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Old 04-17-2002, 03:34 PM
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Default Grandfathers

David

Registered to :Aug 21, 2001
Messages :604
From :San Diego, CA.
Posted 01-09-2001 at 12:38
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frisco-kid

Joined: Aug 23, 2001
Posts: 12
From: S.F. Bay Area

Posted: 2001-08-26 02:22
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My Ol' Mans' father was a French Canadian from Quebec. He served in the Canadian Army in France[?]. I remember hearing that he had been gassed, and I remember him being short of breath alot. He never smoked. He immigrated here in the mid '20s to up-state NY. There he met my grandmother, who had just immigrated from Dublin, Ireland. My Ol' Man was born in Buffalo, NY, the first of 7 kids.

My mothers' father wasn't in a conventional military service, but was still a hero, depending on who you talked to. As a young man in Donegal, Ireland, he was a member of the local Provisional IRA. On Easter Sunday, 1916, rebels took over the Post Office building in Dublin and declared Irelands' independence from British rule. The British answered by shelling the city and sending in troops. Weeks of bloody street fighting followed. IRA units from all over Ireland joined the fray, including my grandfathers'. The rebels lost the battle, but got England to the negotiating table. That was the plan. They couldn't fight the Germans and the Irish at the same time. Ireland gained its independence in 1921, except for the province of Ulster [Northern Ireland]. My grandfather returned to Donegal, where he eventually married and started a family. He, my grandmother, and my toddler uncle Bob immigrated to the States in the late '20s. My mother was the first-born here. Four children in that family. My grandmother died when my mother was still a girl, so I never knew her. My grandfather was a delightful and totally Mad Irishman, and I miss him to this day.
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usmcsgt65

Registered to :Jan 03, 2002
Messages :48
From :Las Vegas, NV
Posted 15-01-2002 at 20:23
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Finally got to this section of the forum. I am attempting to trace my family back to Ireland. My father is too old, now, to remember most his people. The family was all over, so nobody told stories about Ireland. All I know right now, is my great-grandmother was born in Dublin. Everybody else came over in the 1840s.Quote:
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sn-e3

Registered to :Aug 26, 2001
Messages :632
From :seattle area god's country
Posted 15-01-2002 at 20:35
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well yes glad you asked my wife irisheyes' (joan's) family came from ireland county galway her clan was the flahertys mean bunch if ever there was one. one of the clan was a woman pirate down in the carribean her name was grace o'mally. i told you they were a mean lot. still tuff as nails too. her dad was a medic in the army european theater he joined up at age 44 in 1942 very humbel man but smart to the very end. we buried him with a pint of guiness and a bottle of old bushmills and a pack of pall malls and of corse a shamrock they be good people me bucko's May those who love us, love us and those that don't love us, may god turn their hearts; and if he dosen't turn their hearts may he turn their ankles so we'll know them by their limping. also there is a sign over the entrance to galway that says may the lord save us from the wrath of the flahertys. I know for a fact that i would rather try to french kiss a rattle snake then piss off an irish woman.

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DMZ-LT

Registered to :Aug 27, 2001
Messages :335
From :ATLANTA
Posted 15-01-2002 at 22:53
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Hope my daughter don't read this but before I ever met her blessed mother I once spent a great day with an Irish woman - still smiling !


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usmcsgt65

Registered to :Jan 03, 2002
Messages :48
From :Las Vegas, NV
Posted 18-01-2002 at 21:30
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Talk about a warrior breed of people - The Wild Geese. During the Renaissance, the Irish were the soldiers of fortune of Europe.
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Andy

Registered to :Aug 23, 2001
Messages :197
From :Massachusetts
Posted 19-01-2002 at 01:00
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Oh great! I come to this thread in the hope that I won't get scolded for not being a wimp and what do I find? A bunch of Mike's. Is there a non-Irish channel? I could go to any bar in town and talk to Irishmen, I'm home and on the computer to get a little culture. You can only imagine my disappointment.

Grandpa Hitchcock (not Irish) was in an Engineer regiment in Southern France in WWI. He was stationed in the Nice area. Anyone with relative in the Great War?

Stay healthy,
Andy


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usmcsgt65

Registered to :Jan 03, 2002
Messages :48
From :Las Vegas, NV
Posted 20-01-2002 at 21:45
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Nope, my mother's father was too yong. My dad's father was exempt. He drove a truck during the war. Since the trucks did not have power steering, truck drivers had to muscle their turns. So civilian truck drivers could avoid the draft, if they chose too.
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sn-e3

Registered to :Aug 26, 2001
Messages :632
From :seattle area god's country
Posted 20-01-2002 at 22:11
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Yo polski lets talk something educational for these polock wannabe's polish food now thats something worth talking about i like everything about it except head cheese sandwichs never like them like eating meat jello pirogie's are my favorite and i've found out there are many stuffings my all time favorite is soup meat ground with sourkrout the seasoned fryied in butter yum yum my buddy from buffloe ny likes his filled with cottage cheese and i also like the potatoes one them there the grumkie or at least thats what my grand father called it stuffed cabages with a tomatoe sauce yummie so mr andy lets talk real food here what do you like?


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Drywall

Registered to :Aug 22, 2001
Messages :182
From :Mn
Posted 22-01-2002 at 14:03
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Andy

Not in the great war BUT, I have a portrait of my Grandpa, fathers side, in his uniform of the Kaisers Guard circa 1908 or so. He immigrated here before WWI started. He always had a hard time understanding why we fought the Kaisers army. But he sent at least three of his sons to fight Hitler and the Emporer.


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MORTARDUDE

Registered to :Aug 23, 2001
Messages :429
From :Bartlett, TN. C.S.A.
Posted 22-01-2002 at 14:10
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My best friend in Vietnam was John Nowak. We worked together in FDC ( Fire Direction Control ) for six months. We would check each others figures on the plotting board, sleep in ajoining hammocks, talk about GM, Chevys, Polish food, Tommy James and the Shondells, and home, and share each others goodie packages. He was from Hamtramck ( sp ? ) Mich. outside Detroit and got a package every week without fail. He always shared with me first. The food was super !


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Andy

Registered to :Aug 23, 2001
Messages :197
From :Massachusetts
Posted 22-01-2002 at 23:14
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Chris: Generally, Polish food gives me gas. Kielbasa pronounced (Keel-Ba-sah) isn't just another meat sausage, it's great. Please don't think the prefabbed stuff you probably get is real Kielbasa. In May I'll bring some out West. Pirogie is just the Polish word for dumpling. However, the cheese filled ones are no doubt the best.

Drywall: A photo of the Kaisers Guard, what a treasure. As you know most people came to America because they were getting pushed around at home. A member of the Guard doesn't sound like the down trodden. There must be a great story behind that photograph. Hope you know it and will share a little.

Mortardude: You reminded me of a bad day. I used to get Care Packages twice a month. The mail flew out to our company one day in a sling load along with other junk. The mail bag landed under some ammo. When the bag was opened everyone took a couple of steps back. I had a package. Aunt Mary added a jar of Lambs Tongue. I think it broke while still in the states. Everyone's letter smelled like something that was dead a long time. Real bad ju-ju that day.

I remember my grandfather telling me that they only got mail twice a month, letters only. With no aircraft I guess the men received all their April letters in November. Grandpa sent a "One Year Old" birthday card to his nephew. A couple of days later he received a letter saying that the child died at 8 months of age. He said he went crazy trying to get the letter back, he failed to do so.

Stay healthy,
Andy


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DMZ-LT

Registered to :Aug 27, 2001
Messages :335
From :ATLANTA
Posted 24-01-2002 at 10:27
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Dry wall, my grandfather fought as a PVT. in the german infantry in WW1. Wounded in the face at Verdun. Came to this country in the 20's. They took the round out of his face in 1962 when they pulled his teeth for dentures. My Dad was drafted in 1940 and fought Hitler in Aferica, Italy and France.


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Drywall

Registered to :Aug 22, 2001
Messages :182
From :Mn
Posted 24-01-2002 at 10:58
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LT

Yea, two of my uncles were in the ETO. One in the army and the other in the Army Air Corps. My dad served in the PTO.

Ever think about what would have been if our families hadn't come over here? Would we ever had even been born? Makes me wonder.


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DMZ-LT

Registered to :Aug 27, 2001
Messages :335
From :ATLANTA
Posted 24-01-2002 at 11:26
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Drywall, it is strange the way things work out. Grandmutter met grandpa when she was a nurse and he was wounded in the hospital.He came over first and later he sent for the rest of the family. My Dad met my mother as he was shipping out for Africa and they wrote to each other for 5 !! years- got married 2 weeks after he got home................. if grandpa hadn't felt the urge to look out over the top of that trench that day , I wouldn't be here


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Cracker_Jack

Registered to :Aug 23, 2001
Messages :86
From :Gardnerville, Nevada
Posted 24-01-2002 at 13:35
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Mom?s side is fairly straightforward and well documented back to the Mayflower. She?s in the Daughters of the Mayflower, Daughters of the American Revolution, Daughters of the Grand Army of the Republic and her dad and uncle were in the Rainbow Division of WW I and her brother was a B17 waist gunner with the 8th AAF of WWII. For the most part, these are Scotsmen with a Brit or so in the woodpile and one French Alsatian in there as well. The Frogie would be my great maternal Grandma and noteworthy ?Indian fighter? from the back woods of Minnesota, or so the saga goes. My Dad?s side constitutes a fairly wild bunch and a kind of a ?yikes!!? gene pool situation. This family bunch came out of Dresden around 1760, and were recruited by the Czarina Catherine to farm the Russian land in exchange for a chunk of land and a promise that their sons would be conscription free forever.
Forever lasted until 1906 when Czar Nicolas (Nicolas the last I reckon) was running out of men due to a war with the Japanese and all those German farm lads looked like a good source of cannon fodder. Apparently, the German farmers thought otherwise and came to a place now called Victoria Kansas. Many family members had preceded them in immigration by a quite a number of years and settled in both Missouri and Kansas. According to family legion, the Younger brothers of Missouri infamy and a number of Civil War era Kansas ?Red Legs? are in the family tree/woodpile as well, or so it is alleged. Dad was with the 1st infantry Div. during WWII and ended up as an ?on the sly? interpreter in a POW camp. Evidently, his spoken German was so archaic that he was put in the listen only mode. I never heard my Grandmother or Grandfather speak a word of English and given that the bunch transplanted their entire community from the Steps to Kansas, it?s easy to see why they just kept on as if nothing happened and continued their time-warp isolation. That?s what I call them; ?The time isolated people?. The world changed a lot between 1760 and 1906 but they seemed to have missed all the changes and most still cling to the old ways when they were fighting with Step bandits, corrupt Russian government officials and the wild Cossacks.

Oh well, but ya know I think I jumped slick of all that gene pool because I?m a hopeless fancier of Celtic Scots or Irish Lasses and all things Scots and most things Irish. I know, I know, hopeless, absolutely hopeless, huh.

Fair seas, Bill
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  #2  
Old 09-30-2002, 09:40 AM
Wazza Wazza is offline
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Australia mourns passing of icons

Australia recently lost World War I veterans, Leslie Robert Sykes and Albert Whitmore, and World War II POW nurse, Florence Syer.

Naval veteran, Leslie Sykes, passed away at his Western Australia home, aged 103. Mr Sykes was born in Dandenong, Victoria on 3 December 1898. He joined the Royal Australian Navy in December 1917, serving on HMAS Australia, HMAS Melbourne and HMAS Cerberus, attaining the rank of Ordnance Officer (gunnery mechanic) 4th class. He was discharged in 1927. After his Naval Service, Les took up farming, first in Moora and later in Bodallin. He later retired with his wife to South Perth, Western Australia.

Albert Whitmore, Australia's last Light Horseman, died at Barmera in South Australia, aged 102. Mr Whitmore enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force at just 17 years of age in 1917. He was sent as reinforcement to the 9th Australian Light Horse and served in the Middle East. After he was discharged in 1919, Mr Whitmore returned to South Australia and took up survey work and later worked as a butcher. He enlisted in the army in WWII, as a Staff Sergeant with the engineers.

World War II, POW nurse, Florence Syer, passed away at the Greenslopes Private Hospital, aged 86. Mrs Syer, then Sister Florence Trotter, was one of 64 Australian nurses evacuated on the Vyner Brooke ahead of the Fall of Singapore in 1942. The ship was off Banka Island when it was bombed and sunk. Mrs Syer and four other nurses stayed in the water for 18 hours before being taken prisoner of war by the Japanese.

With a population of about 20 million, Australia recently lost its last WWI veteran.

My grandparents, father's side, were married in England after the war and emigrated to Australia in 1921. My grandfather was a Sapper with the Royal Engineers in the Middle East. My dad was born in Australia but his elder sister came with the grandparents by ship when she was two years old. Sea sick the whole journey I'm told.
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  #3  
Old 10-22-2002, 10:19 PM
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My father was a WWI vet. He was a QMC 1st Sgt. with the 82nd ID stationed in Bar-le-Duc, France. Being in the QMC he didn't see any action..he didn't talk much about what he did..just told a funny story about going AWOL after the war and ending up hooking up with a French entertainer in Nice. He said it was all innocent, but, well..ya know.
I also had one uncle with the 5th Engineers & another uncle with the Railway troops ( he ended up on Macarthur's staff in WWII..a bird Col.) None of them ever talked about their time in France..understand it, 'cause I don't talk much about Vietnam to my kids or nieces or nephews either.
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