My dad has spent the last ten or more years doing a ton of genealogy research on our family and on the families in the town where my mom, my dad and I were all born, Quincy, Illinois. Just today he sent everyone a bunch of old photos online.

And along with lots of fascinating pictures of family members from my dad’s side, and lots of interesting scans of obituaries from old newspapers, there was this image. It’s a page from a book with photos of a grocery store, a store that was owned by my mother’s side of the family. I was surprised to see this among all the other photos, since there was no other information in my dad’s collection about my mom’s side of the family.

The first sentence on the page says, “E.F. Schullian’s Market was a popular grocery store at 20th and Chestnut for many years. In the 1902 photo seen at the right, Ed Schullian is seen on his store’s steps.” And then it goes on to describe how Ed Schullian continued to build onto the store, including adding a second story in 1908.

The book doesn’t say this, but 25 years after that second story was added, my grandmother would be born and would live her entire childhood on that very second floor!

When I saw my family in DC, my mom and grandma talked for a bit about my great grandmother, Ruth Morris’ store and the home that was above the store. My great grandma died when I was 7, so I remember her and interacted with her often when I was a little kid, even though she was well into her nineties by the time I was old enough to be aware. I’ve always known that my great grandmother owned a grocery store. The store and the house above it are part the story of this family.

The store had been passed down to Ruth by her dad, and by the Schullian family. Ruth then ran the store and lived with her children and their nanny, Helen, on the second floor.

When my mom went to see her grandmother as a little kid, she’d go over to the store, the same one in the picture. It was still open over sixty years after that photo of Ed Schullian was taken in 1902. My mom would spend time with her Grandmother Ruth Morris and with Helen, who a part of our family.

Seeing this picture and all the other pictures of my ancestors today was such a cool experience. I will have to thank my dad for sharing this stuff with me. It was interesting to reflect on the fact that my great great (?) grandfather built, owned and ran a successful grocery store, and passed it down to his children and grandchildren. Maybe there’s something to my getting into this bakery business and this life I’m building. Maybe it makes sense that I’m trying to work for myself and earn my living on my own terms, just the way my ancestors did.