A memorable experience my Mom had back in 2002 went like this. Working as a volunteer at one of the Family History Centers for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she received a phone call from a woman in Norfolk, England, we’ll call her Kate. She was seeking information about a soldier who had died during WW II. She was a professional genealogist and was trying to find the family of this soldier. She did not have a birth date, but had a death date. Kate told my Mom a little about how she came to be interested in finding this soldier’s family. My mom then went to the computer and pulled up the Family Search and Ancestral File programs (the LDS research programs). She typed in the soldier’s name and guessed at about the year he was born, assuming he might be about 25 years old at his death. She said a little prayer that he would be there and clicked enter. His name came up on the screen and she was able to pull up the family record. “There he was with his parents and 13 brothers and sisters, he was #7. His date of death was 10 June 1944”. She didn’t find a location of his death. She was able to look at the sources of the record and noticed the he was born in St. George, Utah, and there were still siblings living. All of this information
was found in only five minutes, and my Mom was overjoyed that it was found so fast. She mailed copies of the information she found to Kate in England and waited for a reply. Just one week later Mom was called to the phone again, it was Kate calling to tell her she had been in touch with the sister to this service man, and that she was sending the full story.
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Kate was planning a trip to France and was asked by a past member of the SAS, Special Air Service Brigade, to find some 30 paratroopers of the SAS who were buried in a village in France. She found the cemetery and noticed another headstone that had the name of the soldier from St. George, Utah on it, but no other information- his squadron, base, home state- nothing. “Her interest was immediately aroused, think how little was known about him. Where in the states were his family, his loved ones?
She knew she must find out as she noted that he died the same day as the SAS members”. After wandering up and down some of the small towns streets, she came upon an older man who was quite leery of strangers. After convincing him that she was only doing research for a friend, he relaxed a little and told her that indeed the SAS were buried there and that they had been executed by the Germans. She asked about the American soldier and he said, “He was, too.” He told her that the soldier had been shot down over France and had been hidden by some of the towns people, but then was betrayed. The SAS and this soldier were executed as the Allied Forces advanced toward them. They were then buried in a mass grave. The German soldiers buried them in their uniforms, not knowing they would be identified, when they were discovered, because their names had been sewn in the inside of their uniforms. The American soldier, however, was dressed in French clothing. He was identified by other SAS who were out on a mission when the 30 were captured. The French man said the town had found the mass grave and had lovingly reburied the men in the cemetery. They had cared for the cemetery grounds and had a memorial service every few years to recognize these heroes from another land. They had never had family members of the US soldier attend. Kate thought to herself, “His family doesn’t know that he is buried here and maybe nothing of the circumstances of his death. I really need to do something about this.” The French man told Kate that another memorial service would be held in September.
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When she told the surviving family members of the soldier from St. George about the memorial, his younger sister said that members of his family would be in attendance. Where and how he had died and where he was buried had been unknown by the family for over 56 years.
What was done right?
1) Family members submitted information to Ancestral File so that he could be found.
2) Kate was prompted, and went the extra mile, then followed through to completion -she made contact with the family.
Kate said to me, “It’s too bad his parents never knew what happened to him.” But I told her that “They know, he has told them himself, even a long time ago.” -Joanne
As you can see from this story, miracles happen. See what miracles are waiting for you. Check out the new Family Search
here.Happy Family History Friday!! Merry Christmas too! Love, Joy
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