- The Past Uncovered -
Some Interesting Projects
The Brick Wall
Or, as the family refers to her, the naughty granny. A family with deep roots in the Ozark Mountains of Missouri hit a brick wall in their research - a great grandmother from the 1880s who married, divorced very quickly without children, and lived the rest of her life at home with her parents - all while having 5 children out of wedlock. No information or clues existed in the family regarding who the father(s) of the children could be. In the past a mystery such as this would have been unsolvable. Today, we have DNA.
As luck would have it many close members of this family had, independently from each other, tested with 23andMe; a larger more distant grouping was present on GEDmatch. This provided a valuable pool of information. Using traditional genealogy along with DNA tools including chromosome mapping, a picture of the naughty granny's family emerged as expected, with one very interesting outlier. A 2nd cousin who didn't fit anywhere. Returning to traditional genealogy to develop that person's family history provided an enlightening fact - their great grandfather lived on the farm next to the naughty granny. Further research showed that this man was in fact the father of some of the naughty granny's children, but not all of them. Fortunately he was the great grandfather this family had been searching for, and it opened up another historically rich ancestral line for them.
Dad - What did you do in the war?
A question asked countless times. Often answered with a shrug, sometimes with some information, and only rarely it seems with full candor. WWII veterans were generally closed lipped about their service for most of their lives, sometimes out of humility, sometimes because they didn't want to remember, and sometimes because they couldn't talk about it.
"Oh, I was part of the 30th Infantry Division." That was the extent of it, nothing more. But, there was so much more.
The ensuing research underscored the importance of talking to family members while they are still alive to preserve the family's (and our country's) history. As it turns out this humble veteran was actually a member of the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) whose specialty was Photo Interpretation; he was the Chief Interpreter (2nd Lt.) on a 6 man team that was attached to the 30th Infantry Division, not part of it.
The records of this War Department level organization were only declassified by the National Archives in the early 2000s. A deep dive into the records of Camp Ritchie, the Military Intelligence Service, the 30th Infantry Division, morning reports of multiple organizations, photo and map analysis, personnel records, and more, produced a deeply fascinating story. A young farm boy from an isolated region of the Great Plains who knew German was drafted into the Army in 1942 at age 20. He completed basic training and was sent to Officer Candidate School, after which he was assigned to an infantry division as a platoon leader. While training at Ft. Leonard Wood, MO in 1943 he was given secret orders (transferring him to the Military Intelligence Service) and placed on a train going to Camp Ritchie, Maryland. There he spent months of highly intensive training in hand to hand combat, map use, German Army order of battle, interrogation, and photo interpretation - at one of the most fascinating military facilities of WWII. At the conclusion of training, after graduation, he was placed on a 6 member team comprised largely of men from entirely different walks of life from himself and given classified orders to Europe.
In late 1943 his team sailed on the Queen Elizabeth to Great Britain in a secret shipment along with the OSS teams commonly called the Jedburghs; the OSS and Military Intelligence Service were sister organizations. In the UK the British trained the photo interpretation teams further, after which they were assigned to divisions prior to D-Day. These MIS teams went on to play an incredibly critical, but nearly completely unknown, role in our victory in Europe. The story of this team's contribution to the success of the 30th Infantry Division is amazing. After VE day he was made the Officer in Charge of a new photo interpretation team, reassigned to the 30th Infantry Division at their request, and was on the Queen Mary sailing for redeployment to Japan when it surrendered. Over the course of this research 5 of the 6 families from the photo interpretation team were identified, contacted, and provided information about their fathers/grandfathers. The 6th team member appears to have passed with no children/family remaining.
The Family History Keepsake
We were engaged to prepare a comprehensive family history as an 80th birthday present. The history included the family surname of each of the person's grandparents, with some notable additions as they were uncovered.
This volume reached well back into Norway, the Czech Republic, Germany, and the United Kingdom for the origins of the family and included several unique immigration stories. The ancestors identified included founders of colonies and our country, Revolutionary War, Civil War, and WWII service members, and recent immigrants who only came to America in the last 100 years. Historical information, images, documents, and maps were combined with specific family facts to paint a picture of life for the family's ancestors as they migrated to and across our country. Important stories of military service to create our country, and sustain it, were told in sufficient detail to emphasize their importance but not overwhelm the reader. The volume included a comprehensive analysis of sources, was fully footnoted, documented, and provided complete ancestor reporting. This beautiful leather-bound volume will be treasured by the family for many generations to come.
Colonial Family Greed
A court case over greed turned out to be a valuable source of significant documentary evidence for a family with deep roots in Colonial Virginia seeking to identify links to a Revolutionary War soldier. As so often has happened the county courthouse sustained a fire, and in this case, sustained numerous fires, resulting in the loss of valuable documents that would likely have been quite helpful for the research goal. Fortunately, in this case there was a secondary source of information pertaining to the family which was stored in another court house and in the public record of the time - a dispute over stolen inheritance. This project included the colonial practices of entailment and primogeneture, and a story of greed over generational wealth created at the very founding of Virginia Colony.
A careful analysis of the case which included all family members, understanding of cultural practice of the time, and use of additional sources yeilded the information the family sought. It painted a picture of a family of gentlemen farmers in Nansemond, Virginia with a particular son who, at an early age, served as an officer in the Virginia Militia, and the Continental Army in General Nathaniel Greene's division. On Christmas night in 1776 this young officer crossed the Delaware River with Gen. George Washington and fought in the Battle of Trenton where he was injured along with his fellow Virginia officer James Monroe (who would become the 5th President of the United States). Thanks to the National Archives we even know that Gen. Washington marched with his division on the way to Trenton that day. This patriot who participated in several important early battles for our independence was wounded, returned home in 1777, and in 1881 watched and listened to the Battle of Yorktown unfold across Chesapeake Bay, short miles from his plantation. He was witness to both the beginning and conclusion of our struggle for independence.
The Mystery Father
The family knew their father/grandfather had a 'mixed' past but they weren't sure exactly what it was. As part of an overall family history project the family learned their real identity, and it wasn't what they thought. Their grandfather grew up during the depression, and as was true for so many, could not find adequate work for most of those years.
When the CCC ended his employment he turned to the military, but had a difficult time enlisting as he lacked sufficient education. Finally, he made it into the Marine Corps but decided after a few months that it wasn't for him and left in 1939. The Marine Corps, of course, viewed this as desertion.
What followed was a cross country evasion of military police and escape from local law enforcement custody resulting in a secret name change in a new state where he married and had children. He told no one of his true identity, not even his wife and children. The FBI finally caught up to him, after the war, and fortunately for him after Truman had pardoned those guilty of his crimes. His secret was out.
Research of period newspapers revealed certain clues, but the picture was incomplete. Luckily his personnel records survived the fire and were retrieved at NARA St. Louis. These documents turned out to be a treasure of information for the family and included a full report from the military of what took place. Also included were two personal statements their grandfather gave to the Marine Corps which were a history of what his life was like growing up and to that point in time in his own words; priceless information.
It's important to pull at all the threads, and keep pulling, there may be a family treasure connected to one of them.
The Adoption Double Mystery
An adoptee was searching for her biological family history. DNA evidence was fruitful and strong family links provided an excellent/clear picture of her maternal and paternal families in the current generation. But, on the maternal side it became murky. DNA evidence provided conclusive links in current generations to one surname, but further in the past to another surname, which understandably created significant uncertainty and confusion.
This is an excellent example of why use of both traditional and genetic genealogy is so important, and in this case, traditional genealogy explained uncertainty with genetic genealogy. A careful review of period newspapers revealed a reference to a turn of the century court case involving the family. An attorney was trying to settle an estate but had uncooperative family members, and ultimately requested the court to intervene and settle things. The resulting court documents showed her great grandfather had inexplicably changed his name to what the family uses today. It also provided a full recitation of the members of the family using the (assumed) name at the time. Most importantly it provided evidence of the name change and explained the results that were found in the DNA testing, solving an adoption double mystery.