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

Which is easier to find.... Ancestors in 52 Weeks

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

Topic Info:
Not all ancestors are tough to research. This week, who has been easier to research than others?

Jimmy Sherman (I believe) taken before his death.
Credit: University of South Florida Libraries, USAF

Growing up, my mother never spoke about her side of the family. When I pressed she told me they were all dead and we didn't need them. However, once she told me about her cousin James 'Jimmy' Sherman, on the cusp of my leaving to get married, I started to get interested. After things with my marriage settled down, which took a bit of time due to the 3 fires and a wedding and moving countries, I started asking questions. My mother didn't give me much, so I had to take what I could get. 

Louis Gauquie in undated picture.
Credit: J. Gauquie

One piece of information was my maternal grandfather's name, Louis Gauquie (left). Yes, growing up I didn't know his name, but knew he was dead. (However, among my research I found he had died when I was very young.) I went researching and things started to grow.



Once I was able to pinpoint my grandfather's name and knew about the location, I started finding great aunts and uncles as he was 1 of 7 children that my great grandparents had. Then I went looking to learn more about this side of the family - who had lived only about 10 minutes away from where I mainly grew up in the Hudson Valley in New York. 

Picture of Helen Gauquie who passed away in 2014. Credit

From there I found Helen Gauquie, who had just passed away, when I did a normal search on Google. From there I was able to pinpoint Helen's children and I left a message, including contact information, on the memorial page. Before long, I was contacted by my mother's cousin, Teri, and she put me in contact with my direct cousin and uncle. My cousins and uncle I met in January/February 2019. 

Anyhow, this led me to trying to figure out the rest of the family, which was a waterfall of information when I started to find it. By waterfall, I mean, I found out a lot about my mother's aunts and uncles, and then I started to find out about their children, and so on. Once I was confident about them, I turned my sights onto my great grandparents and trying to go backwards. 

Jules Gauquie born Joannes Julius Van Rompaye Credit: Gail Boo Ancestry

I found out a bit about Jules Gauquie. About him being a farmer, helping out the fire departments, and letting kids use his pool, things along those lines. I found his obituary and found he had gave something to all his kids. However, when I started to ask my mother's cousins about him, then we started to learn things about public vs private personality. 

I had found out where Jules came from - Belgium. However, I didn't know how to go about getting the information I needed and stumbled across a website called Geneanet and their boards where you can ask questions. I asked a question and within days I had people helping and sharing where they were getting information. In fact, they found the birth entry of Jules Gauquie, who was actually born Joannes Julius Van Rompaye. This was due to the fact his father, Aloysius Hyppolitus Gauquie was chosen to be in the first Belgium military draft according to the documents behind the birth entry. These documents listed Jules' parents, grandparents and areas within Belgium. 

By this point, I was telling my cousin, who is a Gauquie, about what I had found. One of my helpers in the Geneanet website pointed me to the Belgium Archives. We all wanted some of the questions everyone started to have answered. 

My 3rd Great grandfather Desire Gauquie's entry in Belgium Archives translated.

It took me about a month working with the Belgium website to try and figure out who belongs with who in the entries, which went from Dutch, to French, to what I think is Flemish Dutch to get through the records, but thankfully the Belgium website can be translated to English. I had pages of notebooks written with people's names and information about them along with screenshots, so I could go back and reference what I had been finding.

I used what people call the FAN technique or even use the words cluster genealogy to describe it. I read about it but never had used it before but thought it would be a good use here. 

One of my many FAN sheets I've used to show connections.

Before long, I sat back and looked at what I had found and Wow! I believe I found quite a bit of the family links and where we all come from. Along the way, I was contacted by another cousin of mine who lives in Paris, France of all places. He agreed with my findings and he had gone back one more generation which isn't online. He actually went to one of the locations and into the church to find my what I think is my 7 x great grandfather dating back to the 1700s! 

This cousin's line comes off this person who had a son who went to Paris and the other stayed in Belgium. 

These trees (above) were put together by cousin Herve in 2015. Credit: H. Costille

I'm still trying to put more branches on this side of the tree, but to do this, I have to go page by page in FamilySearch looking at original documents in other languages looking for other people in the family. 

Because of how much information I had and am encompassing, I started up a few Facebook groups, one of which being the Gauquie Genealogy group, so any relations can get to know the other, share information as its a private group, and we can put this Humpty Dumpty family egg back together again. 

The chart from my 2x great grandfather Desire and the stars above are some of the business and people listed below. Credit. J. Fitzgerald

So far, because of the group, we've found connections to the Gauquie Hotel and the family who resided there, the family connection to Galloways Garage in Newburgh, NY, the family connection to Devitts in New Windsor, and the connection to the Van Rompaye Trucking Corp in Chester, NY. 

My 2x great cousin Louis Van Rompaye in front of his business in Chester, NY over 100 years ago. Credit

Of course there are still questions, but this list is starting to get smaller - Thankfully. I just need the time to sit down and go through FamilySearch for the information. 

New Year and New Challenge - Ancestors in 52 Weeks

This year I figured I'd do another challenge for the blog. This year's challenge is 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks and is run by Amy Johnson Crow.

The way this challenge is run is we get generic prompts each week which we're to write about. We can interpret them anyway we want and write about them.

Writing this blog really is a challenge for me as sometimes life gets in the way and I don't get them done, but eventually I do finish. What people don't realize is besides working and leading a normal (ha ha! Normal?) life, I am the secretary and treasurer of Neighbourhood Watch of our local area. Then you add to that I run 3 family genealogy groups, write 3 blogs and write as a hobby. Then to top this off, I've also been writing up my grandmother's life story using documents I've found. Finally, add to this all the genealogy research I do and...its a full life to put it mildly.

Anyhow, I'll be here writing.... this year's challenge.

Week 1: First

Who was the first ancestor you found who you didn't personally know? Who was the first ancestor to arrive in the country? Who was the first child in one of your ancestral families? First to go to college? First husband out of a string of many?

Talk about a topic to start with! I'm sitting here with my miniature M&M's, a steaming hot cup of tea to keep me going at 10:41pm on a warm January night, and think of where I can start. I stair at the monitor, then drum my finger tips with one hand while reaching for the miniature M&M's with the other. All the while trying to think where I can start with the first.

The Beginning or the Start
I guess I can start at the beginning....

I never heard of, nor didn't know what, family history or genealogy was until after I married my husband in 1997. Then I was talking to one of my husband's aunt's and she mentioned family history and we started to talk.

I was shocked but also felt a spark of...something. By the time I left, I knew what I had been doing growing up, was collecting things, but only because I wanted them for when I grew up and I knew it would make my mother crazy with keeping stuff.

First things
When I was little, my paternal grandmother, Jean Schmitz, gave me a small cups and a small jug and told me she brought these with her when she came from Poland and very special. I did play with them but I was also careful. However, somehow these things kept getting broken. Some I found and

The picture of the surviving cup

cleaned them up crying and others I was told when I came home from school that one of them were broken and my mother threw them out. I had a feeling she was breaking things, but I couldn't, and still can't, prove it. To ensure I still had at least one, I hid it in with my clothes. One day it too, was broken, but this time I found it and I glued it back together again and hid it even better.

Same thing happened with my birthday ring my grandmother bought me right before her death. I did have the ring box some place. It was only when I went looking for the ring is when I found it gone.

When the same grandmother died, I kept her obituary and funeral clippings from the newspaper. Why? Because she was my grandmother and I loved her. It was that simple.

My paternal Grandmother's obituary

I had kept other things over the years but they were mainly my school years. I figured if I ever had kids they would get a kick out of looking at the stuff.

Then came the night before I was to leave the US to get married to my husband in Australia. My mother pulled out something and sat down looking at the item before looking into my eyes with her sad ones.

"These were my cousin Jimmy's. He died in World War 2 as a gunner. He came home for a few days and gave me these the night he left. I was in bed and he walked in and we talked before he took them off of his uniform and handed them to me. He told me he had just received them before he came home. He said they were mine now and handed them to me."

The airman's silver wings of James Sherman

Then she looked into my eyes and said in a soft voice. "And now they are yours. Don't lose them." and handed them to me.

I looked down at them and was shocked. I never heard of a cousin Jimmy. I never heard of losing anyone in World War 2. I never even saw these before. I closed my fingers around the set of airman's silver wings.

The emotion, which was and is rare for my mother, made up my mind that these were my something old for our wedding. I had these with me on my wedding day and keep them close even now.

First Find
When my husband's aunt started to talk about family history these are the two things which sparked in my memory.

On the same night, I told my husband's aunt the story about my mother's cousin and the wings. About 3 months later, we received an email saying that we should come over soon as she had some information for me.

Soon we visited her and found she had asked a few of the people who did military research. They found some documents for James 'Jimmy' Sherman and handed them to me. They matched what my mother said since I had the talk about him to my husband's aunt.

I was finally able to give my mother more information about how her cousin died only a few weeks after he gave her his wings.

Documents which was found about my mother's cousin, James 'Jimmy' Sherman.

Military Statement about the accident

A few years later, I was able to find a tablet with his name on it.

From Find a Grave showing James Sherman on tablet wall in a cemetery memorial in France Italy

These are the first reasons why I started genealogy and family history. They sit on my desk in front of the keyboard and when I feel frustrated I look and touch them. They are still the main reasons why I keep researching and keep going.