Present and a Past Family Tragedy - Ancestors in 52 Weeks

This year's challenge is 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks and is run by Amy Johnson Crow.

Topic Info:
Our ancestors were no strangers to hardship and loss. We should remember those stories as much as we remember the stories of triumph.

This year
This year has been a hard one for my family. There was the death of my brother, Charlie, in January.

Then six months later, we lost our last dog, Buddy, in July who just turned 15. We had hand raised him after the people who sold him to us had him leave his mother too early. When we were there, I asked about it and was told he was old enough, but found once we got him home, he was too young, but we gave him puppy oatmeals and things like you would do if a puppy lost his mother, and he grew up to be one happy and loving dog which we were very proud of.

Credit: J. Fitzgerald

This week's topic of tragedy had me thinking of these two major occurrences this year. Like I said, 2019 has been a hard year.

Which one to pick for the past?
When I think of the past and tragedy, there could be many I could bring up as there had been many in the family's past, but which one to pick?

There was the family member who was arrested by the Gestapo, and one of my cousin's found out he died in Auschwitz. There was my paternal line who had most of their family assassinated by the Russians as soon as they were found due to the family's history of Poland. There was my maternal grandmother who once she was put in the asylum system, they moved her once our family found her and she kept disappearing until my mother gave up and kept telling us she's probably gone by now. I found her less than 10 minutes away from us when she died according to the SSDI.  Then there were the diseases who took family members tiny bit by tiny bit until they were just - gone.

Got one!
One my mind kept going back to is James 'Jimmy' Sherman. I've talked about him before, but when I think of family tragedy, I think of him. I believe if he hadn't been killed, my mother's life would have been so much different than it was.

1925 Jimmy's NYS Birth Index highlighted. Credit

James J Sherman was born in Newburgh, NY on Jan 13, 1925. He was the son of Florence and Joseph R Sherman. He was affectionately known as Jimmy. He was adored by his mother as he was her only child. His other brothers and sisters were from his father's earlier marriage.

When Jimmy was born his father was a chauffeur and his mother was a housewife with 2 older brothers  and 1 older sister.  They lived on Lander Street in Newburgh according to the New York Census.

Lander St, Newburgh NY in 2019. Credit: Google Earth

Over this time, there was a few mentions on his mother, Florence Gauquie Sherman, and father, Joseph Sherman, visiting other family members. One is Florence's father, and my great grandfather, Jules.

Growing up, he heard his mother worrying about the US being attacked and being in another war. Especially with reports of various U Boats being ready to attack NY City, she was worried. Many different people within the family have told me about how worried Great Aunt Florence was about being attacked. After all, there were the reports, pictures, and video in 1917 of them being there then so it would be just as easy to be there once again.

1942 Newspaper article about Uboats in NY and NJ. Credit

Another U-Boat around NY and NJ. Credit

Credit Youtube

Taking this into account, it wouldn't be very hard to put another one along the east coast of the US. This put fear into people, which is what my Great Aunt Florence had.

Anyhow, once Jimmy turned 18, he went to NY City on 8 March 1943, my mother's 4th birthday, to enlist.

His index of Army Enlistment records, shows he was not assigned to a branch, he was accepted in as a Private as he had 4 years of high school, and he was semi skilled as a chauffeur. He was also 92 inches, over 7 feet, tall and weighed 106 pounds. As my mother told me "He was very tall and skinny as hell." and I can agree with this due to the records. 

Jimmy's enlistment transcription. Credit: Ancestry.com

He came home and told his parents. His mother, understandably, cried and asked him why.

His answer, when it came was a good one, "Because I want to make you safe, Ma, and I can this way."

I do not have any information about why he decided to go into the Air Force.

In May 1943, he went to basic training at Miami Beach, Florida, which was an Air Force Training Center, according to the Sherman papers. The Miami Training Center was closed in 1945. This even has a book written about it.

This is Jimmy Sherman. I believe this picture was taken between May-July 1943 when he was at the Miami Beach base. Credit: Sherman Papers

The full picture of the one above. Credit: Sherman Papers

By July 1943, he was in Lowry Field & Denver, Colorado base which had just opened to the US Air Force.

 In August - September 1943, he went to Flexible Gunnery School in Ft. Myers, Florida. It was called Buckingham Army Airfield which was closed in 1945.

In October 1943, he was then in Salt Lake City, Utah which was known as Salt Lake City AAB/APT. Today, 2019, it is known as Salt Lake City International Airport. 

Jimmy is the one circled above with the crew. Credit: Find a Grave

Between October 1943 and April 1944, he had leave, or vacation, after he was done with his training, and he came home to see his mother and his cousins.

My mother told me this story. The last time I saw him, he came late in the night after I was in bed. We had a special bond and spent a lot of time together. My grandmother let him in to see her. She was in her nightgown in bed when he came in.

He came over and sat on the bed and she climbed up on his lap. She asked him if he was going away again and he said yes, but he'd be back soon. He took off his wings and gave them to her. He told her to be good and he'd see her when he got back.

Jimmy's wings. Credit J. Fitzgerald

She climbed into bed. He tucked her in and gave her a kiss good night. Then left the house after.

In June 1944, my Great Aunt Florence wrote Jimmy at least 3 times. These were later found and the envelopes were marked "Missing".

Next she knew he was missing and the reports were he had died. My mother was 5 years old.

Great Aunt Florence was beside herself in grief. She went to church and to another church in NYC to have vigils in his honor in 1950.

Then my mother had a falling out with her family and never really spoke about them until just before I married in 1997. She brought out a set of wings and gave them to me. Jimmy's wings. These are the same ones he gave her when she was so young.  These would be the something old in our wedding.

But what happened to Jimmy?
After things settled down with me moving from the US and getting married, then I set out to find out what happened to James 'Jimmy' Sherman.

I asked my mother, but all she knew was he went up in the airplane, he was in one of the small bubbles underneath of it, and it was either shot down or crashed in World War 2. They first listed him as Missing in Action (MIA), and later it was switched to Killed in Action (KIA). They don't know what happened beyond that.

1946 list with James J Sherman listed with DNB which is Died Non-Battle. Army personnel who died outside of combat areas. Credit: Fold 3

Apparently everything they had was MIA. They did start putting DNB but they didn't know what this was. 

I had help of my husband's aunt, as she was into genealogy and I was just beginning. She helped me and was able to have someone find the report on what had happened to Jimmy. 

Answers 54 years later - the tragedy of a training flight

He died in May 1944, which is why in June there were missing marks on his mother's mail to him. It wasn't until almost 1998, 54 years later, when we found out what had happened. It was a training exercise gone wrong and he couldn't get out of the airplane and went down with it. 

Microfiche M1380  RG 92  Missing Air Crew Reports  NOS. 16553-16555  Fiche 5965

Microfiche M1380  RG 92  Missing Air Crew Reports  NOS. 16553-16555  Fiche 5965

His body was never recovered. 

Over time, I've still done research on him as I was trying to find out more information to put that flesh on the bones of Jimmy. 

I found his name on the local monument this past January 2019. 

Also, I found his name, and entry, on a tablet in Florence American Cemetery and Memorial in Florence, Città Metropolitana di Firenze, Toscana, Italy. This is on Find A Grave.  

Credit: Find a Grave

Credit: Find a Grave

Also, I had found, in 2009, the USAF have papers on him called the Sherman Papers. They live in Miami Florida in University of South Florida Libraries in special collections. They contain several letters to and from him (I mentioned these above during the timeline) and his mother among other things. However, they will not release copies to me even though I am family. I can go, or hire someone to go, and take notes of information and take photocopies of select pages only. This directive came directly from the Director, which annoys me. 

I could understand this if I was not directly related to Jimmy, to get this type of response, but a family member? Nope, not very happy at all with the response, but I will prevail. 

I'm stubborn that way.

Credit

Comedy and Entertaining within the family - Ancestors in 52 Weeks

This year's challenge is 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks and is run by Amy Johnson Crow.

Topic Info:
Have you found something humorous in your research? Perhaps something funny happened while you were researching? Tell the story this week.

Growing up, myself and one of my nieces, Becky, were clowns. When they moved to upstate New York, Becky kept us laughing for most of the 5 hour trip which was good after we lost radio over the mountains. We always thought she'd grow up to be a comedian, but we were wrong.

My brother and I, as I've written in an earlier blog, always told jokes to each other but they were of a "colorful nature" and we both had a really warped sense of humor. This always made us laugh especially when one of us upped the other one.

My brother and I in 2000 telling jokes. This is when he got me with one of his zingers. Credit: J. Fitzgerald

My oldest sister and I used to pick up my nieces and dance with them around the living room while trying to belt out a song. We all agreed we did not/could not sing but we kept on trying. I really stopped trying after I got pulled aside in chorus in school and asked not to sing any longer and to please just stand there and mouth the words. Yep, that bad.

My sister thought my younger nieces was very beautiful and even entered her into a beauty pageant when she was 3 or 4. She didn't win the event, it annoyed me because she didn't want to be there and my sister was boastful about her entering.After the event, I looked at my sister and told her bluntly we were never doing that again because it was awful the way people were, my niece didn't want to be there and everyone in our group was annoyed. We never did another one either. If my nieces wanted us to do something, we did try and figure out a way to do it with little to no money.

July 23 2015 Music Man Jr. In Rouses Point at the Civic Center. Credit R. Greenhaw

May 15 2017 My niece's daughter in gymnastics
Credit R. Greenhaw

2017 My niece's daughter in dance. Credit R. Greenhaw

Then when my nieces had children, they wanted to do dancing things and show business. Then one of my nieces said they always wanted to do something like this which stunned me because they never said anything. Anyhow, their children are now in plays, ice skating and stuff.

I found some of my other cousin, who live closer to where I grew up, were actually into dancing and singing too.

Newspaper articles about other Gauquie cousins who danced and went to Theatre school. Credit as above.

I didn't know about these cousins until after 2000 when I started to really research the family and was stunned they had a whole dance school, but my mother never talked about them.

Then when I continued my research, I found my 2x great grandmother's death certificate and it gave me a clue as to who else had these skills.

Florentina Van Rompaye's Death certificate which lists her husband as a cabaretier. Credit

As you can tell it's (above) in French. I only got to take beginner French in high school (it was many years ago now), so I couldn't read the entire entry. However, when I posted it in one of my Facebook groups for the Gauquie's, one of my cousins responded.

The discussion about what a cabaretier is. 

Imagine my shock to learn my 2x great grandfather liked to show off and entertain. This links into the dance school my other cousins run or used to run!

Then to also learn my cousin Chris has been in the entertainment industry was interesting and very unexpected.

Cousin Chris in 2009. Credit: Chris

2015 Cousin Chris with friends in play. Credit: Chris

2012 Chris as Madame Hortense. Credit: Chris

I'm not sure where we got it from, but the entertainment bug is definitely there. However, it's not shared by all of us. Even after getting up in front of crowds to speak over the past 8 or so years, it's not something I'm still not comfortable with, so I didn't get that gene unfortunately!

Talkin' About My Sisters....keeping it PC - Ancestors in 52 Weeks

This year's challenge is 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks and is run by Amy Johnson Crow.

Topic Info:
This week, it's the sisters' turn. Like we did last week with "Brother," feel free to consider other ways of interpreting "sister."

Like last week's prompt regarding my brother, this week is about my sisters. I have 3 of them - all of them older.

Let's see...what can I write about them where its socially acceptable? This is going to be difficult.

Let's start at the beginning... I'm one of five kids Matthew and Jo Ann Schmitz had. I was less than 4 years old when they divorced after my mother left my father. I'm the youngest, with my brother being the next youngest in line.

The siblings above him are all girls - my sisters.

This picture taken in the 1960s with my brother with our 3 older sisters. Credit M Schmitz

The oldest is Theresa. She lived in New York until the middle 1990s when she moved to Kansas. She's had 3 daughters. She's had 3 husbands she's married. One she divorced. One was arrested, left and never to be heard of again. The last one died and left her a widow. Apparently, when I was a baby, she took care of me until she moved out and got married. I still visited growing up, so she could help Mom with childcare for me.

Taken in 2012, Theresa and I in Australia during her visit. Credit: J. Fitzgerald

The second oldest is Genevieve, but we call her Jean. She lived in New York until the early 1990s, when her, her husband and 2 children moved south to one of the Carolinas. She thinks she's a combination of princess and queen but really she's just a pain in the ass (to put it bluntly). She divorced her husband, lived with someone else, and from what I was told she married again. I used to go around and see her growing up. However, she started to go off in her own merry little way, which I wanted no part of so we had a falling out and haven't spoken in awhile.

Taken in the 1980s, Jean and I in Newburgh where we grew up. Credit. M. Schmitz

The third is Debra, but we call her Debbie. She lived in New York until about 2010 before moving to Pennsylvania. She married when she was younger, then divorced. She met her partner of over 20 years and they lived together - never marrying. She had a son with him. The relationship failed and she moved on before marrying around 2010. She's currently married. Debbie's a bit different than the others. When Mom left Dad, she was the one to help our brother and myself out of the house. Then she helped watch me for a few years before moving out. Lost contact for a bit before reconnecting for a short while. Then started to get close again before losing contact once again. Then the cycle repeated itself over and over.

Taken in January 2019, Debbie and I in VFW New Paltz where we had our brother's get together after his service. Credit. J. Fitzgerald

I think this is about the most politically correct way I could summarize them and our relationship. Of course there's the added complication of stilling alive, which I don't normally write about. This is the main reason why there's such little information - to protect their privacy.

Of course, they also have faults, like we all do, but they seem to have the same fault, which I will not go into here, but it frustrates me and frustrated our brother.

Debbie, Charlie, Theresa and Dad in 2008. Credit T. Schmitz

However, if you make them mad or go against what they think, then you are iced out and not spoken to. At all. In fact, what makes them just that unique is that they ice you out and you don't even know it. So they stop communication with your completely and won't return calls or basically talk to you and if they do it's completely ice in their voices. Yep, makes for a great healthy relationships that's for sure. In fact, I can probably safely say, if they read this, I'll be even more in the iced out part. Not that it'll matter as Theresa has iced me (dunno why other than political differences), Jean and I haven't spoken in years, and Debbie has the husband or just floats away and contacts you when she feels like it. Yep, gonna get iced out, but oh well.

*Shug* Truth is difficult sometimes. Credit

I guess the biggest example I can give is when our brother died. I showed up and tried to help as much as I could from a 1/2 world away. Theresa was contacted but even after being told many times she had a full ride, she couldn't or wouldn't attend. Her excuse was her boss wouldn't give her time. Really? Jean, well, first we didn't have any way to contact her. I tried via her kids and they don't talk to her. Then I tried via a mutual friend, which worked but first she gave excuses as to why she couldn't even call and then said point blank she wasn't going or calling.  And finally Debbie. I had an old phone number because she's changed it after I called her, but her current husband doesn't like me (and personally I think anyone) calling her to talk. Anyhow, I contacted her son, which contacted her. Then she called our father and attended the service for our brother.

Sometimes my head hurts like this guy above because of this stuff. Credit

Pretty messed up? Ahhhh but this has been the ways of our relationships forever. Remember, they are your family and, unfortunately, you cannot choose them. They've been chosen for you. Take a deep breath, let it out slowly. Repeat when needed when dealing with this stuff.

Credit

Ahh siblings and family! !