Helping Daphne

 I am a member of the website GenesReunited and have my wife’s tree posted there (see the tree at www.eliazabethsmith.org).  On 3 May 2008 I received a message from a lady named Daphne who had discovered that her father, Rupert John Eales, was listed in my file.  What happened next was a stellar example of why family history research is so enjoyable.

I had added Rupert and his parents to my tree just prior to Daphne’s email, and I was excited to get more information about Rupert’s siblings and descendants.  After looking at Daphne’s file, I saw that her father was the right age to have served in World War I.  I went to Ancestry's British military records to see if I could find him.

I did a search for Rupert John Eales and found two matches in British Military Records.  The first was Daphne’s brother, named after their father.  I learned that Rupert, the son, was killed in action on 3 Jun 1940 in Dunkirk and was buried at the Abbeville Cemetery Extension in France.  The Commonwealth War Graves Commission site (http://bit.ly/aj7T2A) shows Rupert’s military details and a links to details of Abbeville cemetery.

That site states, “During the early part of the Second World War, Abbeville was a major operational aerodrome, but the town fell to the Germans at the end of May 1940.  On 4 June, an attempt was made by the 51st Division, in conjunction with the French, to break the German bridgehead, but without success.”  I concluded that Rupert must have died in the troop movements, and associated battles, the day prior to the attack of 4 June 1940.

The second entry was for Daphne’s father, who served in WWI.  I found nine pages in his personal military record online. I sent the following message to Daphne: “I have found information about Rupert John Eales (who married Florence Woodhouse) from his World War I military records. He was wounded in action at least twice, the first time the record notes the he was ‘shot in the head (severe)’.”

Just a few hours later Daphne replied, “I knew that my father had been wounded in the First World War but not how badly.”  She asked where I had obtained the information.  I was able to help Daphne get the records and read them for herself.  Those records show that Rupert was wounded “in the field”, but within days was in a medical facility in Boulogne, France, which coincidentally is very near the place where Rupert’s namesake son would be buried 35 years later.  Later, Rupert was discharged in August 1916 due to a case of shell shock.

She stated, “I'm quite bewildered and sad at the moment reading all of these documents. I always remembered my Dad as being much taller than 5'7".   Isn't it strange what things stand out?  Once again, I can't thank you enough.  Wow! They gave him 20 pounds when they discharged him.  It doesn't sound like much now but in 1916 it must have been very different.”

Daphne continued, “He did eventually get over the [shell] shock, at least it seemed so because I never knew anything about it, not even that he had been shot in the head. Come to think of it now, he did have a dent in the top of his head, I just never thought anything about it, he was just my Dad.  He had a jewelry and antiques shop in Brighton for years.  He was a very kind and loving father.”

The fact that Daphne never knew that her father had been severely wounded in the head reminded me a similar situation with my own father, Edward Mann, who served in the US Air Force in World War II. He was not wounded in action, but did survive a plane crash in which most of the crew died.  I did not know of this incident until just a few years before his death.

The story came out while visiting a museum at Hill Air Force Base in Utah.  We entered a plane of the same model as the one that had crashed (a B29 if I remember correctly).  Dad related the story to my brother, Richard, while most of the rest of the family was out of earshot: when the plane developed problems, the co-pilot called the crew together and told them that someone would need to go to the back of the plane (presumably to shift weigh) by crawling through a narrow shaft, but whoever did so would be least likely to survive if the landing went badly.  Dad volunteered to be the one to go to the back.  Ironically, that is what saved him.  He was regarded as somewhat of a hero—or at least as very brave—in volunteering, as the most likely outcome was that he would die and the others survive.  I am very glad to have that story after so many years, just as Daphne was grateful to learn more about her father’s service.

This experience demonstrates to me that Family History is very much alive—even though most of the people we are researching may have passed on.  Through our research on our forebears we often learn things about ourselves and our families; sometimes even surprising details.

Family History: Worthy of Remembering and Recording

Welcome to my Family History Blog!

When I mention my passion for Family History to many people I often get a reaction involving the rolling of eyes and some mumbled phrase such as, "How boring!"

Apparently that reaction is not new.  I recently came across the following quote (while doing family history research) in the book A Parochial History of Enstone, in the County of Oxford, written by John Jordan, and first published in London in 1857. (Examine the book online here: http://bit.ly/9aqwJx).

Jordan wrote, "It is hardly possible to conceive anything more apparently uninteresting and more unpromising of either entertainment or instruction than a volume of parochial register. Continuous lists of children born and baptized, of couples married, and of persons buried, certainly seem little likely to have much in them to encourage our perusal and study of them." (punctuation added)

Of course, I couldn't disagree more.  I recognize I'm in the minority in this, but I would find a 'volume of parochial register' of extreme interest.  As evidence of the same I cite the fact that I have in my home several hundred microfiche containing parochial [parish] registers of such wonderful places as Cold Higham, Pattishall, Potterspury, Blakesley, and Gretton in Northamptonshire; and of Wigston Magna, Fleckney, and Great Glen in Leicestershire.  Oh, and a microfiche reader in my home office (thanks eBay).

However, I can hear my family exclaiming their approval of Mr. Jordan's observation.  Perhaps you agree.

But, I set you up.  What you read above was not the end of John Jordan's quote.  He also states, " . . . yet these same lists if well digested and abstracted are . . . capable of directing us to matters that may illustrate the past and that are worthy of being remembered and recorded." And, more importantly, I would add that they direct us to people who illustrate our own past and are worthy of being remembered and recorded.

In this blog, I will share with you some of my findings relating to my ancestry that I feel are worthy of remembering and recording.  Some postings will be about specific people in my past; others about people with whom I have connected in the present as I researched their and my common past; still others about places of interest from my family history (such as Enstone, of which John Jordan wrote); and finally postings about what I have learned about how to research the past.

Hopefully you'll find my blog to be worthy of a better evaluation than John Jordan's description of the parochial registers.  I welcome your comments or suggestions.

Regards,
Steve