Family Military History

For the last few years I think, I have thought about doing a history of the military people in my family on both sides, Johns side also. So recently, I sent out a request to my family on FB in a PM to ask what they all know. I got some responses pretty quickly and started with that. I was going to try and lay it out in a Family tree type thing, but I couldnt get that to work for me, so I just started listing them on a blank page in my documents file. Until I can find some other format that will fit what I want, that will have to do.

Well, I was happily surprised at the information that came my way. One of Johns uncles told me his great great grand father was in the Spanish American war and his great grand father was in the civil war, union side. He didnt have a name to attach to the information, but just having it is pretty cool. Im thinking I may be able to do a search on Ancestry.com and find something. Johns Grand father was in WWI, and we have a picture of him in his uniform, I think that is wayy cool.

On my side, during WW2, all five of my uncles were enlisted at the same time. One of them survived the Bataan Death March in the Phillapeans, and came home to raise his family. Another one was killed in Pearl harbor on a ship that was dry docked at the time. I am going to try and find out what branch the other 3 uncles were in and do some research on them to find out more info.

In doing this research though, And Thank You so very much for the link Em, I found out stuff I had no idea about. During the Death march, there were lists of people that were prisoners, the ones that died and survivors. While I was searching for my uncle, there were lists of nurses and also civilians that were also captured and forced to walk the 62 miles. I had no idea about this. For some reason, I just figured it was all military men. Why would they capture civilians also.

Anyway, I have decided that when I am satisfied with the information I have, I am going to put it in chronological order, print it on really nice paper, maybe frame a few and give them to some of the family members that might like them. I knew there was a lot of military history in our combined families, but I really didnt think it was going to be as big as its getting. I am happy I am doing this.