Tuesday, September 11, 2007
The "Eyes" Have It
In reading my grandfather's enlistment papers for WWII, I've finally discovered from whom I got my grey eyes. The paperwork says: "Hair: brown, Eyes: gray." Cool... I'm not such an anomaly after all! (Except that, 14 years after a two-year stay in England, I still spell grey with an 'e.')
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Miss Marple, Eat Your Heart Out!
My great-grandfather, Fred Burgess HICKMAN, was killed in a small town in Colorado, almost 70 years ago. Our knowledge of this was based only upon a letter written by my grandfather to his mother and sister, about a week after the funeral. We've never had any proof.
Using this newfangled method of working directly back from myself (yes, really! I was jumping around amongst the generations and branches like a three-year-old hyped up on birthday cake), I decided it was time to do a bit of sleuthing about my great-grandpa's death.
Rootsweb's Cemetery Project is always a good starting point. My Grandpa's letter indicated that he'd traveled to Colorado for the funeral, so obviously, his father had been buried there. (He was visiting family when he was killed.) Volunteers from all over the place are constantly surveying cemeteries in their areas and posting transcriptions of the inhabitants, sometimes even relaying inscriptions and (rarely) photographs! I checked the city cemetery in the town where the death supposedly occurred, and I found an entry with his name - Fred B. Hickman, with a burial dated one year, almost to the day, before I'd calculated his death date. Hmmm...could Grandpa have gotten the date wrong on the letter? Could the date on the stone be wrong? Anything's possible, right?
That's what the contributor shows for the grave in question. I sent a letter to the county registrar asking for any information we had. The words "County burial" gave me hope that their might be some records on the county level, at least confirming the date and cause of death, and perhaps mentioning any next-of-kin that may have been present. Less than a week later, I received an email back, confirming that her records match the grave information I'd found. She also gave me a number to call for someone that might have the records. I have that on my to-do list for this week, right after calling the dentist to postpone my next appointment, and before the trip to the recycling center. Everyday life and genealogy have to mix somehow.
Using this newfangled method of working directly back from myself (yes, really! I was jumping around amongst the generations and branches like a three-year-old hyped up on birthday cake), I decided it was time to do a bit of sleuthing about my great-grandpa's death.
Rootsweb's Cemetery Project is always a good starting point. My Grandpa's letter indicated that he'd traveled to Colorado for the funeral, so obviously, his father had been buried there. (He was visiting family when he was killed.) Volunteers from all over the place are constantly surveying cemeteries in their areas and posting transcriptions of the inhabitants, sometimes even relaying inscriptions and (rarely) photographs! I checked the city cemetery in the town where the death supposedly occurred, and I found an entry with his name - Fred B. Hickman, with a burial dated one year, almost to the day, before I'd calculated his death date. Hmmm...could Grandpa have gotten the date wrong on the letter? Could the date on the stone be wrong? Anything's possible, right?
HICKMAN, FRED B. N/A 4/2/38 2 215 4 County burial
That's what the contributor shows for the grave in question. I sent a letter to the county registrar asking for any information we had. The words "County burial" gave me hope that their might be some records on the county level, at least confirming the date and cause of death, and perhaps mentioning any next-of-kin that may have been present. Less than a week later, I received an email back, confirming that her records match the grave information I'd found. She also gave me a number to call for someone that might have the records. I have that on my to-do list for this week, right after calling the dentist to postpone my next appointment, and before the trip to the recycling center. Everyday life and genealogy have to mix somehow.
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