Some dark reading this month – and I don’t mean we had a light bulb needing to be changed. The third book, though, is all sweetness and light. Book 1: The Great Escape by Paul Brickhill You’ve probably seen – or at least heard of – the movie. I can promise you: The book is better. Because the author was there. The intricate planning and excruciating work that went into digging tunnels (yes, plural) are described in fascinating detail. Wouldn’t…
This is the first time our family tree has pointed me to an episode of Dateline. Oh, how I wish it weren’t so. At first, the name Harry Kirk Dansereau caught my eye. (You may remember Marie Antoinette Dansereau from this family story. Her half-brother Edward was Harry’s father.) After the name caught my eye, his obituary utterly charmed me. Harry’s grandchildren wrote his obituary together. They told of his birth in Baltimore, and education in New Hampshire, Maryland, England,…
In this 2004 poem, Mom remembers her youngest child’s return from the hospital as a newborn in 1964 and again from serving overseas in the Marines. Homecomings Soon after you were bornyour Father took your brothers sister berryingyour Grandmother steadied the housefor your homecoming and for the berry pickersthe two of us took off to bed after the admiration partyand the blueberries went into piesa succulent sleep in a hot ovenon a summer afternoon Years later on another summer afternoonwe…
Leo and Minnie Wagner waited a long while for a son. They’d married in 1909 and settled down on a farm a few miles west of Gary’s ancestors here in southern Indiana. Minnie was a Mehling. In our family tree, she is Gary’s first cousin, twice removed. By 1922, Leo and Minnie had five daughters. That July, though, a son was born. Think of the love and care Andrew Matthias must have received from all those sisters! The next year,…
Another September has come and gone – and with it, four more books. Book 1: Operation Mincemeat by Ben Macintyre This is one wild tale – and it’s a true story: Still a year away from D-Day, the masterminds at Britain’s MI5 were determined to dream up a scheme to convince Hitler that the Allies had changed their plans regarding Italy. The team – including future Bondsman Ian Fleming – came up with a plan that was so detailed and…
This story is dedicated to anyone who has ever become frustrated working on a family tree: Don’t give up. A year ago, we put together the story of Harry M. Nightingale. He fought – and died – in World War I. His connection to our family tree is through his widow’s second husband. We’re family. Harry wrote an incredible letter home while overseas. His mom gave it to the local paper to share with its readers. (That letter is reprinted…
He was part of the Greatest Generation. The generation that fought the Second World War, in the hope there would never be another. Members of this generation, those who returned from the horrors of war, were often quiet about what they’d witnessed. Perhaps they were just too busy catching up with their lives back home. Most probably, though, they didn’t want to bring the trauma they’d seen back to the surface. This may have been the case with Gary‘s uncle…
He was the only local boy to fight in Italy during World War One. Leo Paul Werne was a younger brother of Gary’s grandpa George. Born on January 25, 1891, he was 25 when the call came to sign up for the draft. Leo prepared to go “over there.” As part of the American Expeditionary Forces, Private Werne was a “Doughboy.” According to a front-page article in The Ferdinand News on May 23, 1919, Leo had quite an adventure: Returns…
Philip Cassidy didn’t start out as a member of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. When he volunteered to serve in The Great War, he was a member of the 16th Division Army Cyclist Corps. Surely Philip wore this badge on his uniform cap with pride: Philip Markey Cassidy was born in Dublin, Ireland, on October 12, 1895. He was the fourth of seven children born to Daniel and Mary Jane. “Markey” was Mary Jane’s maiden name. Philip’s father, Daniel, was the…
This is the story of Galen Francis Veayo. He was born in Ontario, Canada on September 16, 1920. A twin. His sister’s name was Oleavia. The son of Joseph and Nina, he was the nephew and namesake of Maine educator Galen I. Veayo. He was Dad’s second cousin; their grandfathers were brothers. By the time Galen was 10, his family had moved to his father’s hometown of Bangor, Maine. Galen’s high-school yearbook tells us he collected rare coins. He especially…