Margaret M. O’Donnell (1916-2006)

• Born Margaret M. Kortsch (1916)
• Attended and graduated from St. Mary’s Academy High School, 1930-1933
• Graduated Mount Mary College, 1937 (English)
• Worked in 1940 as teacher in public school
• Married James O’Donnell (1944)
• Children James, Kevin, Margaret A., Paul, Mary Ellen, Norah, Ann
• Died 2006

Pictures of Mom appear in numerous other albums. Besides the ones below they can be found using the menu at the top of the page or the buttons in the sidebar. For all her pictures, enter her name in the search bar.

Mom’s Odd Birth Certificate

Mom’s birth certificate correctly gives her birth date and the names of her parents, but it also says Mom is the fourth child–and the fourth living child–of Paul and Ann Kortsch living at 255 Kewanee St. We know for certain that Pat (b. 1912) and the tragically short-lived Alice (b. 1913) preceded her.

Another child, one previously unknown, would be a startling discovery but in all probability is just a data ghost created by a careless city hall records clerk. There are other errors in the document that suggest this to be the case. Nana’s age is given as 22 on Mom’s birth certificate, which would have Nana born in 1894, but we know from other records she was born in 1890, or age 26 when Mom was born.

The other error is the spelling of the street where they were living. It’s properly ‘Kewaunee,’ not ‘Kewanee.’ Although not significant by itself, this and the mistake about Nana’s age point to the records clerk being an inattentive sort who could easily have made the mistakes about the number and life status of the children before Mom.

One doesn’t wish to uncharitably judge an anonymous, long-dead public servant, so it should be noted that it was common practice at the time for a family to cover up the existence of a child who might be a social embarrassment, whether because the parents weren’t married or due to physical or mental infirmity. 

There is, however, no corroborating documentary evidence or even a whisper in family lore of a third child before Mom. 

And as for the age discrepancy, Nana could have deliberately given the clerk a wrong date, making herself four years younger than she really was. All the Guiney sisters had the exasperating habit of routinely lying about their ages, Aunt Madge (Margaret Guiney Dondero) being the worst offender but the others were no slackers, either.

The most likely explanation for the extra child is the simplest one: a mistake, one of several in the document. As anyone who has gone deep diving into public records knows all too well, errors on birth and death certificates are common and an endless source of confusion and frustration.

Life

Mom’s life was her family. She loved babies so much she had five in six years and then followed those up with two more a few years later 

A life devoted to family leaves few documents behind, however. We do have a number of them, primarily of her as a child and young adult. A far better way to get a sense of Mom is by looking closely at the pictures below and in many of the other albums. Almost invariably she is shown taking care of her family, Dad and the children, and later the children grown to adults and their children. She loved her children. She loved her grandchildren immoderately.

Nothing pleased her more than sitting at the end of a crowded dinner table with her children, their husbands and wives, and later their children gathered around her for a big family meal. As tired as the preparations would make her, her face and posture radiate contentment.

Picture Gallery