This year, in November, we will celebrate the 100th anniversary of World War I., though, celebrate is not really the word I think of when I think of war. I've been transcribing the obituaries and stories from the newspapers for some time now and I have to say I can only do three or four at a setting because it is so intensly sad. I feel as a parent, a sister and a citizen each of the deaths, even though they are not related to me. I was transcribing some articles from WWII and in one, a young man is missing and he has a brother in the war. I pulled up the next one and started typing. It was the announcement that his brother had been killed in action. Then I pulled up the next one. They had found the first young man's body and declared him killed in action. This is what their family faced in one week. They were only days apart. I had to take a long break.
I am the Coordinator for the Jackson County and Bartholomew County (Indiana) INGenWebs. As coordinator I work hard to put up data and helpful information for genealogists researching those two counties. I have been working to put up stories and obituaries of our war dead. I want to do more for the anniversary in November of this year for the WWI soldiers. I would love photos for each of the soldiers. That is a tough one. But I am going to give it a try.
Say, since this is the year, perhaps focusing your attention on the WWI soldiers in your file would be a good idea. Flesh them out, write the stories and find the data. That is what I am going to do. I am going to make sure that I have all of the data I can get on my WWI soldiers, on the county sites and in my file. And, gee, maybe you could share that data, just in case someone else has been looking and can not find it. There are many places to do so. Your blog, FB or the GenWeb site for the county your ancestor lived in. There are lots more places I'm sure.
These soldiers should be remembered, honored, and deserve to have their stories told.
#WorldWarI #INGenWeb #JacksonCounty #BartholomewCounty
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