A Birks Memorial Bar and the Perth Regiment Facebook Group

I have written a few posts about my great uncle, Lawrence Nimmo Dean, who was killed in action in Nijmegen, Holland, 2nd April, 1945.

Two years ago, my mother gave me his service medals from the war; six medals, all unmounted and in their original boxes. I still had not decided what to do with them when she gave me this last year. Neither of us had any idea what it was, my mother's guess was that it was to be attached to a plaque.

Recently, I found a Facebook group for Uncle Lawrence's regiment, the Perth Regiment and a couple of days ago I posted some photos and asked for help. By the end of the day, I had my answer.

This is a Birks Memorial Bar. They were produced by Canadian Jeweler, Birks, and presented to families of the fallen starting in 1941.

According to the person who helped me, they were to be sewn to the fronts of the ribbons on the service member's medals once they were court mounted. Court mounting is the process of mounting the service medals and ribbons on a sturdy background, like these medals of my grandfather's.

The gentleman who helped me on Facebook was also able to provide the name of the place where he had his own medals mounted and it happens to be conveniently located in Gatineau, Quebec, just the other side of the river from Ottawa where I have cousins. In fact, I was in Ottawa and Gatineau just last May, visiting those cousins and doing some research and hope to go back as soon as it is possible and safe.

Now that I knew the name of this bar, I did a little more digging and was able to find more information on the Veterans Affairs Canada website.  There I learned that the bars can also be displayed in a shadow box or frame with the medals and any other mementos or in any way the family may deem appropriate.

Since it won't be done right away, I think I'm going to take this time to reach out to my cousins for their thoughts although I know I would like to have the medals and the bar mounted together. It's really a matter of what we do with them after that. A shadowbox sounds like a nice tribute, but light damage is a concern, even if we invested in museum quality glass. I hate the idea of keeping the medals stored in a closet forever, though.

Whatever we decide, it is nice to have the mystery solved and to know that there is no one "right" way to honor Uncle Lawrence in their display.

Project Download - City Directories

Johnson siblings

As a beginner in genealogical research, I had no idea that the records I attached to people in my online trees could disappear and also did not imagine that there would be any reason that I might discontinue my Ancestry subscription or even just take a break. Now I know better.

Once I learned that collections can disappear from websites, I started to download new documentation as I found it, but what about all those records I had attached to people in my trees before I knew better?

A few years ago I started a Go-over/Do-over tree. The goal was to document this tree from the beginning using all of the knowledge that I had gained since I began in genealogy, and also to make sure that I downloaded all of the documentation that I found on subscription sites.

Last week, I was working on my paternal grandmother's father and the city directories from Manchester, CT where he lived from the time he settled in the US in 1888 almost until his death in 1956. That's a lot of city directories!  So, I opened the folder on my desktop computer to see what I had and although I didn't expect to find perfection, I was shocked to see files like this.

What I found in my Manchester city directory file

Opening the files didn't improve things as there was no indication on the printed pages as to what year's directory they were from.  I had to start over.  Ancestry has many of the Manchester directories from 1888-1956, so this will be a big job and not one I want to botch again. Knowing now that these directories can contain a wealth of information well beyond my ancestors' addresses, I want to make sure I download everything that could help me in my knowledge and research.

A few years of the Manchester city directory are available on the historical society website, in PDF format, in their entirety, and so I downloaded them that way. The directories on Ancestry, however, have to be downloaded one or two pages at a time, so I would have to know what information I would want to save.

I knew that I wanted

• Listings of my great-grandparents and everyone with their surname
• Listings of other family (like the Johnsons, above) and everyone with their surname
• Listings of their FAN club and everyone with their surname
• List of abbreviations used in the listings, usually printed just at the top of the first page of alphabetical listings
• Town maps - when available
• Town history and statistics
• List of churches
• List of newspapers

But was I missing anything?

With a quick search on the Legacy Family Tree Webinars site I found a few webinars on this topic. I must admit that I didn't listen to any of them in full but I read the syllabi and discovered that I had forgotten something; listings of residents by street, a much better way to find your ancestors' neighbors than looking at every name and address in the directory.

I'll also admit that I wasn't going to go there at first. There aren't any big mysteries in this branch of my tree, but writing a post about it gave me the kick I needed. I discovered that the 1923 directory was the first in Manchester to list residents by street. It was first called the Street Directory and later the Numerical Directory. One of the interesting things that the Manchester Street/Numerical Directory tells you is who had a telephone. As of now, I know that my great-grandparents and my great-grandmother's sister who lived in the other half of their two-family home, had telephones as of 1923 which is about the time telephones were found in most households. So, I did add a little time and tedium to my project, but I also learned something interesting.

Also, if your ancestor owned a business, don't forget to look for advertisements and a listing for their business. You may even find them on a page that lists businesses by type, like Mrs. Blanche Rochon, the Clairvoyant or Dr. David Nelson and Merwyn Squires, the Chiropracticers (yes, that is how it reads in the Directory).

I hope you have found this to be helpful in your research, even an experienced genealogist can use a refresher now and then, and if there's something in directories that you think I missed, please feel free to let me know in the comments, which I think I can reply to again!  Happy hunting.

The Misses Maxwell and the Notman Collection

I haven't been posting because I haven't been doing much research lately, but one thing I have been doing is working on my photo collection.  I have done some scanning, some organizing and recently I did some work on identification.

This photo came from an album that belonged to either my 2nd great-grandmother, Elizabeth Nimmo Dean, or her mother, Elizabeth Louden Nimmo.  My grandmother's sister labeled many of the photos by name, but this one, as you can see, says "Great Nieces of Grandmother Nimmo."

Luckily, the photo was taken at the studios of William Notman in Montreal. He was a prolific and well-known photographer and his existing plates are in a collection at the McCord Museum there. Even better, more than 60,000 of those images are available to view for free on the museum's website, most with names and dates. But I still needed a lead to find this photo in that vast collection, since neither "Louden" nor "Nimmo" returned any results.

So, how were these ladies related to "Grandmother Nimmo" and was my great-aunt referring to her grandmother who's maiden name was Nimmo or her great-grandmother who's married name would have been Nimmo? Based on my estimated date for this photo, which was the 1880s, I proceeded as if it were my 3rd great-grandmother, so I began researching her siblings.

Her brother, John Louden, is as much of a mystery to me as I write this post as he was when I began researching him. I have a photo of him, from this album, and a burial record that I am 99% sure is his, but that is ALL. I can't tell you if or whom he married or if he had children.  There are some trees on Ancestry I may follow up on at a later date, but they did not appear to be my John Louden.

After more than a few hours of fruitless research I moved on to Elizabeth and John's sister, Martha Ann Louden Linton. Right away, I found documentation for Martha that seemed to match what family lore had told me.  One afternoon when I only had a short time for this project, I turned to the tree of a second cousin who does good research. It turns out she has a lot of information on these collateral lines, and using the married last names of Martha's daughters to search, I found "The Misses Maxwell" on the museum website in just a few minutes.  I can't identify them individually, but between Aunt Dorothy's description and the caption on the museum website, I feel reasonably certain that these sisters are the daughters of Margaret Linton and Archibald Maxwell, Margaret being a daughter of Martha Ann Louden. And that would make them Great Nieces of Elizabeth Louden Nimmo.  Also, the museum says the photo was taken in 1880.

I do have one more Notman photo from that album that has no identifying information whatsoever.

Is that some expression or what?  I really want to know who this baby is but none of the names that I know solved the mystery. I later searched for hours using terms like "baby" and "child" since I had seen photos labeled "Mrs. X's baby" or "Mrs. X's child", but had no luck. There is a number on the back of the photo but the online collection is not searchable using those numbers. Once the McCord Museum is open again, I will contact them to see if they can offer any suggestions. 

Any time I am lucky enough to identify a photo in my collection I find it very satisfying, which is why the one major-ish genealogy purchase that I have made during the pandemic has been a trio of online recorded courses from Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective.  And as soon as I finish editing this post and have a little breakfast, I will be spending some time immersed in her Identifying Family Photographs course.

I hope your personal time this weekend will be as much fun!

Honor Roll Project - Valley Stream, NY

As part of Heather Wilkinson Rojo's Honor Roll Project, I have transcribed these Rolls of Honor in Valley Stream, NY to make the names visible to search engines so that family researchers can find them. Please consider finding the Honor Roll(s) in your town or village and transcribing them on your blog or website. Some rolls are long and some are short but there's no deadline, you can take as long as you need to transcribe an honor roll.  I've learned so much about local history through this project and when someone finds the name of an ancestor in one of my posts they are grateful and excited! And even if you don't have a blog or website, you can ask me or another participating blogger. I would be happy to create a post to share your photos and transcription!

This memorial in Valley Stream is located in the Village Green Park at the corner of Hicks Street and West Valley Stream Boulevard.

This roll of honor lists those from Valley Stream who gave their lives in World War I, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam.

World War I

George P. Butler

George A. Dahlbender

Robert F. Dibble

Andrew Fatscher

Otto Fatscher

Charles Hennig

Edward V. Ruppel

William F. Schmidt

Harold Van Buskirk

World War II

John Aitkin

Frank Balducci

Thomas P. Barnwell

Leslie M. Braren

Robert T. Bishop

George Boyne

James J. Cahill

Harold J. Carlson

Wendell P. Carolan

Fred Carroll

James F. Cashin

Donald M. Combs

Richard F. Combs

Walter G. Critchley

Henry V. Damm, Jr.

Edward T. Davidson

Dominick J. DiStasio

John F. Dolin

Frederick D. Doscher

Marvin W. Douberly

James C. Dilling

James J. Fitzpatrick

Francis P. Flynn, Jr.

Elwood P. Fosset

Harold M. Frederick

Frederick A. Gear

Charles F. Gallant

Karl H. Haglund

Joseph L. Huelster

Norman Jackson

Thomas F. Kearney

Arthur K. Kersten

John J. Knapp

George Krasa

Thomas Leanza

Maurice G. Mackey

Tiffany V. Manning

Joseph B. McConigle

John J. McLaughlin

Ernest C. Mejo

John J. Motley

Chester Murphy

George Murray

Francis J. McDermott

William J. McQueeney

William D. Nally

Howard L. Nitterhouse

Robert H. O'Loughlin

Edward P. Pearsall

Robert G. Pupke

Karl E. Prinz

George M. Reardon

Ernest S. Reckmann

Jacob M. Reisert

Frank J. Robertson

Maynard J. Rogg

Owen H. Salvage

John M. Savery

John Schaefer

Ralph L. Schurmann

Raymond T. Slezak

Carl S. Uhlyk

C. Maxwell Wellman

Joseph J. Wujcik

John P. Zelvis

Korea

Michael W. Dill, Jr.

Thomas Shields

Donald Spence

Eugene F. Voss

Edward C. Wahlgren

Robert Whitney

Vietnam

Michael J. Abruzzesa, Jr.

Herbert Dilger

Richard E. Gideon

Andrew Giordano

Albert F. Lupoli, Jr.

William J. Montague

Richard Nelson

Vincent Olley

Angelo Petraglia

William F. Reichert

Timothy C. Reitmann

Michael C. Saporito

John M. Walsh

Herbert Austin Smith - His Two and a Half Years in Captivity

Many family stories that are passed down through the generations turn out to be untrue. The story I am about to tell you is basically unverifiable, but I hope it is true because it is an ancestor story for our time.

Herbert Austin Smith was one of my maternal grandfather's older brothers; the fourth child, third son, of my great-grandparents, George Robert Smith and Isabella Frances Parker. During his childhood, Herb contracted Scarlet fever. With a houseful of children and her husband's business associates as frequent guests, my great-grandmother had to find a way to keep Herb busy while he recuperated and so she taught him to knit, an unusual skill for a boy, but it would come in very handy soon enough.

On April 8, 1915, Herb, then nineteen, enlisted in the Canadian Over-seas Expeditionary Force, he embarked for France with the 5th Canadian Mounted Rifles on October 24, 1915, and was taken prisoner at Ypres in August of 1916. He spent the duration of the war, two years and almost three months, in a German Prisoner of War camp.

Most of the details of Uncle Herb's time as a POW are unknown to me and he has no living descendants, but there is one story that survives.

When he was captured, Herb was wearing a hand-knit sweater under his uniform. During the monotony of his imprisonment, Herb must have remembered how he had passed the time during his childhood convalescence and so he fashioned knitting needles out of sticks, unraveled his sweater and then he knit it all over again. And he did this over and over and over for all those months until he was finally freed on the day of the armistice.

Herb's life changed in the blink of an eye when he was injured, captured and transported to a prison camp in Germany and then he faced many months of stress, worry and uncertainly, cut off from his family, friends, and country. Sound familiar?  But even without books, phones, the internet, a Playstation or even a board game, Herb found a way to keep himself and his mind occupied.

As I face this new reality with all of its attendant uncertainty, stress and worry, I will look to my Grand-uncle Herb as an excellent example of making the most of what you have to make it through to better times.

Killed In Action April 2, 1945

L/Cpl. Lawrence Nimmo Dean.

Killed in action April 2, 1945.

The Honor Roll Project - Sea Cliff, NY

As part of Heather Wilkinson Rojo's Honor Roll Project, I have transcribed these Rolls of Honor in Sea Cliff, NY to make the names visible to search engines so that family researchers can find them. Please consider finding the Honor Roll(s) in your town or village and transcribing them on your blog or website. Some rolls are long and some are short but there's no deadline, you can take as long as you need to transcribe an honor roll.  I've learned so much about local history through this project and when someone finds the name of an ancestor in one of my posts they are grateful and excited! And even if you don't have a blog or website, you can ask me or another participating blogger. I would be happy to create a post to share your photos and transcription!

Sea Cliff is a picturesque village on Long Island's North Shore. These rolls of honor are in Memorial Park which is small but has breathtaking views of Long Island Sound. (This photo was taken in late March and therefore at a safe distance from others.)

This memorial remembers all who served in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam but lists only those who gave their lives.

These plaques are in the walkway.

THIS TABLET IS DEDICATED TO THE RESIDENTS OF SEA CLIFF WHO SERVED IN THE KOREAN CONFLICT AND TO THE FOLLOWING WHO MADE THE SUPREME SACRIFICE

Theodore C. Clayton

July 13, 1950

Robert T. Lawrence

Sept. 6, 1952

A GRATEFUL COMMUNITY DEDICATES THIS MEMORIAL TO THE MEN AND WOMEN OF SEA CLIFF WHO SERVED IN WORLD WAR II AND IN HONOR OF THE FOLLOWING WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES

Sidney A. Bowers

James F. Brengel, Jr.

Edmund P. Bull

Robert N. Cottrell

William Craig

Gerald Davino

James D. Deane

George M. Dempster

Roger Ellison

Angelo Famigletti

Henry F. Graham

John D. Hanson

Anthony Hendrickson

Roy J. Hidecker

Walter Hoerle

George L'Hommedieu

Edward A. Mauger

Frank A. Mullen

Silvio Nieri

Kenneth M. Reid

Robert C. Stevenson

Charles A. Tedeschi

Ernest Tenke, Jr.

Stanley A. Loewenberg

THIS TABLET IS DEDICATED TO THE RESIDENTS OF SEA CLIFF WHO SERVED IN THE VIETNAM CONFLICT AND TO THE FOLLOWING WHO MADE THE SUPREME SACRIFICE

Richard Mitchell

June 11, 1966

Carl Richard Dice

December 8, 1969

Erwin L. Edelman

February 18, 1969

Francis L. Arnett

February 13, 1968

The Honor Roll Project - East Williston, Long Island, New York

As part of Heather Wilkinson Rojo's Honor Roll Project, I have transcribed these Rolls of Honor in East Williston to make the names visible to search engines so that family researchers can find them. Please consider finding the Honor Roll(s) in your town or village and transcribing them on your blog or website. Some rolls are long and some are short but there's no deadline, you can take as long as you need to transcribe an honor roll.  I've learned so much about local history through this project and when someone finds the name of an ancestor in one of my posts they are grateful and excited! And even if you don't have a blog or website, you can ask me or another participating blogger. I would be happy to create a post to share your photos and transcription!

East Williston is an incorporated village in Nassau County on Long Island (not to be confused with another area named for a different Willis family in upstate NewYork) and the Village Green and rolls of honor sit near its train station just off of Hillside Avenue. This is one memorial I didn't have to Google since I just happened to notice the backs of the wreaths laid there last Memorial Day while I was sitting and waiting for a train to cross Hillside while I was on my way to work.

This memorial contains rolls of honor for World War I and World War II. It also contains plaques in recognition of the Korean War and the Vietnam War. It appears that a name was added to the Vietnam War plaque after it was made.

THAT THE NAMES OF 

THE MEN FROM THIS COMMUNITY

WHO SERVED IN THE GREAT WAR

MAY NEVER BE FORGOTTEN

THIS TABLET IS ERECTED

1917-1919

John S. Bailey

J. Harper Bonnell

Harold Bouck

Raymond L. Hayden

George Hauser

John Hughes

William J. Kempf

Allison M. Lederer

Charles Parker

John Razzano

Herbert Richter

Thomas L. Robinson

Milton G. Schenck

William W. Stoothoff

James Tilly

Howard F. Townsend

Chester George Valentine

Henry L. Wagner, Jr.

Edward West

Anthony Yadisko

Benjamin Zaleski

Joseph J. Zeblinksy

IN HONOR OF

THOSE WHO SERVED IN THE ARMED FORCES

OF OUR COUNTRY IN WORLD WAR II

EAST WILLISTON, NY

★ Harry R. Ludwig

★ Forbes D. Park

James Adams

Arnold P. Barnett

H. Howell Bartlett

Walter E. Bartlett

Walter H. Bartlett

Edward M. Becker

William F. Becker

Alfred H. Bengeyfield

William H. Bengeyfield

Charles F. Bertschinger

James E. Bertschinger

Peter Blank, Jr.

Wilford A. Bryde

Wilbur J. Buschmann

Frank J. Cashin, Jr.

James W. Cashin

Robert F. Clancy

Richard L. Clark

Harold A. Cobb

Francis W. Colby

Karl S. Day

Edward V. Dembinski

James A. DeVeer

John A. DeVeer

Burton E. Dezendorf

William H. Dickson III

Donald W. East

William H. Edwards

Maurice A. Ekos

William F. Fenno III

Frank A. Fitton

Walter B. Frame

William R. Frederick, Jr.

James P. Gallacher

Ruth B. Grace

Jack K. Greenland

James R. Gurney

John G. Haggist

Fremont B. Hallock

Richard F. Hamm

Kenneth Harder

Eugene H. Harned

John F. Hartigan

Thomas M. Hearn, Jr.

Herry T. Helsher

Howard S. Heydon

LeRoy E. Hopkins

David W. Hopper

Earle A. S. Hopping

Joseph D. Hudson

Richard A. Hudson

Fred M. Ironside

John J. Johnstone

Richard A. Jonas III

John E. Kingston

Robert J. Kolyer

Walter Kronimus, Jr.

Kenneth A. Lent

Frank S. McKee

George S. Martin

Harry Mathewson

Edwin D. Maxfield

Philip R. Meyer

Frederick Michel, Jr.

Edwin J. Mihan

E. Eliot Miller

Edwin C. Monkmeyer

Craig R. Murray

Frederick M. Nolte

Howard P. Palmer

Ernest D. Perkins

Peter J. F. Rager

Henry B. Robinson

Thomas J. Roche

Thomas J. Rohan

Malcolm T. Ryan

Ward K. St. Clair

Howard E. Schenck, Jr.

Wilbur D. Schiller

Edson S. Schmid

Robert E. Schreiber

Julius H. Seeth

Richard M. Seymour

Robert J. Shotter

Pentti K. Siiteri

John L. Slusser

Robert N. Swanson

Charles W. Thill

William I. Todd

Howard M. Trowern, Jr.

Alfred R. Valentine

Richard H. Valentine

Edgar J. Viscecchio

Paul H. Vonderhorst

Wallace G. Voegel

James S. White

Paul J. Wiggins

Daniel E. Winneke

Theodore W. Winter

This plaque acknowledging the Korean War is dedicated to all the men and women who have served and those who have made the Supreme Sacrifice.

And this one is dedicated the same way but remembers the Vietnam War and specifically one man: William Nuebel, Jr. (1947-1967).