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Since we genealogists are all amateur historians, no one has to remind us that 2015 is the 70th anniversary of the most damaging and costly war of all time – World War II.
Adults from the era 1939-1945 are largely in their 90s now. So there’s no time like the present to collect information from our family members who lived through that cataclysm.
Why do it? Well, whether you use a notepad, a recorder or video, you will be glad you did this because their memories will help you and your descendants fill in the family genealogy.
As for your military relatives, collect information on the war veteran’s circumstances of enlisting, basic and advanced training programs, travel and experiences in the field. Be sure to prepare for the discussions by reading up on the war so that you know everything from the European towns and Pacific islands where the fighting took place to the domestic American bases to the system of ranks used in the various services. Good interviewers always do that.
The war had a powerful impact at home too. Civilians faced rationing of food, gasoline, tires, and many consumer goods and had to present government ration books whenever they went to a store for basic commodities. Many had to move out of the area to work in “defense plants” making planes, ships or other military equipment. Your relatives’ stories of daily life will fill in much about their lives that you can’t learn any other way.
Was your relative just a child or teenager in that era? There’s lots to ask about. Here in Wyoming Valley, high schools made boys learn radio operation or wrestling, while girls had to learn first aid or pack boxes of treats for the service people overseas. Grade-school children conducted scrap metal drives, while the moms reported to the school to sew garments for the troops or worked in war-related factories. Remember Rosie the Riveter?
Many boys enlisted during their senior year and missed graduation, with some finally receiving their diplomas decades later. A lot of that you will never find in the history books.
Of course the best way to glean information is to ask various types of questions. Try to get your military relative talking by asking broad questions like, “What was your paratrooper training like?” Ask your civilian relative something like, “What kinds of meals did you have with so much food rationing?”
But zero in on the specifics. “Exactly what was your rank when you were discharged?” Or perhaps “What kind of aircraft engines did you make in the factory?”
Yes, you can get paperwork from the National Archives and you can read history books. But your genealogy will be more complete – and satisfying – if you talk to the relatives who lived through one of the most desperate times in America’s history.
And don’t forget to thank them.
News Notes: The Bishop Memorial Library of the Luzerne County Historical Society, so useful to genealogists as well as historians, has reopened after its annual February shut-down. Also, the society’s museum has opened its new World War II exhibit. Go to www.luzernehistory.org for information on schedules.
The fragility of American society’s old paper records was sadly demonstrated last week when a fire at a New York City warehouse destroyed an estimated 1 million records of court cases, dating back more than 150 years. Court officials said that many of those records also existed in other formats, but the loss is still great.