Contagious Genealogy: A Pandemic

One of the conflicts that Americans participated in, which I know the least about, happens to be the Vietnam War. I won't even pretend to know the first thing about what sparked the initial standoff between North and South Vietnam, nor why the United States felt the need to become involved.  With minimal research, I can report that the war spanned 20 years, from 1955 to 1975, with ties to the Cold War which was "raging on" as the backdrop. North Vietnam was backed by the Soviet Union, and South Vietnam had the U.S. and other anti-communist countries backing its interests. The U.S. military was actively involved from 1965, under President Lyndon B. Johnson's command, until its withdrawal in 1973 during President Richard Nixon's term. According to the Department of Defense Statistical Information Analysis Division (SIAD), nearly 60,000 American service members died as a result of the war, with another 300,000+ wounded in action. Many of those men had not enlisted in...

Family history research in Australia is quite foreign to me. As far as I know, I have no lines that extend into that part of the world, and I've never travelled there, so I haven't gone looking for anything down there. However, my paternal uncle (who I only met once in person a few years before he passed away) did spend a short time in southern Australia in the 1970s teaching in the state of Victoria. We only have one photo of him at Orbost High School during this time that he sent back home to his parents: Orbost High School, ca. 1973 It wasn't even exactly clear upon initial examination who he was in this photo. None of the males stood out as being the main subject of the photo, and he wasn't clearly marked. We assumed him to be the seated man in the tie toward the top, center of the photograph (next to the standing man with his hand up to his temple). His beard and mustache were two other features he hadn't been known for in previous years, and his writing on the...

Born in Londonderry, Ireland about 1844, my third great grandfather, James Boyce, was brought over to America as an infant. Starting around the age of 16, I can place him in Wheeling, Ohio County, Virginia, when he enlisted in the Union Army at the start of the U.S. Civil War. Military pension records describe him as being of light complexion with grey eyes and brown hair and standing at 5 feet 5 inches high.  Arthur Lumley, artist, and William Waud, "The old Harrison mansion--Harrison's landing James River," United States Virginia Harrison's Landing, 3 Jul-16 Aug, 1862; photograph, Library of Congress (https://www.loc.gov/item/2004661302/ : accessed 10 Feb 2024). James Boyce was mustered at this general hospital on 18 August 1862, just two days after this sketch was estimated to be drawn, meaning he very well could have been one of the soldiers featured as its subjects. In March 1864 he deserted the army. Later that year he signed up to be a Landsman in the U.S. Nav...

When one imagines staying on a tropical island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with the beach at their fingertips and palm trees canvassing the horizon in front of picturesque, cotton candy-colored sunsets, it's likely not to be in the thick of a world war. However, my grandmother, Edna Arlene (Dean) Millhouse, could recount just such a memory. Edna Dean on Tinian Island, 1945. During World War II, she utilized her training as a registered nurse to serve in the U.S. Army as a 1st Lieutenant. Edna Dean during World War II. While part of her service remained shoreside at Newton D. Baker General Hospital in Martinsburg, West Virginia, one of her wartime assignments brought her to the island of Tinian, part of the Northern Mariana Islands to the east of the Philippines and mainland Japan. Edna Dean in between her parents, Beatrice and Chester Dean at Newton D. Baker General Hospital. After Saipan was invaded, Tinian became the next target for the marine forces. The name Jig Day was ...

This year marks the first in which I've discovered, or more so, realized that the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade has a "never on Sunday" rule and will, therefore, be held on Monday, January 2nd of 2023. Yet, that's not the mystery I'm set on solving here, but merely a fun fact to kick off this puzzler. The older woman on the right of the above photograph is my 2nd great-grandaunt, Mary Ann Wells (Miller) Webb, the sister to my 2nd great-grandmother, Margaret (Miller) Hinman, on my father's side of the family. The Miller siblings were born in New York in the mid-1850s, migrated down to Iowa, and eventually both came west to California. The pretty young woman in the crown and gown on the left side of the photograph is Mary Ann's granddaughter, my 2nd cousin 2x removed, Mary Madeline Webb, who later became Mary Hendricksen. Here (above) she stands in a picture labeled with the year 1931. The description?  Princess at Rose Bowl Parade But herein lies the ...

  JULY 04, 2022 As the United States annually celebrates the 4th of July as the birth of our nation, what many forget is that the day only marks the ratifying of the Declaration of Independence. In fact, many of the famous signatures laid upon that document were not even etched in until August 2nd of that year. And more importantly, the many famous battles of the Revolutionary War were fought in the years following, not leading up to. My 4th great grandfather, Hezekiah Marshall, testified to participating in one of those well-known engagements, The Battle of Trenton. In October of 1776, Hezekiah and his father’s team in Frederick, Maryland, were pressed into the service to haul baggage for the U.S. army, most of the time under the command of General Nathaniel Greene. At this time, and over the next two months, the Continental Army appeared to be on the losing side, and morale was low. Emanuel Leutze, 1851, oil painting of Continental soldiers crossing the Delaware. But Christmas ev...