Sunday, March 5, 2017

Celebration Sunday~Genealogy Happy Dance!


You know the dance. You know you've done it. The one every researcher does after finding something new. The one where you want to jump up and down and shout to everyone around that you found the document, contacted a cousin who has the family Bible, made a DNA connection or found a whole new branch to your tree. The one that is met with glazed stares and eye rolls.
                                                          Celebration Sunday is a place to share your discoveries. 
This is a weekly series to enable everyone to tell about their Genealogy Happy Dance moment. This can be done by scrolling down and adding your story to the comments section. You may also put a link to a blog post.




                                                                 
My Happy Dance This Week:  
 A case of genealogy serendipity gave me chills a few days ago. After a post transcribing an ancestors letter, I asked if readers had any letters from theirs. A friend made recently at the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy responded she had letters from an Uncle who had served in the South Pacific during WWII. 
Curious because my grandfather was killed on the Island of Peleliu in 1944, I asked where her uncle had served.
She responded that he also died in the battle of Peleliu.
His death date? Two days after my grandfather's.
Both served in the 1st Marine Division. My grandfather in the 7th Battalion, her uncle in the 5th. 
These battalions fought side by side on this small island. 
She shared a letter which was written to the family after the death of her uncle. It gave some details of the battle that took his life.
His experience on that small island in the South Pacific was most likely similar to the one that caused the death of my grandfather.
Two genealogists meet in a class in Salt Lake and discover they have loved ones killed tragically in one of the most bloody battles in the South Pacific. 
Chills. Genealogy Serendipity.
Weeping with the memory of lives lost too soon.
Dancing in celebration of the ties that bind. 


                                                                                     

                                                                                              Share your discovery!
                                                                                           Let the dancing commence!






Looking forward to reading about your Happy Dance moment!
Thanks so much for stopping by!



6 comments:

  1. While checking Ancestry.com for hints between sessions at the MGC Spring Seminar yesterday, I noticed that I had a new hint on Henry Haden/Hayden, a 4th great-grandfather. I opened it up and it was a Kentucky Birth Record for his son born in 1858. It listed the mother as M. E. Hughes! I had previous evidence from a death certificate for Margaret Haden in which the informant was her son-in-law (my 3rd great-grandfather A. J. Tucker), etc. She would have been ALIVE and able to corroborate her maiden name for the birth record. I'm taking this and running with it until I'm proven wrong!

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    1. Congratulations, Lacey!! What a find! I am dancing with you!! Thanks so much for sharing!

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  2. This gave me goose bumps! My #1 dancing was for the Montgomery County, Virginia, chancery records which are now online. I found my 5th great-grandmother's date of death in a packet!!! Now to transcribe the rest of the file. https://openingdoorsinbrickwalls.wordpress.com/2017/03/01/a-date-of-death-for-catherine-barbara-noll-1768-1859/
    #2 my post "Using the Back Door at FamilySearch for Missing Records" was mentioned by THREE other bloggers in their lists of finds for the week!! ~ Cathy

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    1. You had a great week, Cathy! Hooray, for new records and thanks so much for your post on FamilySearch! It was very informative. No wonder it was on 3 best of posts! Congrats! Got my dancing shoes on!!

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  3. I actually just wrote about my serendipity find on my own Blog! I found a picture of the grave site belonging to my great grandparents and two of their children! This is a great find because I previously only had an approximate birth year and a single census. I am so excited with this little find if for no other reason than I know they actually existed! Can't wait to get on the hunt to find more...

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    1. Thanks so much for sharing your find! Feel free to add the link to your blog post here in the comments section! Doing the Happy Dance with you!

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