Another prompt by 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge. It's run by Amy Johnson Crow.
Information on the TopicThe theme this week is "Military." What have you learned about one of your military ancestors? What is something you've learned about one of your military ancestors?
Past posts
I've written and posted about the various military men within the family. The most notable ones probably being my father, my uncle, and my mother's cousin Jimmy. You can type in military in the search box on the right to read more about these posts.
Jimmy was one of the reasons why I started researching genealogy because I wanted to know more about him and what happened to him. This was because my mother only knew he had died during WW2 or what she called "the war" and he gave her his wings before he left for his first assignment after his training. She was under 10 when he died in "the war" and never knew what happened to him. She never even had a picture of him. By the look on her face and the way she talked about him, I knew he meant a lot to her. You can read more about Jimmy on his page.
This topic
We do have another ancestor, my great uncle Charles Gauquie, who served in the late 1800s for the US during war in The Spanish-American War. This, I believe, is the earliest any of my ancestors had been in the US military.
We have had others serve in European countries, but this was a first for the US. This time the main difference, was this time it was voluntary rather than drafted by the government.
A newspaper clip showing Chas (Charles) Gauquie being a volunteer.
This was a short tiny war which we heard about in school but was mainly skipped over in school. However, it was only after finding this person serving in this war which made me look into it and learn from it. This is how the US gains the territories of Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippine Islands due to this war. Further, it gets Spain away from Cuba and they have no further hold around the Americas. Lastly, during this conflict the United States gained the area we now call Hawaii (and made it a state in 1959) during the conflict. (source)
Upon my searching for information on the war, I came across a war journal. In case people didn't know, war journals are great for telling you something about their ancestors and what they were doing or serving with during the war. According to the above newspaper articles, I knew who's company and regiment my great uncle Charles served in.
Like with many of the searches you do, and sometimes its only a few words or even just one sentence which gives you so much information. This was the case for the journal.
In this case, it proves this was my great uncle. How? My 2x great grandparents (Desire and Catherine Gauquie) in Belgium owned a bread store or bakery. It looks like these skills were passed down to Charles and once everyone found out he knew how to bake bread then it gave him an extra skill they could use.
The company's list in the same journal. Credit
I didn't even know this grand uncle, Charles Gauquie, had served until one of the relatives I found said something about him serving in the military. When he got back, he wasn't so fine and in later years it really messed him up and he drifted around to the point his wife and children didn't even know where he was.
However, what I was finding, was he was a farmer and seemed like he didn't move very far from his farm, so I'm not sure why the information was passed around this way? However, my job isn't to correct anyone - its to observe what's happening, what I can prove via documents and to capture everyone's views. What I do know, is I can find him up around Chester, NY and then sometimes around Westchester County (around White Plains) in NY. This is where his wife's family lived. After the war, he marries in 1902. Then in 1905, 4 years after he gets out of the military, I can find him in 1905 with his wife and 2 young children here.
He lives a full life until 1952 when he dies in Salisbury Mills, NY.
Credit: As noted in clip
Even in the newspaper clipping it notes he was a Spanish-American War veteran.
What I do know, is where he is buried. In 2019, when I was visiting my great grandparents and great aunt, I noticed his family's headstone. It was upon my approaching it, I saw he does have a marker for serving, so this was new information too.
Not sure when this was taken?
Here's what it looks like up close.
