28th Edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genalogy Posted!

The 28th edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy has been posted! You can read it here. (Thank you Antra for hosting!) The topic for the next edition will be on religion, and will be hosted by J. M. of Tracing My Roots. Submissions are due May 14, and the edition will be posted on May 17. You can submit your articles here. Enjoy!

Don't Forget! Submissions Are Due Today!

I just want to remind everyone that submissions for the upcoming edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy are due today. The topic for this edition is war stories, and you can submit entries here. Enjoy!

27th Edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy Posted!

The 27th edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy has been posted! You can read it here. (Thank you, Al, for a wonderful edition!) The topic for the next edition will be on war stories, and the deadline for submissions will be April 25. The edition will be posted on April 28th, and you can submit your articles here. Enjoy!

British World War One Records Updated!

I just happened to see John's article on Ancestry's updating of World War One records. I've done a little searching with the records so far today, and I might have found a relative. I'm not sure, but if I have, I will write more about the research later. Enjoy!

90 Years Ago Today ...

It is hard for me to believe that World War One ended ninety years ago today. I think for most people my age, World War One is a part of the distant past, yet when I think about the war, I realize that it has been less than a century since it ended. If my grandfather, who was born before World War One ended, was alive today, he would be ninety years old. As I mentioned before, his father, my great-grandfather, served in the British Army in that war, and since I'm only a couple of generations away from my ancestor who served in World War One, I feel a bit emotionally connected to the war. What I mean is that, World War One is just more than another war in history because I had an ancestor who served in that war, and as a result, I sometimes wonder what he experienced and went through during his experience. In short, I'm interested in the war because of my great-grandfather's service, and because I do not know what his wartime experiences were like.

Of course, until this past week, I did not know very much about his service. What I did know was that he had been in France, as the occupation listed on his marriage certificate was "a soldier in France," and from my grandfather's birth certificate, I was able to find his military service number. The certificate also stated that he was in the motor mechanics. In addition, my grandma showed me some of photos of my great-grandfather in his uniform. Outside of those pieces of information, however, I had no idea what regiment he served in nor when he entered the service. As I was trying to figure out if I could obtain my great-grandfather's service records, I learned that a large portion of the records were destroyed during the Blitz in World War. Since the information I read indicated that most records for soldiers did not survive, I believed my chances of obtaining records would be quite slim. Of course, I did not give trying to find out what I could, though. At one point, I joined a yahoo group on World War One, and inquired if anyone could tell what regiment my great-grandfather was in by looking at a photo of him in his uniform. One man suggested that it appeared as though he might have been a member of the Army Service Corps, but he couldn't tell for sure because the buckle on my great-grandfather's hat was not detailed enough to make a conclusion.

Then over this past summer, I learned that ancestry had posted the images of the Service Medal cards that listed the types of medals a British serviceman had earned during World War One. By using my great-grandfather's service number, I was able to find his card, and I discovered that he did serve in the Army Service Corps. Unfortunately, I was unable to narrow down the exact regiment from that card, and I was at a loss again. That is, until Ancestry made their British World War One Service Records available for free viewing. Only then was I able to get a better idea of the regiment my great-grandfather was able to serve in. So, what have I learned about my great-grandfather's service? Well, from what I have been able to read so far, I have learned that:

• My great-grandfather was living in Luton, Befordshire, England at the time he signed up for service. Before I found his records, I did not know where he had signed up. I wasn't sure if it was Glasgow, Scotland ,where he was born, Luton or some other place in the United Kingdom. (I'll explain why in another post as this post is getting too long.)
• My great-grandfather's brother was living around Manchester, Lancashire, England at the time my ancestor signed up. Plus, I was able to confirm one of the names of my great-grandfather's siblings.
• My great-grandfather was promoted twice.
• My great-grandfather did serve in the Motor Transport unit of the Army Service Corps.
• His point of disembarkation was at Rouen, France.
• My great-grandparents' marriage, and the birth of my grandfather, were recorded in his service records as well.
• My great-grandfather's place of employment and occupation before he entered the service.

Of course, there is also other information in his records, such as when he went on leave, but I don't know how to interpret the information. I don't understand all of the codes listed, and I can barely make out some of the handwriting. The records show signs of having been damaged by fire, and some of the handwriting appears to have faded. Hopefully, I will be able to make out some of the information someday, but at the moment, I do not have the time since I am in school.

As for searching the service records, I would advise that you look before and after the images linked to by ancestry. If I had not looked at images previous to the two pages ancestry had linked to, I would have missed most of the information in his records. Ancestry had only linked to the pages that had been updated to include information on my great -grandparents' marriage and the birth of my grandfather. Therefore, I would not have found the letter from his employer nor the information on his service in his records.

And last, but not least, here is a photograph of what I believe to be my great-grandfather's regiment:

The photograph was printed on a postcard in both French and English. (The back side was blank other than the postcard format.) Since there was French on the back, I suspect the picture was taken in France. Could it have been taken in Rouen? Of course, one cannot see the faces of the soldiers in the picture too well, but last year my grandma did get the picture blown up to see if we could find my great-grandfather in the picture. We believe he is one of the soldiers sitting, and that he happened to be the one smiling in the picture. Of course, when I look at this picture and think about how deadly World War One was, I wonder how many of those men survived the war. Since I only know the name of my great-grandfather, I have no idea who the other men are. Maybe someday I will find out, but until then, those men will be a mystery to me.

To Those Who Served and Are Serving ...

I just want to thank all those out there who have served, and all of those who are serving today, from the bottom of my heart on this Veteran's Day.

Military History Reading Challenge: Book Review 2

For the second military history book that I had to read, I chose Because Each Life Is Precious: Why an Iraqi Man Risked Everything for Private Jessica Lynch by Mohammed Odeh Al-Rehaief and Jeff Coplon (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2003). Although I am not completely sure if this book would fit into the military history category, I chose to read this book primarily because I had wanted to read this book for some time and because this book is a recounting from a civilian's point of view an event that occurred a few years ago during the Iraq War.

This book, though, is just more than about why Mohammed Odeh Al-Rehaief chose to help Private Jessica Lynch; it is also a book about his life under Saddam Hussein's regime, Iraqi culture and his experiences of life during the three most recent wars Iraq had been involved in. In short, the book is part autobiography and part memoir. Additionally, his description of how life was under Saddam's government does make it very clear that his decision to help Private Lynch was putting whole family at risk; his wife, daughter, siblings and father also could have faced reprisals for what he did. And even if he did have some legitimate grievances against Saddam's government, I did not feel that that was his main motive in wanting to help Private Lynch. From my reading, I gather that he was motivated more by compassion and humanity than anything else.

Of course, this is just my opinion of the book. I think it is a very good and interesting book, and I enjoyed reading it.

Those Who Served ...

Since today is Memorial Day, I thought I would briefly mention some of my known ancestors that served in the military, to honor them. I will mention ancestors who served up to World War Two. And my ancestors are:

World War Two

My grandfathers (Names are not mentioned for privacy reasons.)

World War One

My great-grandfather. (He served in the British Army in France. I don't know any more than that.)

Spanish-American War

I do not know of any possible ancestors or siblings that served in this war.

American Civil War

My ancestor, Adam, and his relatives. (As I mentioned before in two previous posts: here and here.)

Mexican-American War

At the moment, I do not know of any ancestors who might have served. (It may still be possible, though.)

War of 1812

I might have ancestor who served, if I can prove that John Householder was the father of Barbara Householder.

American Revolution

I don't know if I have any ancestors who served. I haven't had a chance to determine that yet.

As you can see, I still don't know all of the possible ancestors who might have served. I have only included the World Wars and American wars as though are the only wars that I am certain that I had ancestors serve in. I did not include European wars (outside of the World Wars) because I have not had a chance to research if any of my ancestors did serve in other wars.

Honoring My Family's Veterans

Today is Veteran's Day and in honor of this day, I want to briefly mention the veteran's in my family. I have briefly mentioned before that I have an ancestor who served in the U. S. Civil War. I don't have a picture of him, although I wish I did. The pictures directly below are his grave and the grave of another Civil War veteran who I believe to be his younger brother.

Copyright 2004: Civil War graves of Adam and Benjamin Oswalt, Riverside Cemetery, Three Rivers, Michigan.

Both Adam and Benjamin survived the civil war. I did not just have an ancestor who served in the civil war; both of my grandfathers served during World War Two, and my great-grandfather served on the British side during World War One. I believe the picture below is of the regiment that my great-grandfather served in.

I do not know where or when this picture was taken, other than that it was during World War One. The photo was printed on a postcard. There was no handwritten note on the back of this card, but the printing on it was in French. The French suggests that the picture was probably taken in either France or Belgium. I don't have any information on what regiment he served in, but his marriage certificate who suggested that he served in France at some point.

Again, I cannot imagine what my veteran ancestors and other people's ancestors went through while they were serving. All I know is that they and those who are serving today deserve our respect and honor. So, I just want to say, "Thank you," to those who have served and our serving today. Thank you!

Update, November 11, 2007 - 11:30 p. m.: I forgot to mention that I posted a link to a news article on another one of my blogs.

Carnival of Genealogy Posted!

The Carnival of Genealogy was posted earlier today. You can read it here, at Susan Kitchen's blog.

I did not submit an article this time, primarily for several reasons. I've been busy with school work and thus, I have not had much time to write long posts. In addition, I primarily only have the basic details for most of my ancestor's war stories; there are still many holes in the details and facts in those stories. I still have more research to do. Plus, I'm a little hesitant to post stories in light of the recent Ancestry.com controversy. I'm still erring on the side of the caution.

Anyhow, the next Carnival of Genealogy topic is on weddings. Hopefully, I'll be able to contribute an article.

Speaking of weddings, a book you might want to read is All Dressed in White: The Irresistible Rise of the American Wedding by Carol McD. Wallace (New York: Penguin Books, 2004). I have not yet finished the book, but this book deals with history of weddings. In short, it is book on an aspect of U. S. social history.