A Sense of Humor During WWII

My husband's grandfather is 2nd to the left in front kneeling ~ Forrest Pointer ~ In Iceland during WW2 at  Camp Kwitchwebelliakin, a.k.a., Camp 'They-Got-A-Sense-of-Humor' . [Snort.]


A newspaper clipping from the Pointer Family Archives.


~C

"Making" a Family Story Up

Where Does Your Name Come From?

Have you ever thought about where your name came from? Maybe you already know, but then again maybe you don't...I know that I'm named after my mom, and that I share it with my great-great grandmother Catharine Caroline Vaughn. Also, I already shared with you how I acquired my middle name Martin. I'm one of the lucky ones, though. Nowadays, so many don't know where their name comes from.

It's Personal

However, I never realized how important given names are in finding your family story until I started doing genealogical research. Actually when you think about it, names are highly personal to us now, so why wouldn't they be highly personal to our ancestors? If you have children, think about the time you spent and the thought processes that you went through picking out your children's names.

Diggin' Up Stories

There are so many aspects of researching given names that I love and that I use consistently in my research - from name origins to naming patterns. It seems that whenever I start digging into given names, they seem to reveal family stories. I am by no means [not even a smidgen] an expert on genealogical given name research [say that 10 times fast], but hopefully it can help others in their research. Oh, and if you don't do genealogical research [What, there are people who don't?], then I hope it gets you thinking about your family's given names and the family stories that may be behind them...

A Family Story Within a Family Story...

As I was going through my husband's family's genealogy jackpot cache this week, I stumbled upon something of my own family's meager heirlooms. Remember the WWI Victory Medal that is probably my grandfather's that I found in my father's old jewelry box? Well, there were a few more items that I found. One of which is a lady's powder compact with matching [and at one time] attached lipstick. They both still have "product" in them, and the lipstick is bright red. Now I'm pretty sure they aren't my dad's. How? Because he never wore that shade of lipstick [badump-bump...] Seriously, I think it was my Paw-Paw's [his mother's] makeup. They weren't my mom's, and my Paw-Paw died a year before my dad. So, it's a possiblity... The bottom of the compact is stamped with "Made in the U.S.A." [don't see that much anymore], and the bottom of the lipstick reads: "Jacqueline Cochran New York Distributor" and the shade is "Firecracker" [and it certainly is...]. I'd never heard of Jacqueline Cochran, so I "Googled" the name [you know you've made it when the name of your business is also used as a verb...]. Do you know who or what Jacqueline Cochran was? Well, it's the name of a cosmetics company started by a [you guessed it] Jacqueline Cochran. She was a woman who had grown up poor in Florida moved to New York and became a hairdresser who also "dabbled" in the making of cosmetics. She was a hair dresser to the "rich" and was often invited to their parties. She often traveled with her wealthy customers, and this is how she met a tycoon [what are the odds, right?], Floyd Bostwick Odlum, who would eventually become her husband [just as soon as he stopped being someone else's husband...tsk-tsk]. He basically funded her cosmetics business, but that's not what she's usually known for...she was a pilot in the same era as Amelia Earhart, and she won many races and set a multitude of records in aviation. In addition, she led the WASPs [Women's Air Force Service Pilots] in WWII. [These women serving in WWII are everywhere.]

If You Want, Make Up Your Family Story...

Jacqueline Cochran, however, was not really Jacqueline. It seems that Jacqueline was not really proud of her family's poverty and her real family story, so she made her own family story up that included her being an orphan, raised by a foster family, and she even changed her name from Bessie Lee Pittman [which doesn't really have the same ring to it...]. Anyway, some of her family [who did exist] who lived with her later in life on her ranch in California were instructed to say that they were her adopted family...[now that's a tidbit that could come in handy with some of my family members - lol]. Her whole story can be found here, here and here.

Named After Aviatrix and Cosmetics Line?

So, what does this have to do with my family story? Well, I've done a lot of research on my Paw-Paw's lines, and one thing I know to be true is that there are definite naming patterns in all her lines [that ended up in Johnson County in Southern Illinois]. So, it always baffled me that my Paw-Paw named her only daughter, my aunt, Jacqueline [and she named her daughter, my cousin, Jacqueline]. Coincidence? Maybe...it looks like I am going to have to call my aunt again, to see what she knows, but I do find that it is at best, very suspicious, and at worst, very interesting that this name has "popped" up and has uncovered another family story [Bessie's, not mine...yet].

Can You Say Genealogical Jackpot?

I Can...
Last night the kids and I [hubby is out-of-town] went to father-in-law's house to eat some incredibly good grub. [Of course, all meals that I don't have to prepare are incredibly good...] Some of my father-in-law's family was in town and eventually all the old family memorabilia came out...I had no clue what's been sitting in my father-in-law's house all this time! [He lives about 10 minutes away from us.] So, can you guess what I'm doing the rest of this week? Yup, scanning, photographing, indentifying, "database-entrying", etc., etc.... Just some of the items in this collection are:

• 125-year old Autograph Album of my hubby's great-grandmother, Pearl Williams;
• A book of Longfellow's poem "Evangeline" belonging to Pearl;
• A collection of Red Man chewing tobacco trading cards featuring American Indian Chiefs;
• One of Pearl's War Ration Books from World War II;
• A matching jewelry box and photo album that made its way to Iowa by covered wagon;
• Pocket Watch belonging to Pearl; and
• A Civil War tin-type picture of one of hubby's great-great-grandfathers' brother who was shot in The Battle of the Wilderness and was imprisoned in Libby Prison, where he died.

So, I'm going to be a little busy for a while. I think I sense some more family stories I get to share [I dunno. Maybe.]...

Caroline

Tombstone Tuesday: The Only One Left To Tell...

Growing up I loved to climb trees. In fact, my dad bought me my very own oak tree. It was rather big for one you'd buy and plant in your backyard, and it came ready-to-climb. Oh, and it was such a good climbing tree. It had a branch that was just low enough that if I jumped high enough, I could grasp it with both hands, "walk" the rest of my body up, and flip myself over onto the branch.

I used to run around barefoot all the time, and I got very good at hoisting myself up my tree. I used to climb the branches, going here and there. I never broke any branches, nor did I fall from my tree. [I did fall from others, but no broken bones.] I wonder, though, in my haste to explore yet another branch, if maybe I missed something - maybe the perfect view of the sun setting in the Texas sky, or maybe the most comfortable spot to sit and rest for awhile.

Well, I realized yesterday that I had done this very thing. No, I wasn't actually climbing a tree. [I haven't done that in, well, years.] I'm talking about my family tree. Remember when I talked about my "long line of managing women" yesterday and I mentioned my Aunt Anne [my Gran's sister] having driven an ambulance in WWII in France? I realized that, other than finding out who she married, I never explored her story. [I know...I know, shame on me.]

The first time I ever actually remember being around her was when my mom & I transferred her from a nursing home in Houston, Texas to one in San Antonio, Texas so that she could be with her older sister [my Gran]. I still remember watching them sitting together in the activity room - happy as 2 peas in a pod - finally together again.

I wish I had known then to ask about her story. It's funny what can happen to a piece of information that's been given to you. You "file" it away, then you find it again, only to find out you needed it sooner. I mean, I knew that she'd driven that ambulance in WWII. I just didn't realize how important it was. Then years later, I skipped right over her again in my haste to climb other branches.

I did do some brief research on women who drove ambulances during WWII, including overseas. Wow! What a story! [Thud...Thud...do you hear that? That's me kicking myself in the backside!]

My Aunt Anne passed away in 1995, twenty years after her husband [who also served in WWII], and they never had any children. No one to pass on their story. It's just been sitting there waiting patiently to be found...

Well, I don't have her firsthand account of what happened in France, but I sure wish I did. What was it like to be a woman in the U.S. Navy during WWII? What was it like to be one of the very few women driving an ambulance in France?...exciting?...scary?

So many women provided support services during WWII - from working in factories on the home front to serving abroad. Among all the hullabaloo, though, these women seem to be forgotten sometimes. I have more to study about my Aunt Anne in hopes of uncovering her story and sharing it, and I can't wait! Today my Aunt Anne is with her husband, amongst many other veterans, in Houston National Cemetery.

So, when climbing your family tree, don't forget to slow down and explore every branch, even the smaller ones. You never know whose story you might find...and you might be the only one to tell it. And to my Aunt Anne and all the women who served in WWII, thank you...you are not forgotten!

Caroline