Since its inception, GeneaBlogie has been published at the LifeTimes Family Research Center on the banks of the Potomac in McLean, Virginia. [Okay, so "Family Research Center" may be overstating it a bit. Alright, yes, it's a folding table and some file boxes in the corner of my living room]. [The part about the Potomac is true].

Over the next thirty days, the Research Center, GeneaBlogie, and the affiliated website, Our Lifetimes, will be relocating to the West Coast. [Moving the Research Center's cohort of supercomputers--OK, my four year old Toshiba Satellite 1800 laptop--is no simple task].

More details about more changes coming soon!

As I noted in the earlier post, millions of Americans have served in the military and every family has several veterans. So veterans records are a rich source of genealogical information. This note is about some lesser known pathways to those sources.

Cemeteries

The Department of Veterans Affairs maintains most (but not all) national cemeteries in the United States. The VA’s searchable site here contains a wealth of information about veterans interred in the VA-maintained national cemeteries. In addition to veterans, spouses and minor children of veterans may be buried in VA cemeteries, so don’t overlook that possibility.

If you can’t find a record of a death in the United States, it may be that the person is among the 125,000 Americans interred in overseas cemeteries maintained by the American Battle Monuments Commission. The ABMC searchable site doesn’t provide quite as much information as the VA site, but it’s enough to lead to other information.

Enlistment and Other Government Records

The National Archives and Records Administration has available online records of enlistment in the Army for World War II as well as records of prisoners of war during World War II. The Archives also have records of casualties in Vietnam and Korea; records of prisoners of war and those missing in action in Vietnam and Korea; and records of awards and decorations in Vietnam. The records are available through the Archives’ Access to Archival Databases.

Private Sites

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund has a searchable online database of the names listed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. The site, “The Virtual Wall,” is information rich and graphically attractive.

There are several sites that purport to have records of veterans. A lot of these sites have particular commercial interests and some have questionable information. The best site I’ve found is Military.com. Its “Buddy Finder” feature has records obtained from the Department of Defense under the Freedom of Information Act. Military.com also allows individuals to post their own profiles. I would alert potential users to the following issues with this site. First, there are a lot of duplicate records posted there. Second, as the site itself warns, they don’t update what they get from the Government very often. Then there seem to be a few technical glitches. So for example, when I searched for my information, I first got a record with info that’s outdated by five years. Then I searched a few minutes later and two different records, both outdated, turned up. But on balance, the site’s info provides a good starting place to find living veterans. That’s how I made the estimates of the numbers of Marine Corps veterans in yesterday’s post.

Some Veterans Day Links

Aransas County (Tex.) World War II Veterans
I extracted and edited this data from the NARA site described above. My dad was born in Aransas County and at various times members of the Bowie, Bryant, and Manson families lived there.

Brayboys in World War II
Also extracted from the NARA website.

Family Veterans

There are, by most estimates, some 25 million living Americans who have served in our Armed Forces. Today, we honor their service and remember those who are no longer with us. We especially remember those who never returned.

Of course, every family has its veterans, and my families are no different. Hundreds of soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines have borne the names Bowie, Birdsong, Brayboy, Gines, Manson, and our other related surnames. I’m a veteran, as are my brothers and father.

Today I’ve chosen two family veterans to represent us and all veterans.

Charles T. Bowie (1915-1945)

Charles T. Bowie was born in Longview, Texas, in 1915. His parents were Eugene James Bowie (1882-1946) and Mary Lola Elizabeth White. He had two brothers, Rufus Dwayne Bowie (1906-1977) and Sam Bowie (1912-1989). Charley’s grandparents were John Wesley Bowie (1845-1926) and Amanda McCray (1848-1924). That makes him my first cousin twice removed. Charley was also a first cousin of Catherine Bowie, whose story has been featured here.

On August 3, 1942, Charley enlisted in the Army at Tyler, Texas. He served with the 637th Ordnance Ammunition Company which participated in the Normandy invasion on June 6, 1944.

Charley was wounded in some type of post-surrender action [details I don't know] in the summer of 1945. He died on September 16, 1945, and is buried at the American cemetery at Epinal, France.

Richard Edward Gines (1926-1996)

Born in Kansas City, Missouri, to William Edward Gines (1898-1955) and Annie Florida Corrine Long (1902-1986), Richard Gines was my uncle. His grandparents were Richard William Gines (born about 1860) and Sylvia LeJay (1863-1940). By all accounts a brilliant man, he had completed one year of college when he enlisted at Camp Lee, Virginia. He never wennt overseas. At the end of his enlistment, he resumed his college career, as did millions of other veterans, thanks to the GI Bill. He graduated from New York University and began a long and successful career in joutnalism. In New York, he met and married Bernadine Coles. Richard Gines died in 1996 and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

On November 10, 1775, the Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia passed a resolution stating that “two Battalions of Marines be raised” for service as landing forces with the fleet. This resolution, established the Continental Marines and marked the birth date of the United States Marine Corps. Serving on land and at sea, these first Marines distinguished themselves in a number of important operations, including their first amphibious raid into the Bahamas in March 1776, under the command of Captain (later Major) Samuel Nicholas. Nicholas, the first commissioned officer in the Continental Marines, remained the senior Marine officer throughout the American Revolution and is considered to be the first Marine Commandant. The Treaty of Paris in April 1783 brought an end to the Revolutionary War and as the last of the Navy’s ships were sold, the Continental Navy and Marines went out of existence.

Source: Brief History of the United States Marine Corps, United States Marine Corps History and Museums Division.

Fortunately for us, the Marines were formally re-established in 1798 and since 1921, this day, November 10, has been celebrated as the Corps’ official birthday. For the record, the Marine Corps is careful in its public statements to note that this is the anniversary of the founding of the Marine Corps–which is correct. You won’t find an official statement claiming that the service is actually 230 years old.

Marine For Life–A Family Affair

I’ve ascertained that there are approximately 38 living Marines named Birdsong, about 69 living Marines named Bowie, about 17 living Marines named Braboy or Brayboy, roughly 19 living Marines named Gines, and about 48 living Marines named Manson. There seem to be no living Marines named LeJay. [In tomorrow's Veteran's Day post on veterans records research, I tell how I ascertained that]. To fully understand this, one must know that there’s no such thing as a “former Marine.” So these numbers include all those retired or discharged or still on active duty or in the Marine Corps Reserve. Some of them, no doubt, are serving today in Iraq or Afghanistan. Wherever they are, whatever their status, these Marines deserve our thanks and our fidelity . . . always.

Some of our LCRs (Loyal and Constant Readers)–well, one of the two of them–noticed that I’ve now enabled Word Verification for comments. It’s not to discourage comments from you LCRs or even you OIABMRs (Once in a Blue Moon Readers). Instead, I’ve found it necessary to keep the blog defended against “commentbots” whose irrelevant and offensive comments have increased in the last several weeks.

Names Named

The Sacramento Bee is reporting today that forensic scientists have disovered a name on a nearly-obliterated badge and on clothing found on the frozen body of a downed World War II airman. However, a JPAC spokesperson says the name will not be released until biological forensics are completed. Military records show that the crew of an AT-7 aircraft which disappeared in the Sierra Nevada in 1942 included 2nd Lt. William Gamber, 23, of Fayette, Ohio; and aviation cadets John Mortenson, 25, of Moscow, Idaho; Ernest Munn, 23, of St. Clairesville, Ohio; and Leo Mustonen, 22, of Brainerd, Minnesota.

From USAToday.com:

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — For nearly 60 years, the names of a pilot and three crewmembers who died when their plane crashed into an icy peak have been etched on a military gravestone.

During that time, however, most of their actual remains have rested on a lonely mountain.

On Friday, a coroner was examining fresh clues revealed earlier this week by a receding glacier in the Sierra Nevada. She hopes to identify the frozen body of the fair-haired World War II airman that climbers found intact and still wearing his parachute.

[Read more]

From the Los Angeles Times:

In Pittsburgh, 80-year-old Lois Shriver wakes up in the middle of the night asking herself a question she hasn’t dared to broach in decades: “Oh my goodness! What if it’s him? What if it’s my brother? Could this really be happening?”

In Brainerd, Minn., 82-year-old Marjorie Freeman’s night is pierced by much the same thought: What if the frozen remains they found on that mountainside out in California are those of the neighbor boy I knew so long ago, the boy whose mother would come over for coffee and even years later cry over her lost soldier?

In tiny Fayette, Ohio, folks are planning a funeral for the missing son of one of the town’s first families — a ceremony that they know might never get held. “It would be quite a nice service of some kind,” said lifelong resident Pauline Jones. “It would be a really big thing for our town.”

It’s impossible to tell how many people around the country are both disturbed and excited by the thought that the body discovered Oct. 16 in a Sierra Nevada mountain glacier near the site of a 63-year-old plane wreck might be that of someone close to them.

[Read more--irritating, but free, registration required].

The forensic work is being done by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) Central Identification Laboratory at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii. JPAC has world-class personnel and uses the best available science to perform its sensitive mission. Its facility in Hawaii is the largest forensic anthropology laboratory in the world.

You Can Help

There are over 35,000 Americans still missing but deemed recoverable from World War II. The Government is committed to bringing closure to their families as well as the families of missing servicemembers from other conflicts. DNA samples contributed by family members will aid in the identification process. If your family stories include the lore of a loved one who never returned from war, it may not be too late to help write the end of the story. See the JPAC website for information on how to contribute a DNA sample.