many do not even try, and that is unfortunate, as when we take a task upon ourself to achieve, the answers we find, no matter how small or insignificant we may think they are, build not only our character, but the ability to know we are capable of accomplshing anything we choose, and the knowledge that the Wisest souls on Earth became the Wisest souls on Earth because of failure, humility, and experience. You are a researcher in the making Lori, you just make sure you believe that, and you will see the paths you will be taken upon.

PS. I will add the link (as I found my question on here from 5-6 years ago, haha that's awesome) for my question on here to Elliot in a moment for you, just so you can see for yourself, I was a greenie extraordinaire ..till Elliot answered me, and created a reseaching monster.

Will let you know asap Lori if I should find any valid bit of info for your great grandparents...if we could only find one more doc, something, anything,...if we can figure out that last name, we would be on streets of gold sister....streets of gold.

Hope all is well sister

 - Dea

https://historyhub.history.gov/military-records/f/military-records-forum/27203/seeking-records-about-pvt-royal-thompson-wwi

Wow Dea!

You are a gem!  Thank you for including the information about your soldier pal and the kind gentleman who helped you get started!  Your a pro now, wise and kind and those streets of gold will be coming...I believe so anyway!

I do have a tiny bit more information about Sam ( Samuel?) and Anna Miller (originally last name of Kapayanwich or Kapetanovic?). I know my natural mother's original name was Eva Grace, again born 7/14/1938.  On the 1940 census you provided, it showed Sam (Samuel?) and Anna Miller being the parents, but they were actually the grandparents.  Maybe they didn't want anyone to know that their daughter had an out of wedlock child?  I think, that my natural mother's mother may have also had the name Eva?  

I do know there were several children in the family and that my natural went to stay with an aunt or older sibling (named Christina?) for a short while before she got pushed out to Chicago Child Welfare Department.  

After Eva Grace was put in multiple foster homes, she finally was adopted and renamed Elaine Brokaw Van Hespen.  Her adoptive father was a professor at the University of Chicago.  Elaine later married and died in 2002 as Elaine B. Vondrasek.  

She told me that her adoptive family shipped her off to Denver to the Florence Crittenton Home for Unwed Mother's in deep shame.  I was born on Christmas Day so she named me Christina Daye after her aunt Christina and also because I was born on Christmas Day.

It took me 7 years of " on and off" searching (using snail mail and requesting documents) to find my natural mother Eva Grace/Elaine.  I did locate my natural father as well, but he had thought I had been aborted and didn't want his current family to know about me, which was fine.  At some point it might be interesting to know more about his side of the family, but for now it's the mystery of two adopted kiddos... myself and my natural mother that I am feeling compelled to know about our original ancestry.

Thank you again for helping me.  Thanks to Elliot for getting you started!! 

 If you're able to find anything else please let me know.  Keep up the great work.  Again you are a gem, Dea!!

Lori