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Camp Doughboy 2018: After Action Report
The 3rd annual Camp Doughboy WWI History Weekend at Governors Island National Monument was held on 15-16 September 2018. This was the biggest free public WWI exhibition in the U.S. this year, and was attended by 10.000 visitors. The weather was sunny and warm both days. My mission was to man a table where people could ask how they could learn about their WWI ancestors. On that table I displayed an informative poster, the WWI scrapbook of my Grandfather that I created (rather than inherited) and WWI Victory medals. I was also assigned to give...
read more7 Ways to Research WWI Veterans in Your Community
Seventy First Regiment Leaves for Camp of N.Y. Division.(NARA RG165-WW-288C-067) Congratulations on taking the first step of wanting to learn more! Ryan Hegg of the WWI Centennial Commission for New York City asked me if I believed that the WWI Generation was really the Greatest Generation. What a thought provoking question! Ryan makes a great case. WWI was a defining point in our Country’s history as a participant on the world stage. Theirs was a generation who decided to go overseas to fight the Great War for Civilization. They...
read moreResearching North Carolina WWI Ancestors
Learning the military organization for your ancestor who served in WWI is important. With that information, you can find out what your ancestor did including duties, travels and battles. For North Carolina WWI ancestors, you can access North Carolina, World War I Service Cards, 1917-1919 https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2568864 You will need to sign up for a free account with FamilySearch.org to be able to search and view results. FamilySearch is a resource that will be useful for you, as it contains many records online and...
read moreNARA’s History Hub
Have you used the History Hub at the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)? Who better to ask about NARA Records than NARA itself! The History Hub is a place on the web where you can visit and ask questions in different communities at NARA. Do you have a question about finding military records or want to learn more about a topic? Then one of the related communities might be a place to look for information that has been posted, or post a question of your own. To view content and ask questions, you will need to register for a...
read moreInterview with Historian and Author Alexander F. Barnes
Recently, I had a chance to ask WWI Historian Alexander F. Barnes about his latest book, “Forgotten Soldiers of World War I: America’s Immigrant Doughboys” written with Peter Belmonte. In it, he discusses the impact our immigrant ancestors made by fighting in WWI. 1) What inspired you to write this book? In 2014 I wrote a book called “To Hell with the Kaiser: America Prepares for War 1916-1918” in which I described how the American Army was organized, trained, and deployed to fight in France. I spent a lot of time...
read moreHave you checked out TimeMapper?
Recently, one of the people I follow on Twitter mentioned using TimeMapper to create timelines with maps. If you have attended one of my lectures, or read my books, you will know how important it is to build timelines. Maps are also vital to understanding our ancestors. So imagine how exciting it would be to combine timelines and maps together. TimeMapper is a is free, open-source tool that is a product of the Open Knowledge Foundation Labs. TimeMapper. can be found here. On the main TimeMapper page there is a 1 minute tutorial to show you...
read more3 Ways to Find WWI Officer Experience Reports on Fold3
This week I have been working with an interesting record set, the WWI Officer Experience Reports-AEF on Fold3. These records are reports from officers about engineering activities in the AEF. Although there are names in these records, their usefulness goes beyond individual names because they hold information about the military organizations. The names are those of the officers filing the reports to the Chief Engineer of their Army, but the activities are those of the whole military organization to which they were attached. If you had a WWI...
read moreAre you a “Genealogy Detective” or a “Genealogy Engineer”?
At a conference a while back, I noticed how many of the presenters were engineers. That got me thinking about how engineering skills help in genealogical research. Then I wondered if genealogists might be more like engineers than detectives. Usually, genealogists think of themselves as detectives. That makes sense as we interview people, dig through records, and scan for the smallest details of an ancestor’s life. We try to connect the dots and align different versions of an ancestor’s life to establish the truth. We use timelines....
read moreGenealogy at the Movies
There are many movies about families, and while they naturally put us in mind of genealogy, there are some movies where genealogists, or genealogy plays a major role. Recently, I watched “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”. In that movie, James Bond posed as a genealogist to infiltrate the lair of Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the head of SPECTRE. Blofield had been communicating with a London College of Arms’ genealogist Sir Hilary Bray in an attempt to establish his claim to the title of ‘Comte Balthazar de...
read more“Who Do You Think You Are?” is back
Season 9 of “Who Do You Think You Are?” is here! The episodes are airing Monday night on TLC. Last Monday had two strong episodes with Jon Cryer and Laverne Cox. Discussions with genealogists and interpretation of DNA results were a part of both episodes. If you would like to stop by and comment during (or after) the episode you can stop by our Facebook page: A Week of Genealogy Facebook Page Full episodes from this season and Season 8 can be viewed online...
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