This blog is to tell the life stories of my ancestors - families include: Wojtkowski/a, Gauquie, Jagodzinski/a, Schmitz, and Larson.Please feel free to contact me if you believe you are related.
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"My job is to solve, not to judge. Always remember that." - Excerpt from Gone Forever by Scott Blade
This year's challenge is 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks and is run by Amy Johnson Crow.
Topic Info:
It's back to school time here in the U.S. Many school districts in my area have been back for 2 or 3 weeks already! This week's theme is "School Days." Have you used school records or yearbooks to find out more about your ancestors? Do you have photos or memorabilia from their time in school? How about any teachers or school staff in the family tree. Write about it this week!
I have used the yearbooks to find pictures more than anything of my ancestors, not that I've always found them. Or if they were in pictures of classes, and published in the newspapers, you couldn't see them very well.
Yearbooks Father's side
On my paternal side, it was only my father and uncle who were the first to be in them. They were also the first generations on both mother and father's side of the family in the United States. As my uncle was a teacher for Marlboro High School, he had quite a few entries for the years he taught, like his wife.
I do know my grandmother was in school in Poland for a bit before the Russians closed them. I believe she was then homeschooled until she emigrated to the US in 1920.
She started elementary school 6 weeks after arriving for a few years. She only knew Polish, Russian and German - no English. She had to stop her schooling when she reached her limit on how much she was able to get in the 1920s. She could read, write, and maths but simple stuff was ok. Anything more and it was a struggle for her I could see.
My grandmother's acknowledgement of schooling. Credit: Citizenship and Naturalization Department
Mother's side
On my maternal side, it gets complicated. My mother never finished school as she stopped at 16 and got married to my father. Her oldest brother left when he was young as well, and I don't believe finished school, but enlisted into the military.
My grandmother, I believe, only finished what she had to and then left to help with her family as she was the second oldest and her father, from what I've been able to gather, wasn't around to help out. I do know some of her siblings did get to finish as much schooling as they could.
On my mother's paternal side, the Gauquie's, my grandfather's generation was both farmers with some education for the males but the females either went into dancing/singing, into nursing, or were stay at home mothers it seems. The previous generations to my great grandfather/great grandmother could read, write, and know numbers and math, but this was about it. This type of education was common until about 1817 where its noted my 5th great grandmother, Francisca Carolina Noppe, could not write. Her husband,Jacobus Josepha Gauquie, was an worker who went into innkeeper employment, must have known how to read, write and knew his numbers and math to keep the business going. I only have a few of the Gauquie cousin's yearbook photos and entries.
My mother's cousin Jimmy in his NFA Yearbook entry. Credit
My mother's cousin in her NFA Yearbook entry. Credit
My mother's cousin in her NFA Yearbook entry. Credit
I could go on forever because my mother has that many cousins!
On my mother's maternal side, her grandfather on the Jagodzinski/Barry side, worked in restaurants and ended up as a chef in a hotel in NYC. He was first generation American. I believe he probably knew enough reading, writing and math to get him through but it was just enough.
On my mother's maternal side, her grandmother on the Ostrzycki side, had various occupations. She immigrated from Poland in the early 1900s when she was very young. I believe she had the basic schooling which was only until about grade 5. They could all read and write according to the census. However, if you go back 2 more generations to 1887, my 2nd great grandmother's wedding certificate says her mother, Rozulu Michalslua, was present but could not write. This was common in Poland at the time.
Current/My Generation
Almost all of us (myself and my siblings) graduated from high school. The only one who didn't was my brother, Charlie, and he went back and got his GED. My mother had all of the graduation pictures, but I don't know what she's done with them before she went into the nursing home.
My oldest sister, Theresa.
1973 in a group picture, my sister Theresa in the yearbook. Credit
I graduated from BOCES Vocational, in Business Computer Technology, where you knew banking, business, and computers all rolled into one. Also, I went on to earn my Associates Degree in Computer Information Systems at Orange County Community College, but haven't been able to find any work in this area; however, I have used different parts of the degree in different areas of my life. My mother was always degrading me for trying to get further and get a better paying job. She did many things to try and get me to no complete things, but until I couldn't afford it, I went as far as I could no matter who stood in my way.
1989 yearbook picture of me. Credit: J. Fitzgerald
1991 yearbook picture of me. Credit J. Fitzgerald
My brother did go back to get retrained in Air conditioning when he was injured and I'm not sure if he ever completed it due to the injury and how hurt he was. He never did get his picture in the yearbook at all and I've looked.
Education is important. We've tried to pass this along to my nieces because this is the only way to get ahead in the world. Thankfully, they have taken this advise and plowed on with it - all 3 have a Bachelor's Degree in something. One of my nephew's is in his final semester right now for his Bachelor's Degree.
I couldn't be prouder of the future generation for getting a higher education.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
