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One of my grandfathers was a Comanche Code Talker during WWII. Though he was forbidden to speak our language when he was forced to go to an Indian School (and was punished if he did), he volunteered to use our language to help win the war in Europe. He was on Utah Beach passing messages back and forth, at the forests of Bastogne, the crossing of the Rhine and the push toward Berlin. Though he could have justifiably told Washington to get bent when they asked Comanche tribal members to serve as Code-Talkers, he stood up to protect this land just like Comanche warriors from the past always did. He is one of my heroes.
He is a hero, as is my uncle, whose older brothers (including my father) all were beyond qualified to be officers in the US military but were kept in menial tasks in segregated units because they were African American. I am not sure I would have gone to fight in WWII under those circumstances.
Anyone say a little "Well alright!" when reading an ancestor's obit, or finding their name in a register for heroic service?
Which ancestor are you most proud of and why?
A number endured hardships, but three always stick out in my mind:
1. Mary Magee, a grt-grtgrandmother, a Protestant Irish immigrant from Co. Tyrone, decided to leave Ireland after their landlord's exactions became to great to bear. She and her husband and eight children set sail, but a day and a half out their ship began to sink. It returned safely to shore, and the family then decided to split into two groups: the father and mother and five children would leave first, and three boys (one 22 and two youngsters) would take another ship.
On the way across, her husband became ill, and within sight of shore he died as well as one of her children. She buried them when she disembarked. She waited for her other three children, and when they arrived the remaining family went up the St. Lawrence to Ontario.
A few miles from their final destination, the youngest of the three boys was put on a colt because he was too tired to walk. Crossing a floating bridge, the colt was spooked by a loose plank and threw the boy into the river, where he was carried under the bridge and drowned.
Thus, Mary arrived in her new wilderness home, a new widow with two children lost in the journey. She never remarried and farmed the land along with her children until her death in 1889.
2. Jan (John) Alyea a grt-grt-grtgrandfather. His family were farmers in Orange Co., NY and were loyal to the royal government. He was a youngster at the time of the American colonial rebellion. Two of his older brothers joined Loyalist militias - one died of smallpox, the other ended up in New Brunswick. Johns parents had to abandon their farm with their two youngest sons and flee their neighbors, they took refuge in NYC where they had to petition for aid to live. His mother died as a refugee, and their farm was confiscated by the new American government.
After the war, when he reached 22 he married, and the couple then walked an often used route from Orange Co. up the Hudson, then along the Mohawk and finally north toward Oneida Lake and finally across Lake Ontario where they pioneered in the wilderness.
3. Epke Jacobse (Banta) , a 7th grtgrandfather. He was arrested in the Netherlands for having a R.C. priest in his home to baptize his third son, when the religion was illegal, and was hailed into court for this crime. He immigrated with his wife and four children, and when he reached Nieuw Amsterdam, instead of settling in one of the Dutch villages, he settled in Flushing, which had a population of English Quakers fleeing persecution from the Puritans in Massachusetts. However, the Dutch governor, contrary to the law was persecuting them outrageously, and almost killed one with torture. Epke seems to have had a penchant for resisting authority. Later in life, in the year before he died he was arrested for "rioting" with a small group of neighbors in NJ against the token fee that was owed to the colony's proprietor and which he and his friends had refused to pay for several years.
Mary I admire for her endurance, and John and Epke for their refusal to knuckled under to government authority that they did not agree with.
He is a hero, as is my uncle, whose older brothers (including my father) all were beyond qualified to be officers in the US military but were kept in menial tasks in segregated units because they were African American. I am not sure I would have gone to fight in WWII under those circumstances.
I thought it was a real double standard too how the Japanese American soldiers were only allowed to fight in Europe but the German Americans could fight in either theater.
I thought it was a real double standard too how the Japanese American soldiers were only allowed to fight in Europe but the German Americans could fight in either theater.
Yes...but Japanese Americans did serve in non-combat roles in the Pacific (interpreters, etc).
I thought it was a real double standard too how the Japanese American soldiers were only allowed to fight in Europe but the German Americans could fight in either theater.
That's because German Americans (like Eisenhower & Nimitz) "looked American", whereas, Japanese Americans didn't. Today we see a similar prejudice with people who look "talibani".
3. Epke Jacobse (Banta) , a 7th grtgrandfather. He was arrested in the Netherlands for having a R.C. priest in his home to baptize his third son, when the religion was illegal, and was hailed into court for this crime. He immigrated with his wife and four children, and when he reached Nieuw Amsterdam, instead of settling in one of the Dutch villages, he settled in Flushing, which had a population of English Quakers fleeing persecution from the Puritans in Massachusetts. However, the Dutch governor, contrary to the law was persecuting them outrageously, and almost killed one with torture ...
Fascinating! One of my ancestors fled Bessarabia (now the country of Moldova) to escape massacres and religious persecution in the late 19th Century, about 125 years ago ... and settled in that birthplace of Religious Tolerance: Flushing, Queens, New York.
Flushing still has an old Quaker Meeting House dating back to the 1600s. It was named after a sea-side town in the Netherlands called Vlissingen ... but to an English-speaking person it sounds like "flushing."
I was born in Flushing.
Another great oasis of religious toleration was the Quaker city of Philadelphia. This does not mean there were no hate-mongers and bigots ... in fact an anti-Catholic mob of "Know Nothings" set fire to an important Catholic Church after American Independence here. But that was an exception, not the rule. It is notable that non-Jews like Benjamin Franklin and Bishop White of the Christ Church Episcopal Diocese gave financial aid to the Jewish community so that could build a fine synagogue called Mikveh Israel in the 18th Century.
We found Civil War discharge and pension papers from my Gr-Gr-Grandfather. From these papers we learned he was born in Ireland, lived in Brooklyn, NY, and was 34 years old at the time of discharge. He was wounded in the eye and arm and his pension was $14 a month. Unfortunately this is all we know about him. I wish I knew how to find out more.
Also had a grandfather and great uncle who served in France in WWI. And two uncles who served in WWII.
So proud of these men who served our country!
I'm prouder of my VA ancestors who were all Patriots than the ones in NC who were Tories during the Revolution. Happy I'm a Virginian and not a Carolinian.
I'm prouder of my VA ancestors who were all Patriots than the ones in NC who were Tories during the Revolution. Happy I'm a Virginian and not a Carolinian.
Hmmm? You do know that the so-called Patriots were rebelling against the standing government, and the Tories were supporting the government that ruled the nation, don't you?
Not saying one is right or wrong, but ... no reason not to be proud of anyone who fought for what they believed in. Whatever it was.
I always find it amusing that so many people think that the Colonists were so on the right side in the Revolution, but the South was so wrong in the Civil War. They both were doing essentially the same thing.
Hmmm? You do know that the so-called Patriots were rebelling against the standing government, and the Tories were supporting the government that ruled the nation, don't you?
Not saying one is right or wrong, but ... no reason not to be proud of anyone who fought for what they believed in. Whatever it was.
I always find it amusing that so many people think that the Colonists were so on the right side in the Revolution, but the South was so wrong in the Civil War. They both were doing essentially the same thing.
Well, I am certainly not proud of my ancestors who were Confederate soldiers.
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You do know that the so-called Patriots were rebelling against the standing government, and the Tories were supporting the government that ruled the nation, don't you?
