War Time Stories of our Ancestors

 

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Many of us are on social media and receive the posts from FamilySearch.  Lately they have been posting quite a few stories of people who served in World War I and World War II.  Along with that, I have been reading novels of people who lived during those turbulent times – from various points of view.  They are all fiction based on facts and cover the stories of the Jews, the Germans, the French, the Japanese and Chinese as well as other ethnic groups.  The FamilySearch posts and the books I have been reading got me to thinking of our ancestors.  Do we know their stories?  Have we recorded them?

In an earlier blog post I told the story that I have posted on FamilySearch of my father who was a Pearl Harbor survivor aboard the USS Nevada.  But I am not sure you know the story of Brother May’s parents.  It is truly a war-era love story!

The year was 1944.  Brother May’s Dad, Daniel (Danny), was an enlisted serviceman in the Army.  He served a tour of duty in the Pacific on Christmas Island and also served as a war correspondent.   He boarded a train in Oregon and headed for leave to visit family in Kentucky.

Brother May’s mom, Afton, was an officer in the very first group of WAC’s (Women’s Army Corp).   Afton boarded the train as it passed through Montana and was headed toward her next duty station in Alabama.

Conversations began and, even though, Army rules dictated enlisted personnel and officers not fraternize, conversations led to letters as they were assigned various duty stations.  Letters led to personal visits and over the years a romance blossomed.  They were married in 1946. 

There is a lot more to the story of Danny and Afton.  As we discover the stories of our ancestors we begin to understand why they believed as they did, what they had to endure and sacrifice during their lives, what the world conditions were during that time.  Are we recording those stories?

FamilySearch and other programs (such as Ancestry.com) are releasing military records that help us understand where our ancestors served, what they did in the service, and what they looked like at the time.  Their stories are part of the fabric that make us who we are. 

Need help researching these stories?  We can help!  Give us a call…… and have fun exploring the stories of those who served our country.  Brother and Sister May

 


 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Smaller Bite of the Elephant - Photos and Documents

 Dear Brothers and Sisters, As I re-read the blog from last week about eating the elephant one bite at a time, I realized I had posted a “Guy Fieri-size” bite!  (If you have watched Diners, Drive-ins and Dives on TV you understand the reference.  He takes MONSTER bites when he is sampling food!).  So, for the next few weeks, we will break it down to smaller, more petite bites.  Today we will start with Memories and just discuss Photos and Documents.  This seems like a simple bite but it can be a whopper if you have never uploaded photos.  We take a lot of photos with our phones and cameras, but do they ever get transferred to the computer?  There are several ways to accomplish this bite. I am not technologically expert but I try to transfer my photos to my computer on a regular basis.  Here are some tips I know about. If you want to save the photos to your computer, then use them to include in FamilySearch, set up your photo files on your computer if you have not already done
Read more

Indexing is so easy!

  Dear Brothers and Sisters,    I have been impressed to start a weekly “blog of sorts” to help our ward do Family History.   When Brother May and I were first called as Consultants, we posted a little note in the weekly bulletin on Sundays and had a monthly Family History Challenge for our ward.   I miss that opportunity to inspire you and your families to do family history and, to tell you the truth, I have been wondering how to get going again.   The answer to my prayers came in this month’s LDS Living Magazine.   An ad caught my eye.   It showed an old photo of a family and had the words:   “Can you hear us?   We need your help.”   Then in the body of the ad it stated:   “We are your family, your ancestors from the past.   We are on the other side and need your help.   The records of our lives need to be found and submitted for saving ordinances. You may have felt our promptings to act.   In fact, you may feel it now as you read this.”    I felt it.   So I am acting…….   When I
Read more

Til We Meet Again

  Dear Brothers and Sisters, We are sure you have heard by now that we are moving out of the ward.   This will be our last posting.   We wanted to leave you with some thoughts as we have been downsizing. One article we found was from The Nome Nugget, a newspaper from Nome, Alaska.   Brother May received this paper when he was a reporter working in Nome.   On the front page of the Thursday, April 14, 1988 edition, is an article entitled “Family history salvaged at Nome City Dump”.   It is a story about a man who was tossing a load of trash in the Nome City Dump and his foot slipped on something slick.   He picked it up and found a baby book among the items.   The book contained more than 100 photos and notations from a mom about her new baby son.   The notations covered his life from his birth in 1946 through the year 1962.   They included information about his family members – his father, his brother and his mom.   As the man looked through this baby book and the photos he felt he
Read more