1521st AAF Base Unit Squadron E Hickam Field Hawaii WWII

A number of sons, daughters, grandsons and granddaughters are starting to really research into the relatives that served in WWII.  Some information comes hard to those of us that are looking into the 1521st AAF.  It is confusing because I find information that also lists SF as well as Hawaii and the unit served in the Pacific region. My dad is now 96 and has a great memory. However he is very hard of hearing so our phone conversations are limited. Next time I go out to CA I'm bringing along all the information that I want him to comment on and this time I'm video taping all his memories. He has told us some stories but I only remember bits and pieces. My dad has mentioned he was stationed in S.F bay area and he also was stationed in Hickam Field in Hawaii. Perhaps they were always on the move between the two. He was with crews that took the wounded from the war areas to hospitals in the US. He has talked about making all these stops taking the wounded to areas closer to their homes like Chicago. He also served in the Philippines which also adds to the confusion on my part. Hopefully I'll be able to shed some light onto his story which may help anyone else out there with relatives that serviced in the same unit. I have a photo I'm posting here which shows my dad and some others at Hickam Field in Hawaii.  Perhaps one of the others pictured is your relative. Let me know if you can identify one of the other guys. I'll check into it and if it seems to be the right person, I'll list it. Click on the photo below to enlarge it.

You know these guys?

The Story of Jesse Demott-Marshall, Michigan

I came across Jesse DeMott in my search for members of my extended family. I find myself often going down the ancestral tree branches of families that some have married into but that has no blood relations.This person leads to that person and then you find a newspaper article and you read it and want to find out what happened. That's the case with Jesse. No blood relation and I can't find how he fits into the rest of the Demotts but I saw where he got married.

But then there is no record for him but I did find one for his new wife 2 years later at the age of 19 she was a servant for a family. That meant she was only about 17 when she married Jesse.  Finally I found an article about his wife filing for divorce because he was cruel. Ok, that explains why she had to be a servant for a family. This was in 1910. Then I found this account of what happened.

Now I need to see if I can find out what happens to both of them. I know she must live from the pneumonia because she is filing for divorce and because I found a record in the 1910 US census listing her as a servant for a family. Totally waste of time except it is like reading a book with a good plot and do you think that is a waste of time?

Odd or Interesting Stories from Old #1

Researching is one of my loves and I come across some bizarre things from time to time. I decided to write them down and share. Some of local interest....or not.

Indiana Progress (Pennsylvania) Dec 1891

John McClurg, of Oil City, who during the
storm last week was knocked into a vat of
boiling water by a swinging door at the
Imperial Wax Works of that city, died Tuesday.

Bay-breasted Warbler-Blackpoll Warbler

Today gave us new lifer birds. After birding in Scott Park (which we saw the usual Hooded Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, Cedar Waxwing and others) we headed for Fry's Landing on this most beautiful afternoon. We were given a real treat when I spotted the Bay-breasted Warbler. We hadn't seen one before so it was really exciting. Getting a photo was hard with all the leaves out. But I got a few shots from my camcorder that I can share. Then we spotted our first Blackpoll Warbler. At first we thought we were seeing a Black and White Warbler but it wasn't acting like one. When it came out into the open I realized what it was. We saw two working the trees and bushes. With all the leaves out I could only get a tiny picture of one. We also spotted a Wilson's Warbler bouncing around. With all the leaves out now, it is really hard to spot birds. You see movement, a bit of color, and then they disappear in the leaves. So I'm thankful for the look we got at these beautiful birds today. I didn't get any decent pictures of the Blackpoll Warblers but not for the lack of trying.

Bay-breasted Warbler

Wilson's Warbler-his black cap doesn't show too much in this photo but he had a good one.

Canada Warblers are Plenty

More warblers are coming through. It's a great time of year. Today we took a really nice walk in Scott Park to show my mother-in-law some of the birds we have spotted. We saw several Canada Warblers as well as Indigo Buntings, Black and White Warblers, Hooded Warblers, Magnolia Warblers, Wilson Warbler, Baltimore Orioles to name a few. We saw a Great Crested Flycatcher, and a White Crowned Sparrow. My mother-in-law loved the Indigo Buntings. They sure are pretty, especially when the sun hits them while they are flying. I only took a few photos today. I saw 3 warblers that I couldn't identify. They were some we were not familiar with. I wish I could have gotten photos of them but they were too quick.

Indigo Bunting

Female Magnolia Warbler

Great Crested Flycatcher

black and white warbler

Mom

Mother's Days come and go and even though I'm a mother, I really never think of it as my day. It was my mother's day. I miss her terribly. There was so many wonderful things that she would have loved to have been a part of that she missed. But I know she is in a better place. I miss you Mom. Marjorie Mary McCuaig 1926-1996

Our First Cape May and Nashville Warbler

My husband and I went out birding today in Scott Park and Presque Isle. At Scott Park we saw a number of Indigo Buntings, loads of Yellow Warblers, one Hooded Warbler, lots of American Redstarts and what we thought might be a Yellow-Breasted Chat. We just aren't sure and didn't get a picture. It had a yellow breast and a gray top and was a larger size than the warblers we saw. It had a loud not-pleasant call. When we got back to the car we listened to what their call sounded like and it seemed similar. We'll never know. Maybe we will go back and try and find it again. We left and went to Fry's Landing about 4 PM or a little later in the afternoon. Surprisingly, there wasn't anyone else there at first. Then we met Mike and started talking about birds. He was truly an expert on birds. I'm so glad we ran into him. What a nice guy! He walked us around Fry's Landing and pished out a Nashville Warbler and a Common Yellow Throat. He could name birds left and right that he heard. He knew all the birds by their calls. How wonderful to be able to do that! He heard a Scarlet Tanager but it didn't come in close enough to see. Mike also spotted the raccoon in the tree which my husband and I walked right by. Real birders are sharp and nothing gets past them. We learned so much from him on our chance meeting. It was getting late so we left and on the way out stopped at Thompson Circle. It was an evening gold mine. Our first Cape May Warbler and I got pictures! Not good pictures but good enough. We also saw Yellow-rumped Warblers,a Palm Warbler, a Chestnut-sided Warbler, Yellow Warblers (of course, so many of them) Black and White Warbler and even a Northern Waterthrush. For being past 6 PM and just sitting in the parked car near the brush at Thompson Circle we did pretty good finding birds. Here are my pictures and below them is the video of the birds.

Cape May Warbler (Thompson Circle Presque Isle)

Cape May Warbler (Thompson Circle Presque Isle)

Hooded Warbler (Scott Park)

Indigo Bunting (Scott Park)

Birding

The wait seemed forever until the migrating warblers would start coming through. That's my favorite time of the year (except for vacation!) The birds are here and they are beautiful! We spent a few hours on May 3, 5, and 6th walking the trails to see what would flutter around us. Without binoculars you probably wouldn't even notice those tiny little warblers hopping through the thickets and tree tops. They are ghostly movements that are gone before your eyes focus. But bring up a pair of good binoculars and they shine like gold. My favorite is the Magnolia Warbler. The Black Throated Green Warbler is gorgeous, too. Last year we saw lots of Black Throated Blue Warblers in Scott Park but I only saw one from a distance so far this year. We got serenaded by an American Redstart yesterday in Scott Park. What a beautiful bird they are, too. Next week is the Festival of Birds here in Erie. It is the one time we don't go to the peninsula. We like birding alone. We like quiet, just us and the birds. Each year, though, we are softening our stance on whether to go or not. The speakers would be very interesting. The one that is held in West Virginia has me interested, too, if it weren't for the rustic accommodations. We just aren't quite ready to do the festival thing. However, we did go to the Nature Pilgrimage in Allegany State Park in New York a few years ago. It was really interesting and we learned a lot. I saw my first Cuckoo bird there that day. Well here is the video that was salvageable from our outing showing some of the birds. The female Pileated was awesome. She really works the woods. The warblers are just horrible to try and film. They bop along and very seldom are still. The American Redstart was very cooperative, though.

The 1940 Census Results

The 1940s census did provide some surprises in my ancestry research. I got one last name of a child that was living with my grandfather and his new wife in Chicago. That last name gave me his new wife's last name before she married my grandfather and from there I found their marriage certificate using her name that I couldn't find before because it was indexed as Horman instead of Norman in the South Dakota marriage registry. And from there the information just came snowballing in. It looks like there was no children from that marriage and the only child was from the woman's previous marriage. There doesn't seem to be any half siblings to my dad and thus no new aunts or uncles in my family that I didn't know about. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I almost was excited that I may find some new relatives. There are still 4 years between 1940 and my grandfather's death (accidental shooting in a tavern when the bar owner was showing him his new gun in Chicago.) I guess those will be lost years. In 10 years when the 1950 census comes out, he won't be on it and his wife had remarried and moved. It will be hard to trace to see if there are some children with her. But I did find relatives from the ancestry.com message boards about my French Quebec roots that had moved to Bangor, NY and then to Wisconsin. They have photos. Lots of photos from the 1800s. My family had practically no photos. I'm going to meet one of my distant cousins when I take our vacation. We only have one day to visit and that includes the day I wanted to visit all the cemeteries Wahkon, Isle, Cove, Opstead, Princeton, Milaca and Hopkins, MN where my ancestors are buried. We'll be rushed for sure but it will be so great! Here is a photo of my sister and I on the front steps of my grandmother's (Grace Patterson McCuaig) house in Wahkon, MN back in the early 50s. My sister looks cute, I look extra chubby, the curse I fight every day of my life! At least I had shoes on. My mom told me I was a bean kid. I loved pork and beans and couldn't shovel them into my mouth fast enough. She said I'd scream for more as soon as the spoon came out of my mouth when I was a baby. That is all bean fat on that little body. Mothers, don't let your kids eat pork and beans! Maybe beans are the obesity problem in this nation. :-)

Hector High School 1945

This is another of my genealogy posts. Not of interest to locals, most likely, but to someone whose parents or grandparents graduated from Hector High School, Renville County, Minnesota, it may be the bees knees.

My late mom, Marjorie Seaman, graduated from Hector High School in 1945. We found her graduation photo in a box with other photos of which I have no idea who the people are. But I'm sure they are all from Minnesota and I'm determined to try and identify as many as I can so they are not lost to the ages. At least there are names under the students in this photo. I'm posting this photo because had I not had this photo I would have loved to come across it when researching my family.

This photo will be uploaded full size so you may need to scroll to see all of it. I put a watermark on it so Classmates dot com or that yearbook site don't steal it and try to profit from it. If you are a family member of one of the people in the photo just leave a comment and I'll email you the photo without the watermark on it to add to your ancestry tree. I did find some of the people in some of the records on ancestry dot com but I couldn't find but 2 family trees that had one of these students in them. Girls are hard to find because the maiden names are lost in the records.Some of the guys graduated and probably joined the military even after 1945 because the conflict was still going on against Japan. The Korean War then followed 1950 to 1953. All of these kids' high school years were wwII war years.

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Tags: Ralph Wilkinson, Arvel Schafer, Arlyn Janke, W R Smythe, Lawrence Pfeil, Keith Duehn, Lloyd Broderius, Normandeane Johnson, Ruby Boss, Marjorie Seaman, Irene Hedberry, Eileen Johnson, Gloria Brede, Paul Wedin, Clinton Johnson, Ilo Mae Krueger or Krueyer, Robert Hanson, Marion Beske, LeRoy Taber, or Le'Roy Tabor, Arthur Newman, Lucille Peterson, Florence Precht, Lorraine Redmann, Donna Anderson, Frances Person, Phyllis Johnson, Inez Clark,