Archive for April, 2008

July 4, 1918

My dear Dad,

I know that you shall be glad to hear that I am with my new outfit and well pleased. I’m feeling better than I have felt since arrival over here.

We are out in the country billeted in a small village which would cause the average American to turn pale; but it is better than some I have seen and it is way better than the rice paddies I slept in when out on manouvers in the Philippines.

Sure did hate to leave some of my old pals behind; but shall try my best to make new friends here. I had some very good friends amongst officers and men in the Fifteenth and I know that I can do my duty here as well as I have done it in the past.

So please do not worry about me and you shall surely be surprised to see me when I come home to stay this time. However that time is a long way off and it is not good form to think about the future. The present is what counts and I shall surely do my best to make good and shall stick it out despite the fact that there may be disappointment in store for me.

Do hope that your business keeps on improving and please do not take any bad nickels.

Just my luck that my pen had to run dry, but why sorry over a little thing like that. Liable not to have a pencil to finish with next time.

Remember Dad if I die I want Ida May Zeile to have everything. I send you the very best of wishes.

Lovingly,
Harold

Pvt. 1st cl. Harold Roberts,
Co. A 326 Battalion Tank Corps
311 Tank Center
A.P.O. 714
A.E.F.

Censored by:
H.J. Ellis
1st. Lt. Tank Corps

Read the entire series:

• Part 1 — Searching for Harold Roberts
• Part 2 — Roberts: What We Found
• Part 4 — A Face for Harold Roberts
• Part 5 — A Hero’s Final Resting Place

CGS volunteer Dick Rees handles the mail at the society, so it was he who first read McMaster’s request. Dick spearheaded the research efforts of a small group that included Verne Deubler, Nancy Peterson, Vinnie Schwarz and Pat Smith.

William Harold Roberts was the son of John and Elfreda Seifert Roberts, born October 14, 1895, in San Francisco. No official birth record exists because the ledgers were destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and fire.

The team gathered data from all the likely sources and also contacted the Episcopal Diocese Archives, the Lick-Wilmerding High School, the San Francisco Historical Society and the San Francisco Public Library and their Sixth Floor History Center.

But “Look-up” volunteer, Pat Smith, hit pay dirt when she followed the “no stone left unturned” approach and found a listing for William Harold Roberts in the San Francisco probate index.

The estate file includes a typescript of a letter that Roberts wrote to his father on July 4, 1918 from France. After Robert’s death in November of that year, the letter became his last will and testament.

Harold’s letter was started in ink but was finished in pencil when his fountain pen went dry. It was in the closing sentences, in pencil, that Roberts indicated that if he died everything should be left to his father’s sister, Ida May Zeile.

Roberts, who was unmarried, left a war risk insurance policy, probably standard issue by the Army. The “will” was challenged by family members when Harold’s aunt filed for probate in 1924, two years after the death of Roberts’ father. An article from the November 18, 1924, San Francisco Chronicle, “Will of Hero Hit in Court – Relatives Attack Letter Written on Battlefield Leaving Estate” describes charges of forgery and the fight for the money.

Ultimately, Ida was named the executor and Roberts’ $8000 estate was divided among the living relatives.

Read the entire series:

• Part 1 — Searching for Harold Roberts
• Part 3 — Roberts’ Battlefield Letter
• Part 4 — A Face for Harold Roberts
• Part 5 — A Hero’s Final Resting Place

The letter to CGS didn’t use these words but the message was clear:
find Corporal Harold W. Roberts.

Periodically the California Genealogical Society and Library receives a research request that morphs into a group project. In this case the letter came from Gary McMaster, director and curator of the Camp Roberts Historical Museum. He was looking for Harold Roberts, the World War I soldier posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, for whom the camp is named.

Camp Roberts is a one-time Army base, now National Guard training facility, off U.S. 101 about half way between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Originally called Camp Nacimiento, the name was changed even before it became operational during World War II. It is the only U.S. facility named in honor of an enlisted man.

Gary McMaster, Retired Army Sergeant First Class, has been on a mission to find out all he can about Roberts. He first contacted CGS last summer with the letter that said in part:

“We would like to find out about any of his family and try to find out whatever happened to his parents and his Medal of Honor. We also would like to find any photographs of him, as we have none. The large painting we have in his exhibit in the Museum… is an artist’s impression. We would like to know what he actually looked like.”

The Paso Robles Gazette did a story about McMasters and the planned exhibit on Roberts, but no mention was made of the efforts of the research team at the California Genealogical Society. I thought I should set the record straight.

Read the entire series:

• Part 2 — Roberts: What We Found
• Part 3 — Roberts’ Battlefield Letter
• Part 4 — A Face for Harold Roberts
• Part 5 — A Hero’s Final Resting Place

Wednesday, May 7, 2008, 1:00 – 3:00 p.m.

Belle Cooledge Library
5600 South Land Park Drive
Sacramento, CA 95822

California Genealogical Society members living in the greater Sacramento area have been invited to a coffee at the Belle Cooledge Branch Library on Wednesday, May 7, 2008 from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. The get-togethers are a fun way to meet members who live locally and are designed to help us link with neighbors who share similar genealogy research interests. Take advantage of this opportunity to network and set up car pools for future CGS meetings, events or research trips. CGS President, Jane Lindsey will give guests an update on current events at the society.

If you live in our target area, please save the date and let us know if you can come. You can also feel free to bring a friend who is interested in genealogy. The society gratefully acknowledges the generosity of Sacramento member, Janet Feil, who made the arrangements and is acting as hostess. RSVP to the society at (510) 663-1358 or email [email protected].

Photographs courtesy of Cathy Merrill Paris.

Another CGS Tour to Salt Lake City came to a close on Saturday night with the annual dinner at Lamb’s Grill. Special guest and CGS member, Steve Danko, took time out from the United Polish Genealogical Societies Biennial Conference to join us.

President Jane Lindsey thanked all of the participants and gave an overview of the upcoming society events. Before the annual group photograph was taken, several members shared their research success stories.

Jane was doing the genealogical happy dance after finding the marriage record of Magdelena GERTH and Valentine HUND in Renchen, Germany.

Mother-daughter team, Penny Pollock and Faith Hazelton have attended the SLC trip for all eight years. Penny got closer to proving a Mayflower line through George SOULE; Faith proved one last year.

Mary White Limosner, equipped with new knowledge obtained during the Eastern European Research Workshop, finally had success finding her BUDNICK family in Polish records.

Arlene and Ted Miles enjoyed their first trip and found information on their Brooklyn ancestors and Ted’s Kentucky MILES family.

Rick Sherman was finding elusive Danes online in his hotel room.

Pat Smith and Laura Spurrier took advantage of the Danish talks offered this week at the Family History Library. Pat applied the knowledge to her Swedish ancestor Johan WIDMAN and found a probate record from the late 1700s.

Betty Barnard Walker found her BIERMANN ancestor in German passenger records from the mid-nineteenth century.

Bill O’Neil finally found the documentation he needed for his French Canadian DRINKWINE/BOIVIN and MITCHELL/MICHAUDs.

And last but not least, Cathy Paris and CGS librarian, Laura Spurrier, discovered that they are MERRILL sixth cousins.

SLC Tour group 2008

Photograph courtesy of Cathy Merrill Paris.

One hundred two years ago today, at 5:12 a.m., the earth shook in San Francisco and Sarah E. Phillips was “awaked by a most dreadful earthquake.” Thus began a series of letters Sarah wrote to her fiancé in Schenectady, New York, chronicling the days and weeks of the aftermath.

Almost one hundred years later, a ribbon-bound packet of forty faded letters, still in their original envelopes, was found in a misplaced box at the California Genealogical Society, with little to identify the writers or explain how the letters came there.

Author Dorothy Fowler, a researcher and long-time volunteer at the society, happened to be on hand when the letters turned up. She took on the challenge of researching and editing the letters and was the sole author of a book published by the society to coincide with the earthquake centennial. The vast number of hours required in researching and writing the book were contributed by her to the society.

Dorothy is a gifted writer with long experience in various publications. Much of her work life was spent in research, writing and administrative jobs, mainly for the state of California. She is now retired and lives in San Francisco.

Two years ago when promoting the book, Dorothy was a guest of radio personality John Rothmann on his KGO Radio 810 AM talk show. Dorothy did several readings from A Most Dreadful Earthquake: A First-Hand Account of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire before Rothmann closed with these remarks:

“I’m going to tell you that every April 18th, for as long as I live, I’m going to pick up your book, and I’m going to re-read it. And the reason I’m going to re-read it is because of the vivid, powerful expressions. You’ve given us a great gift… and you’ve preserved history. And for that we are all very grateful, Dorothy.”

We are indeed. Mr. Rothmann, have you done your reading this year?

What better place for a group of genealogists to spend National Library Week than the Family History Library in Salt Lake City? I’m going to put a little twist on genea-blogger Lori Thornton’s summons and write a tribute to the California Genealogical Society Library Committee and librarian volunteers.

The Library Committee is composed of several volunteers with years of experience in all areas of librarianship. They are experienced genealogists as well, who know how to catalog, locate new publications and out-of-print books, keep good records and, best of all, freely give their time and expertise. Past and present committee members include: Gloria Hanson, Barbara Hill, Arlene Miles and Laura Spurrier.

L to R: Laura Spurrier, Arlene Miles, Gloria Hanson. Not shown: Barbara Hill

Barbara Hill has a total of thirty-three years of library work experience, including time in public, school, technical and academic libraries. Her favorite jobs involved working in library acquisitions which is her focus for the CGS Library Committee. She often humorously ascribes her interest in genealogy to “prenatal influence” since her mother was pregnant with Barbara while researching the family at the Library of Congress. (It probably influenced her career choice as well.) Barbara and her mother collaborated on the family’s U.S. and Canadian research for many years until her mother’s death.

Arlene Miles is a retired library technician who has acquired an eclectic resume in specialized libraries, including air quality management, law, environmental as well as volunteer work at an electric railway museum. Arlene joined CGS in 2007 intending to do family research but she couldn’t resist keeping her fingers “in the library pie.” She soon set to work on the uncataloged periodicals, setting up a spreadsheet to organize incoming titles, identify missing issues and process subcription renewals.

Laura Spurrier chairs the Library Committee and acts as head librarian. Her credentials include masters degrees in history and East Indian Area Studies from the University of Wisconsin and a M.L.S. from the University of California, Berkeley. Laura worked for fifteen years at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory where she retired as a technical information specialist. Genealogy was the family hobby in the Spurrier household so Laura caught the bug as a teenager. She is a specialist in Quaker research and has lectured on the topic to the society.

Please join me in honoring the CGS librarians for the valuable work they do.

CGS has landed in Salt Lake City this week for the 8th annual CGS Salt Lake City Research Tour. Seven of us drove from the airport to the hotel on the shuttle yesterday with Melinda M. Barbish, Auditing-Accounting Manager of the Division of Unclaimed Property, Department of the Treasury of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Melinda is here for a conference of a different sort but she advised us all to take a look at MissingMoney.com. The Web site is billed as “State governments working together to safeguard and return your lost funds” and is a collection of links to the Unclaimed Property divisions of the various state agencies. Click on the small map to bring up a page with a large clickable map of the U.S. which leads to each state’s free search engine.

The Virginia Department of the Treasury defines Unclaimed Property as “All tangible or intangible property that has remained unclaimed by its owner for an extended period of time. This includes but is not limited to savings and checking accounts, wages or commisssions, underlying shares, dividends, customer deposit, credit balances, gift certificates, credit memos, refunds, etc.

What is the connection to genealogy? Melinda advises checking the databases in every state you have ever lived, and also to search your parents’ and grandparents’ names in all the states they lived, or any state in which they were stationed if they were in the military. In Melinda’s home state of Virginia, one in seven residents are owed unclaimed funds.

After taking a look at some of the sites, these are also potential places to find missing relatives since many states give full addresses as well as names. If you don’t find money, you may find cousins. Please leave a comment if you hit the lottery!

Nancy Hart Servin sent a glowing report on the first CGS “Second Saturday” workshop held yesterday at the CGS Library. Events coordinator, Carolyn Steinberg, did an excellent job of setting up the program entitled Eastern and Central European Research. Attendees first heard formal presentations by Jeremy Frankel, President of the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society, and Steve Danko, author of Steve’s Genealogy Blog before the informal work session began. Steve gives a full report on his blog: Eastern European Research Workshop.

Nancy’s account: “We had eight CGS members and one woman from the San Ramon Valley Genealogical Society, and the two leaders. Both presentations were interesting and informative, and Steve Danko’s slides/powerpoint was a good addition. They are very knowledgeable and a few researchers who stayed afterward got some important extra help. We exchanged phone numbers and Emails addresses so if anyone wants to continue the search thread with someone from the meeting they can.”

“The whole thing was very well done, and at least three members really seemed to benefit from it. Thanks to Jeremy and Steve for volunteering their time. Thanks to CGS for introducing us to two members who have expertise in a specific area.”