Wordless Wednesday: Throop Cemetery Congressional Medal of Honor

CNYGS Meeting This Saturday!

CNYGS All Day Conference- Michael Strauss

Adventures in Military Records

CNYGS’s upcoming speaker, Michael Strauss cost me $70 last year. Am I upset? No way! I’m thrilled! The records that I had despaired of getting were worth every penny of what I spent on them.

It all started last spring while sitting in a session at the New England Regional Genealogical Conference (NERGC) in Springfield, Massachusetts. Michael was talking about military records, in particular those from the world wars. As many of us are already all too well aware, a fire in Saint Louis in 1973 destroyed many records. Destroyed were about 80% of the Army and 75% of the Air Force records for a good share of the 20th century. I had tried over 20 years ago to get the records of two WWI Army veterans. Those of my maternal grandparents-- to no avail due to this fire. Some have been reconstructed over the years. There are more becoming available all the time through this process.

I talked with Michael after the presentation and he encouraged me to try again. Perhaps my grandparents’ were some of the lucky records that had been reconstructed and now available. That hope, along with some tidbits he had mentioned about Seabees during World War II encouraged me to try the requests again. However, this time I ordered with a twist to them. This time I sent 3 requests instead of 2. The first was for my grandmother's World War I Army Nurse records. The second was for my grandfather's World War I Calvary records. The new request was for my grandfather’s Seabee records when he reenlisted during World War II.

It was a very busy time during the early part of last summer and I set the responses aside when the first two came back with no records available. I had almost forgotten completely about them. Then one day, going to the mailbox I found yet another envelope from NARA. For that $70 mentioned above, I could get what was left of the records of Marion Wooster when he served in the Seabees. You better believe a check went out by return mail!

A couple weeks later a fat envelope arrived. I eagerly went through it. Much of what was there, I had already found on my own. However, papers backed up family stories with the facts. There were a few new tidbits, such as whom Grandpa had worked in the years before re-enlisting. Some of the records were about his prior service and included stuff about Grandma as well. Did I have her naturalization papers already? Yes, but here was another copy along with their marriage certificate. Invaluable papers to have if I hadn’t already have them.

My uncle, their youngest child, has done a lot of genealogy over the years. But, with age and illness, he has now stopped doing any research. Much of what I knew about his father’s service, I had gained from him. He especially knew about the time in the Seabees, as he had been an adolescent during that time. I took this envelope of papers to him one afternoon. We spent well over an hour looking through the papers together. He was delighted to see all this information. My uncle was particularly fascinated about his father’s work history. He sat there remembering names and places from his childhood. In fact, of all the papers in that envelope, this was the only page he wanted to keep a copy of.

Michael won’t be talking about the world wars at the upcoming presentation. But I’m sure he’ll join me in urging you to send out requests for those records. It costs nothing to ask, if they find something, you can decide then whether to order the records or not. Meanwhile, I’m looking forward to hearing what new tidbits and record groups he will introduce us to that might expand some of my searches!

Wordless Wednesday- Flag Day

Marion James Wooster June 14, 1896 - April 1, 1976

Grandpa

Your Grandmother Wears Army Boots

“Your grandmother wears Army boots,” was once a taunt on the playground. Of course, women didn’t serve in the military during those times. Or did they? The photographs below show a woman in WWI era Army nurse’s uniforms. Well, my grandmother did indeed wear Army boots. The photos depict her upon enlistment and later on the base of Fort Sam Houston in Brownsville, Texas.

Alice Valentine Jennings was not a typical young woman of her times. At the age of 19, she had left home saying goodbye to her parents to never see them again. Setting off on a small skiff in the harbor at Cobh, Ireland, she was soon boarding the ship RMS Laconia. Along with her older sister Elizabeth, she was on her way to America.

Within two years of arriving in Boston, she had left her waitressing job and completed a course in nursing through Long Island Hospital, located in the harbor of Boston. This hospital was one for poor people with contagious diseases. There, the Boston government sponsored a program for young women of little means to becoming registered nurses.

Alice worked at Boston Women’s Hospital for about a year in the children’s ward where they called her “Miss Jenny”. The United States was entering World War I. She had heard that the army was offering citizenship with shorter residency requirements for men who entered the army. Knowing not much more about it, she stepped into a recruiter’s office and asked: “What about the nurses? Will you help us become citizens as well?”

On January 26, 1918, Alice Jennings of Roxbury, Massachusetts received her appointment in the Army Nurse Corps. And on January 29^th took her oath of office. She was on her way to Texas.

While at Fort Sam Houston she worked with other nurses in support of the Calvary. They guarded our border. Pancho Villa, a hero of the Mexican Revolution, had been creating trouble there, making raids back and forth across the border. United States Intelligence recently intercepted the Zimmerman telegram hinting that an invasion through Mexico might be imminent. All in all, it was a busy place.

Alice kept a photograph album during this time. That is where we found these two pictures. In the album appeared pictures of many of her friends, both nurses, and men from the Calvary. As you flip through the album, there is one man who begins to appear in more of the pictures. A young soldier named Marion Wooster from the small town of Lysander, in upstate New York.

Two dates stand out during Alice's time in the Army. On December 1, 1919, in a naturalization ceremony, she becomes a citizen of the United States. At this time, not only did few women serve in the army, but also few obtained citizenship on their own. It was a time period where a minor child would become naturalized automatically if their father did and foreign women gained citizenship upon marriage to a US citizen as well as female citizens losing it if they married a man who was a citizen of another country.

The other date soon follows. A little over two months later, on February 18, 1920, Alice married Marion in a simple ceremony in Brownsville, Texas. My grandmother did indeed wear Army boots.

Wordless Wednesday- In Honor of Memorial Day A Random Sampling

One Hundred Years

Today marks the 100th anniversary of when we entered the Great War or the War to End All Wars as our ancestors called it. Yes, World War I. Did you have some of your relatives serving during this war? Perhaps they served in Europe? If you did, there's a new database available that Ancestry is announcing today. Below is unofficial information I received about it a couple days ago, but it is being released to the public today. I unfortunately, know of no relatives that served in Europe during this war. I had a few, including my grandparents, but they all served stateside, so I can't find anybody in these records, but maybe you can!

Marion Wooster served along our southern border.

Here's the announcement:

To commemorate the 100^th anniversary of the entry of the United States into World War I, Ancestry today launched a database that includes all of the passenger lists for the American troop ships going to and from Europe during WWI, and beyond. The records include name of next of kin, among other details that might not now be easy to find, thanks to the 1974 fire at the NPRC.

U.S., Army Transport Service, Passenger Lists, 1910-1939

http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?htx=List&dbid=61174

What is most exciting about this resource is that it goes a long way towards answering the question, “So my ancestor had a draft card … but did he actually serve?” Obviously, if the ancestor was a soldier on the troop ship, he did indeed serve. Some soldiers may have served only in a stateside role during the war, and for them, consulting other sources, such as the records of the Adjutant General for the state in which the man in question resided. Often, these records are now at state archives.

Fold 3 Has Some Free Access This Month!

 Fold 3 is offering free access to World War II records for the month of December! Go here to check it out:

 https://go.fold3.com/wwii/

Here are the ones I'll be looking for as well as Allen Ward whose picture I don't have.:

Burton Ward

Marion J. Wooster

Robert Wooster

 

 

 

Lester Wooster

Find My Past- Free Records Access for Veterans Day 2016

I just found out that Find My Past is offering some free records access this weekend. I know many of us don't have a long weekend for Veteran's Day, but perhaps you can still find time to take advantage of this and get a few extra records on your ancestors!

 

The pictures below are of my grandparents, Marion & Alice Wooster during the time they served in the Army during and just after WWI. 

Army Calvary

Army Nurse's Corp

FINDMYPAST GRANT FOUR DAYS OF FREE ACCESS TO ALL MILITARY RECORDS FOR VETERANS DAY 2016

Findmypast makes entire collection of more than 70 million world military records free for four days

All UK, Irish, Australian, Canadian and US military records free from the 10^th to the 13^thNovember 2016

Includes free access to over 43 million US and Canada military records

Leading family history website, Findmypast, has just announced that they will be making their entire collection of military records free for four days to coincide with Veterans Day 2016.

From 04:00 EST, 10^th November until 18:59 GMT, 13^th November 2016, all 70 million records within Findmypast’s “Military, Armed Forces and Conflict” category will be completely free to search and explore, providing family historians from around the globe the opportunity to uncover the stories of the military heroes within their own family.

This will include free access to:

·         Over 43 million US and Canada military records

·         Over 1.3 million United States Army enlistment records

·         Over 1.1 million United States Civil War Pension File Index records

·         Over 89,000 Revolutionary War Pensions

·         Millions of Civil War soldiers, sailors, veterans and medal records.

·         Millions of records covering US forces in Korea, Vietnam and WW2

·         Over 26.4 million British military Records including the most comprehensive 

collection of British Army service records both for WW1 and pre WW1 - these multiple page documents were released in partnership with The National Archives and are packed with fascinating biographical details such as the names and addresses of next of kin, physical descriptions and character references from commanding officers

·         The most comprehensive British Royal Nave and Royal Air Force collections available online

·         Over 2.6 million POW records in our exclusive Prisoners of War 1715-1945 collection.

·         Over 1.1 million WW2 casualty records

·         Soldiers Died In The Great War 1914-1919 records

·         Over 1.5 million medal index cards, memorial rolls and roll of honour records

·         Military tribunal records - the records of thousands of men who attempted to avoid conscription

·         Military Nurses 1856-1994 records

Free Live Webinar

On Friday November 11^th at 11:00 EST, Findmypast will be hosting a free Remembrance Day Webinar presented by in-house military expert, Paul Nixon. In “Unpicking the past: revealing secrets in old military photographs”, Mr Nixon will demonstrate how anyone can turn detective using old military photographs, military records and historic newspapers to uncover clues which in turn open up further avenues of research.

Learn more at:  http://www.findmypast.com/military-records   

War of 1812 Records Fully Funded!

At the opening session of the Federation of Genealogy Societies (FGS) conference in Springfield, Illinois this morning there was a great announcement for the War of 1812 pension records.

See Judy Russell's column here: http://www.legalgenealogist.com/2016/09/01/over-the-top/

They are fully funded!

US-Mexican War Announcement

 I just got this announcement through the National Genealogical Society's newsletter UpFront with NGS:


From our friends at FGS and the National Park Service …

August 8, 2016 – Austin, TX. and Brownsville, TX. The Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) and the National Park Service’s Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park announce a partnership to develop a searchable database of more than 130,000 soldiers of the U.S.-Mexican War.

The database will allow descendants of U.S. soldiers to connect to their personal history and help Palo Alto commemorate and tell the stories of these soldiers. After the database is developed, unit histories, digitized documents, and information on U.S.-Mexican War soldiers will be added. Efforts will also be made to include names and information about Mexican soldiers in this war.

"FGS is thrilled to partner with the Palo Alto Battlefield National Historic Park for this important preservation project,” said FGS President D. Joshua Taylor. “We look forward to working with our member societies and volunteers to provide new access to records for those researching the Mexican War."

Palo Alto Battlefield is also pleased with the partnership. “National Parks tell the stories of America,” said Superintendent Mark Spier. “Palo Alto Battlefield is excited to have the opportunity to work with the Federation of Genealogical Societies to tell the stories of the thousands of soldiers who served in the U.S.-Mexican War.”

To help bring these soldiers’ stories to life and to be a part of this momentous preservation project, indexing volunteers should contact Project Coordinator Patricia Rand, The Villages, FL, at projects@fgs.org.

The Federation of Genealogical Societies and the National Park Service previously partnered together in 1999 for the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System database project where FGS volunteers completed data entry for more than five million names. The efforts of the CWSS project can now be experienced on the NPS Civil War website.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The US-Mexican War was fought between 1846 and 1848 for those that don't remember that part of American History class. It is not the border skirmishes that occurred in 1916 during the Mexican Revolution where we were trying to capture Poncho Villa who was making raids into the United States. This is the first thing I thought of when I saw the announcement especially when it mentioned Brownsville, Texas. I obviously didn't pay strict attention to military battles in class either.

Anniversary of The Great Military Records Fire

Many of us have parents or grandparents who served during World War I or II. Some of us have the information and military records that these people saved. Others have only found out or gotten interested in their service after these people have passed on. Many of the papers have been lost or discarded long ago.

There is a simple solution- just send away to the National Archives for them. Or is there? For most of the branches of service, this can be the answer. However, if they belonged to the Army, Army Air Force or Air Force between 1912 and 1963, you are likely out of luck. These records were housed at the National Personnel Records Center in Saint Louis, Missouri.

The fire from the VA website

Why is this fact important? Shortly after midnight, 43 years ago today, on July 12, 1973, a fire started in the top floor of this building. What a fire it was! It swept through the entire 6^th floor taking with it most of these records as well as causing damage to the 5^th floor. It was two days before they were able to reenter the building after the fire was out. It is estimated that between 16 and 18 million official records went up in flames that night. For the Army this was 80% of those discharged between November 1, 1912 and January 1, 1960. For the Air Force it was 75% of those discharged between September 25, 1947 and January 1, 1964. There were no copies. There were no microfilms. These records are gone.

Since then the government has used what they call auxiliary records to try to reconstruct the basic record of each person whose records were destroyed. However, for many people the details of their service during this time period is gone forever.

I have tried to retrieve copies of the service records for my grandparents, Marion and Alice (Jennings) Wooster in the past, but was unsuccessful. At the time I didn't know why they couldn't be found. They both served during WWI, Marion in the Calvary of the Army and Alice in the Army Nurse's Corp. Marion additionally served during WWII in the SeaBees, part of the Army.

Alice about 1919

Marion about 1922

Saturday Challenge of Names

On Sunday evening, I am getting to the SaturdayChallenge.

1) My friend and colleague Linda Stufflebean posted JUST FOR FUN – 4 X 6 = 24 FAMILY TREE QUESTIONS on her blog this week, and I thought we could answer half of the questions this week and half next week.

2)  Here are the first three questions:

*  What four places did my ancestors live that are geographically the farthest from where I live today?
*  What are the four most unusual given names in my family tree?

*  What are the four most common given names in my family tree?

Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Maine

a) The locations- these would be origins of some of the major lines, since as far as I know, all came from their places of origins to somewhere in what is now the United States. None of the direct lines ventured to other continents in between.

-Wooster from Chedingham, Buckinghamshire, England

-Brown from Ulster in the North of Ireland, said to be Scotch Irish in older genealogies.

-Duff from Island McGee in county Antrim, Ireland.

-Du Colon is rumored to be from near Colon, France. Nobody yet knows for sure where Dr Claudius Du Colon (1716-1801) was born or the route he took to the US.

b) There are not a lot of unusual names in the family tree, so I cheated and used 2 collateral and 2 direct lines. Some of these names combined with their surnames are just too good to miss!

-Preserved Fish (several on 4^th and 3^rd cousin lines) one is the son of Thomas Fish and Grizzel Strange. Now, that’s a combination!

-Titus Titus (4C5R) son of John Titus and  Elizabeth Hungerford. What were they thinking? It is a family name within both lines, but…

-Mindwell Chatfield (5^th Great grandmother) wife of Moses Wooster. Daughter of Ebenezer Chatfield and Abigail Prindle.  A virtue name from the Puritans.

-Quartis Brown (3^rd Great grandfather) husband of Julia Gibbs. Son of Robert Brown & Elizabeth Campbell. I’ve never seen Quartis otherwise.

A card from Quartis Brown's pension application

c) The most common names. I’m not sure how to determine this with my database, so I estimated it from the names I come across most often. Including siblings of my direct ancestors, George and Elizabeth would be on the list as well. I think they are pretty standard names for Protestant English and Irish lines.

-William

-John

-Mary/Maria

-Ann

March and Central New York Genealogical Society

Attendees listening to Michael Keene's presentation

The Central New York Genealogical Society is still looking for a new editor. Joyce Cook has retired from this position after 10 years of hard work on TreeTalks. We still will be seeing a lot of her at meetings though as she has agreed to serve as Vice President. Congratulations to Joyce on your new endeavor and I hope it gives you enough time to get the book published you’ve been wanting to!

The meeting today had two separate sessions. The first featured Michael Keene  who was speaking on the history of orphan asylums. He has written many books on history in New York, mainly New York City and had them available at the meeting for sale.

He spoke briefly of Irish history of the famine era that brought many young people to America. This was the beginning of such phenomenon in New York City as the Bowery boys and other groups of children roaming the streets. This was a time of many orphans with no real place to live or supervision as they grew up. These children were essentially raising themselves.

This was the start of orphan asylums and the Orphan Train Movement. His book, Abandoned, tells about 18 orphanages established around New York State. Far from the total number orphanages formed in the state, but they are representative of the overall movement that happened during this time period. It was a time of dedicated people coming together to rescue children they didn’t even know.

Just three of the people highlighted in the book:

·      Philby Thomas founded an Indian Orphanage in Western NY.

·      Susan Fennimore Cooper- The Orphan House of Cooperstown

·      Elizabeth Scarlet Hamilton- NYC’s first private orphanage.

An Institute for destitute pregnant women was established as well to give women a safe place to stay and give birth. This idea was spread across the country to cities and small towns. In all, 55 missions were created; some survive to this very day.

The people who founded the asylums were all wealthy. They were members of some of the most prominent families of New York. They were people that could have easily ignored the poor, but instead they reached out and helped them.

Michael told other stories told of children across the state that have been found from newspapers and letters. One such mentioned was a young boy who was enrolled in the State School for Idiots in Syracuse. His problem? He was “deaf and dumb.” In other words he couldn’t hear or consequentially speak. This was typical of many of these asylums. Their only crimes, if you can call them that, were that they were poor or sick with illness or disease. 

Sue Greenhagen and Mary Ray Casper

The second session was an overview of lineage societies giving us an idea of the many different ones that exist and an idea of what is needed to join them and why people belong to one or more of these societies. This was conducted by a panel of four people who belong to several of these societies across Central New York: David Morton, Bob Gang, Sue Greenhagen and Mary Raye Casper. After the presentations, they were available to talk individually with interested people.

Societies come in three basic types:

·      Military,

·      Pioneer or First Family Societies

·      Common Trait (same ship, occupation)

A site that lists many, if not all of them is: www.hereditary.us  The list is quite extensive with somewhere around 500 lineage societies listed.

Analyzing a War of 1812 pension

While my computer is recovering for it's recent illness- that of the dead hard drive- my husband, Rich has contributed his own posting about a pension from the War of 1812: 

 Even though the bicentennial of the War of 1812 is over, there are still things going on commemorating this war. The sixth annual Oswego War of 1812 Symposium will be held on April 2 – 3, 2016 at the Lake Ontario Event and Conference Center at the Best Western Hotel in the City of Oswego, NY. Another big project that has been ongoing for several years is the Preserve the Pensions project. The goal is to digitize the War of 1812 pension records, all 7.2 million pages of them, and allow free access of these images on Fold3. They are currently digitizing pensions of soldiers with surnames starting with letter “M”.

Since my 1812 ancestor’s surname starts with an “L”, his pension has been added to Fold3. In 1878 Hannah Losee filed for a widow’s pension based on her husband Cornelius’ service in the war.  She was awarded a benefit of $8.00 per month. Much information of genealogical value was found in the pension including: Cornelius’ first wife’s name, Sarah Ames, who died in Greenburgh, NY about 1816; his marriage in the Town of Ossining, (Westchester County) NY on 19 Aug 1819 to Hannah (nee Anderson), the ceremony having been performed by Methodist minister Theodorius Clark, there being no written record; Cornelius’ occupation as blacksmith; his physical description of dark gray eyes, black curly hair, dark complexion, about 5’6’’ or 5’7” tall; a residence of Ossining in 1851 when Cornelius was aged 72; Cornelius’ death on 11 Aug 1864 in Ossining; and Hannah’s death date of 26 Jul 1885, aged 85 years, 7 months and 13 days. There were also references to three children, which included their ages and residences. The pension also states he contracted deafness from sleeping on the ground during his service.

Some of this information, such as Cornelius’ physical description, needs no further scrutiny. However, other items of information should be checked out using the web. For instance, the minister Theodorius Clark, who purportedly married Hannah and Cornelius in 1819 in Ossining, should be explored further. Since the minister’s name is rather uncommon, plugging his name into a search engine might prove fruitful.

A Google search yields the correct spelling of his first name, Theodosius.  His name appeared in yearly minutes that were published by The New York Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The 1873 Minutes of the Eighty-Third Session contains a memoir of the late minister. We learn that his first assignment was to Jamaica, Long Island in 1812. He was in Stamford, CT in 1815 - 1816; Ridgefield, CT in 1817 - 1818; Granville, MA in 1819; Pittsfield, MA in 1820 - 1821, Chatham, NY in 1822 – 1823; Saratoga, NY in 1824 and so on. From 1833 – 1834 he lived in Sing Sing (the village of Ossining was called Sing Sing until 1901) as part of the Mount Pleasant circuit and after that took several other assignments before retiring in 1837 at the age of 51 due to ill health. He attended the Sing Sing M. E. Church for many years prior to his death in 1872 and he is buried in Dale Cemetery in Ossining.

Now that we have this background information about Theodosius Clark, we can better analyze the statement in the pension concerning Cornelius and Hannah’s 1819 marriage. The 1819 date ties in well with the birthdate listed in the pension of the oldest child, a son Montgomery Losee, born Aug 30, 1820. But if Theodosius was ministering in Granville, MA in 1819, that is about 100 miles away from Ossining, NY. There is no indication that the couple had any previous connections with Theodosius. Since Hannah was in her late seventies when giving her depositions it is more likely that she may have remembered the date she was married as a nineteen year old girl but may have forgotten the name of the presiding minister. Since Theodosius resided in Ossining for almost forty years until his death, it is likely that Hannah was well acquainted with him. She might have mistakenly thought that he had performed the ceremony. The conclusion I draw from this is that another Methodist minister likely married Cornelius and Hannah.  

As genealogists we try not to take information in a source to be gospel truth. This pension example shows how analysis and correlation can be done with information gathered to arrive at a sound conclusion. The information in the pension concerning Cornelius’ military service needs to be analyzed in a similar way to test its soundness.  But this is for another day…