Amelia Biastoff, Cook County

Amelia Biastoff, an Irish immigrant born of a German father and Irish mother wast sent to Illinois in March, 1903. She was thirteen years old and may be the girl in the white blouse in this picture. She appeared in the 1900 census as an inmate of the New York Juvenile Asylum in June of that year. This means she lived at the Asylum for about three years before being sent to Illinois.

She was settled in Berwyn, where she lived with the Chutes family. She says in her letter in 1907 that she is of age. She was studying music and continuing on at the Chites house. She married in 1909, in Lake County, Indiana. She married Edward Joseph Burke, a young man from Berwyn. He worked as a mechanic with a structural steel company in DuPage County. By 1920 they had two children, Edward and Maurine. Her husband registered for the draft during WWII and indicated that his wife Amelia was his closest contact. No further information was found regarding this couple.