It’s summertime, summertime, sum, sum, summertime! I’ve finished the last of my teacher duties this afternoon and I’m leaving on my first of several genealogy research explorations of the summer!
In all of my genealogy research, I’ve found it frustrating that the last person I can find military information on is my own grandfather! I know he served in WWII – I’ve seen the photos! When he returned from the war, he had candy for his children and my mother remembers telling her older sister, “I think I’m going to like your daddy!” Other than that, I have no information on his military service.
So among other things, I will be visiting with my uncle. My mother thinks that he might have some of the information that I’m looking for. He’s not sure what he has, but he does have some of the medals that my grandfather earned overseas. In addition, he has a pictorial history of the town that my mother grew up in, so I’m hoping to find some great pictures to go along with the stories I’ve gathered from my family.
While I’m there, I’m also planning to visit the Johnson County Public Library and the Historical Museum’s genealogy room in Franklin. Specifically, I’m looking for the yearbook for the single year that my grandmother attended school in Franklin before getting married as well as copies of her marriage information. Funny that as long as I’ve been researching, I still don’t have these basic things, but better late than never! In the past, I was able to make a list of items the library had that I wanted to look at, but the site has changed and doesn’t seem to be as easy to understand. But perhaps that just means that all genealogy materials were moved to the Historical Museum. I’ll soon find out!
I’m also going to take this opportunity to take pictures of some of the brick paved roads in Franklin as there is discussion of paving over these bricks. My grandfather worked on those roads as part of the WPA, so I feel a bit of a connection there and a tiny bit of sadness that this part of history will be covered over and “modernized”. (Although I’m sure the people that drive on those roads every day won’t miss it!) I’ll also be adding photos of the homes that my mother grew up in to my family photo album. Who knows what interesting stories will come up as my mother takes me on this childhood tour! Hmmm….maybe I’d better buy a recording device for my iPod before I leave!
Yay! summertime! late nights in front of the computer (without paying for it the next day!).
I too had a grandfather in WWII and while I did have some information on his time in the military I found that looking into research groups for his unit helped me greatly. His medals had been lost long ago – I got replacements for them from the Air Force just a couple months ago – it took an entire year! :-0 Have a great research trip and I hope that you find all the military history you’re seeking!
Cindy