Honoring the Veterans in My Family

Anyone who has lived in Emporia, Kansas realizes that Veteran's Day is a MAJOR holiday. Today, we take time to honor those who have served and who are serving. Thus, I would like to take a walk thru my family tree to honor my veteran ancestors.

World War II

Eugene Crawford

Between 15 Feb 1945 and 1 Aug 1946, Eugene served at the Naval Training Center in Gulfport, Mississippi and at the Naval Training Center in Great Lakes, Illinois. He shipped out on the USS Oneida (APA-221) towards the end of the War in the Pacific as seaman 1st class in the U.S. Naval Reserves. He received the Victory Medal and the American Campaign Medal.

Revolutionary Ancestors

Were any of your ancestors in the colonies prior to the American Revolution? If so, have you tried to identify ancestors who may have fought in the Revolutionary War?

Since I am a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), I already knew that one of my ancestors provided patriotic service during the war: Nathaniel Hammond of Connecticut.

I had also started collecting documentation to prove William Buckles on my mother's side of my tree. 

Beyond that, I didn't know which of my ancestors might have served. Thus, I needed to create a list of ancestors who might have served so that I could research them in Fold3 and the DAR databases. 

To create a list of potential people, I needed to know who was of the appropriate age to serve. I found a wiki on FamilySearch that lists various wars and suggests 'Ages of Servicemen in Wars.' 

Using that information, I was able to create a marked group of those whose

     Birth date is after 1715

AND  Birth date is before 1767

100 Years Ago

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible! music) is to:

1)  Determine where your ancestral families were on 18 May 1919 - 100 years ago.

2)  List them, their family members, their birth years, and their residence location (as close as possible).  Do you have a photograph of their residence from about that time, and does the residence still exist?

My Grandparents

• Leon Crawford was living with his parents at 504 Ave G in Dodge City
• Winnie Letha Currey was likely living with her sister, Myrtle. Winnie traveled from Kansas City to Dodge City in 1918 to help Myrtle with the birth of her first child, Dorothy. Winnie and Leon were married on Christmas Eve in 1919 at Myrtle's house.
• Edward O. Briles and his wife Pauline (Mentzer) Briles were likely living in Woodson County in 1919. Edward's World War I draft card indicated they were living in Everett Township, Woodson County in June of 1917. By 1920, they had moved to Allen County.

12 Generations

Last week's '52 Ancestors' prompt was '12' Based on that prompt, I decided to try and figure out what 12th generation ancestors I had identified. I have 7 generations identified on all lines. However, do I have any 12 generation ancestors.

Celebrating 50 Years

Do you enjoy some of the online genealogy prompts to look at your data from a different viewpoint?

I know I do. Two of my currents sources for blogging prompts are Amy Johnson Crowe's #52ancestors and Randy Seaver's #SaturdayNightGenealogyFun.

As I was working on a blog post about love, I found I have several of my ancestors who celebrated 50 years of marriage. Thus, I thought it would be fun to suggest a 'Saturday Night Genealogy Fun' challenge:

1) How many of your ancestors were married for FIFTY years?
2) What is the longest marriage in your tree?

I'm approaching my 45th wedding anniversary and my parents were married for over fifty years.

Grandparents:

• Leon Crawford and Winnie Currey -- married Dec 1919; They were married 56 years before Leon passed away in Oct. 1976.
• Edward Osmond Briles and Pauline Mentzer were married Oct 1915. They were married 40 years when Edward passed away. Pauline never remarried.

Two Degrees

 

Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music):

1)  Using your ancestral lines, how far back in time can you go with two degrees of separation?  That means "you knew an ancestor, who knew another ancestor."  When was that second ancestor born?

My first thought was that I knew my great-grandmother, Josie Crawford.

Christmas 1953: Marcia, Winnie, Josie

Judson Foster Crawford - Josie Winifred Hammond

Judson Foster Crawford was born in April 1866 in Warren County, Indiana. He was the second child born to Washington Marion and Mary (Foster) Crawford. Judson's father had only been home from the war for a year when Judson was born.

At the age of 14, Judson was living with his parents in Warren County, Indiana. Family tradition says that as a young adult, Judson

• was a cook's helper on a cattle drive
• worked on a ranch
• worked in a grocery store

Even though these stories are hard to prove, they could all be true. Judson's uncle, James H. Crawford migrated from Indiana to the Dodge City area where he owned both a ranch and a grocery store. Thus, Judson could have worked for his uncle on the ranch or in town at the store. The 1885 Kansas census indicates that Judson did work in a store since his occupation is listed as clerk.