Free Military Records Access during this Memorial Day Weekend

In honor of Memorial Day the following sites are open for you to  

find for your family’s heroes:

 Ancestry.com is offering free searching and viewing of ~155 million military records including draft registration cards, enlistment and service records through May 27. 

Findmypast.com site is allowing free searching of its US and International collection of military records in honor of Memorial Day, until midnight May 27. Here you can access records including:  World War I Draft Registration Cards, Korean War Records, Korean War Casualty Records, Korean War POWs, Vietnam War Records, Vietnam War Deaths and Casualties, World War II POWs, World War II Army Enlistment Records, and US Army Casualties, 1961-1981. 

Fold3.com is sharing its nearly 4 million record images in it US Colored Troops collection through May 31st. These records include muster rolls, enlistment papers, correspondence, orders, prisoner-of-war memorandums, casualty reports.  Be sure to check out the other collections which are offered at no charge like the ongoing War of 1812 Pension Applications project

MyHeritage is allowing free access to its US Revolutionary War pension indexes, the 1840 special census of Revolutionary War pensioners index, Confederate service and pension records and War of 1812 pension indexes through May 28.

Sandiford of Radcliffe, Lancashire

From different sources we knew our 5th G-Grandmother, Lydia Sandiford was born in 1777, daughter of James and Alice Sandiford, in Radcliffe, Lancashire. Initial searches for her baptism record yielded little, but when I dropped the "i" in the surname we were able to zero in on it.
Entered as Sandford, here is Lydia's baptism record from the parish book:

St. Mary's of Radcliffe

4 May 1777

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Toby Cake - c.1911

"Children can eat it without disastrous results."

c.1911

Kansas City Star

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Clarence Saltsman - Application for Headstone

WWI Veteran 

Clarence J. Saltsman 

(1896-1959)

of Ohio

(click image to enlarge)

Buried in Ohio Veterans Home Cemetery

Also known as Ohio Soldiers and Sailors Cemetery

in Sandusky, Erie, Ohio

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Happy Mother's Day

Wishing all a
Happy Mother's Day!

Vintage Postcard 

(Graphics Fairy)

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Free Genealogy Workshop for Chinese American Research

Family Legacies: Genealogical Resources for Chinese Americans

6 - 7 p.m.  Monday, May 6
At the Independence Branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia
18 South 7th Street, Philadelphia
 

Learn how to verify family stories—from oral tradition to fact. At this FREE genealogy workshop, Jeanie Chooey Low, author of China Connection: Finding Ancestral Roots for Chinese in America, will provide techniques for interviewing family members and deciphering gravestone inscriptions. She will discuss U.S. 20th-century immigration and naturalization case files, how to find and visit ancestral villages, and how to research war and census records. The presentation is for all levels of researchers and will be presented in English.
      

Low is the child of immigrants and a specialist in Chinese American genealogy and 20th-century immigration and naturalization records. Her interest in family history started several years ago when she realized that the Chinese traditions and language of immigrants were gradually being lost with each succeeding generation of Chinese Americans.

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Cuyahoga Ohio Marriages: Busch Brothers to Mangan Sisters

Not just another family tall tale: 

Brothers John & Chris Busch of  Cleveland, Ohio, 

married sisters Mary & Annie Mangan of Ireland,

as shown below in the marriage returns.

The records below were found on Ancestry.com in database:

Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Marriage Records and Indexes, 1810-1973 

 I am always thrilled when the original image can be viewed!

(Click images to enlarge)

The Tragic Death of Nicholas Busch

Nicholas Busch, b. 1878, Ohio

son of John & Catherine (Laubenthal) Busch

                                                  May 19, 1886  Cleveland Leader

May 20, 1886  

 Cleveland Leader

                                    May 22, 1886   Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH) 

Joseph Lefebvre of Lowell, MA, 1846-1918

Joseph Lefebvre was born in L'Acadie, Canada, in 1846. He was one of 14 children born to Vital  & Theotiste Henriette (Roy) Lefebvre. On 13 Jan 1872, he married Julia Louise Lambert at St. Augustin Church in Manchester, NH. He was employed as a hosiery knitter in a cotton mill in Lowell, MA, and was a resident of Lowell when he died in Feb 1918 at the age of 72.

Lowell Sun, Monday, February 25, 1918, Lowell, Massachusetts

Lowell Sun, Wednesday, February 27, 1918

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Catherine Laubenthal of Greimersburg, Germany

 

Catherine Laubenthal

was born 14 April 1843 in Greimersburg, Germany (then Prussia);

daughter of Anton & Emma Laubenthal.

She married John J Busch and they had their first son, Anthony, in Germany before immigrating to the United States in 1866.

 

Below is her death certificate which I located on FamilySearch.org

 

Merseyside family set to bury their World War I hero ancestor... 96 years after his death

Captain John Harold Pritchard

in a trench during World War I

Read story here: Merseyside family set to bury their World War I hero ancestor

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New Bedford City Directory gives Date of Death

We knew from census records that Pierre Nolan had died between 1930, where he is listed as head of household, and 1940 where his wife, Laura, is head of household and listed as a widow.
Newspaper searches did not yield any information, but a search in the New Bedford, MA, city directories  answered the question. Here, in the 1932 issue, the actual date of death is given.

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