barefoot to school uphill in the snow ....

[sammyg2]

My family has a tradition going back five generations where the men write a story of their life and memories before they get too old, and share it with the rest of the family.

I had a copy of my father's story, and recently got copies of my grandfather's, my great grandfathers, and great uncle's stories.
Fascinating stuff.
We joke about how kids today have it made and we had it so tough, well we had it made too.
Here are a few clips from my grandfather's story:











My great uncle was named Carroll. he made his fortune in the oil drilling business, here's a little about him as told by my grandfather:




My wife read that part about Carroll and said "now i know where you get it from" referring to making money and not spending it.

[gwmac]

Great tradition, my dad grew up on a homestead in that country, they lived in a dugout the first year.
He left home before he ever lived anywhere with electric lights or plumbing.

[sammyg2]

Here's some info regarding WWII. He was 31 years old, married with three kids at the time ....






This is pretty neat, the guy who dropped the very first atomic bomb stayed at my grandparent's house while training and was friends with them:

[GH85Carrera]

I will play. This was written by my great aunt on my mom's side. It was long before political correctness.

[sammyg2]

Your great great grandfather, PH Vaughan in the 1860 census (highlighted in yellow):

[Jolly Amaranto]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

My family has a tradition going back five generations where the men write a story of their life and memories before they get too old, and share it with the rest of the family.

How I wish my family had done something like that. There were a lot of oral stories, but over time the details tend to be forgotten or blurred. My brothers and I don't always agree on what we "think" we remember. I do have a few letters that my mom wrote that record her memories. Here is one about riding the train between Chicago and Milwaukee. She was working as a nurse before WWII and joined the Army as a nurse after the war broke out.

[Seahawk]

That is very cool.

A relative on my Mother's side wrote a small book about his experiences in Placerville during the gold rush. He also kept journal on his ride from Placerville to St. Louis.

Neat stuff.

Do you plan on writing a similar thing?

[GH85Carrera]

I can bore you guys to death with the stuff I have from my family archive.





This is my great Grandfather.

I have lots more from my dad's side as well.

I put it all on a family tree in Ancestry.Com. All the people that are dead can be researched and the photos downloaded. I have received email thanks from many far distant cousins happy to find a photo of their long distant ancestor.

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

This is my great Grandfather.

Good ole August.

[sammyg2]

Grandfather's 1st cousin, killed on the Bataan death march.




Name: Oliver A Gore
Branch of Service: Coast Artillery Corps
Rank: Private
Service Number: 20843811
Sub Unit: F Battery
Assigned Unit: 200th Coast Artillery Regiment (AntiAircraft)
Source: Bataan-Corregidor Memorial Foundation of New Mexico Inc.

The Bataan Death March had a large impact on the U.S. state of New Mexico,[43] given that many of the U.S. soldiers in Bataan were from New Mexico, specifically from the 200th/515th Coast Artillery of the National Guard.[44] The New Mexico National Guard Bataan Memorial Museum is located in the Armory where the soldiers of the 200th and 515th were processed before their deployment to the Philippines in 1941.[45]

Out of all the veterans from New Mexico that survived the Bataan Death March, only four are still alive today.[48]

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

[kevin930t]

Really cool story

Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk

[GH85Carrera]

Sam, I presume you found those images of my great grandfather Gus on Ancestry.com. I am the one that uploaded them. I had a ton of photos of the Hoefers. Instead of shoving them up in my attic I scanned them and put them on my family tree. I then found one of my distant cousins that I have never met. I have no kids to leave the photos to so I figured if I kept them whoever cleans out my stuff would throw them out. I sent a huge box of just that one family to the distant cousin. She has kids and they loved them.

I sent out several big boxes of stuff to family members with kids.

My oldest cousin that I have know all my life received one family treasure. I had a quilt made by my great grandmother for her grandmother. And the letter from the 1800s about the quilt. She has several grand daughters and they all loved it. I have no idea what monetary value it had, but I did not care, she was the perfect recipient for it.



This is Gus as a teenager.



The wedding photo.

I had her gloves from that photo. I gave them to a different female cousin.

[GH85Carrera]

One more of Gus. I will stop before I kill the thread. I have tons more.

I even have photos from my moms parents while they were "courting" and even from their honeymoon.

[Seahawk]

What a good Dude you are, Glen. Only way to do it but few do.

[Tobra]

Uncle Jack wrote his memoirs. He was there for some very monumental events. At Pearl, across from Battleship Row, throwing potatoes at Japanese planes, because that is what he had. At Yalta, when the big three met, and so on. Retired as a salty old Senior Chief Radioman