I've scanned and transcribed a series of letters that Marjorie WELLINGTON wrote to her parents and family over a time period from August 1945 to April 1946. The letters start in Washington DC, where she received her initial Red Cross training, and continue overseas from Paris, Darmstadt, Heidelberg, Weisbaden, Bad Kissingen and Schweinfurt, detailing her adventures as a Club Service "gal" for Air Force and Army troops.
The Red Cross website describes the Club Service as follows:
Club Service was made available at the request of the U.S. government to able-bodied members of the armed forces serving overseas, while recreational services for the military at home remained, as it had been, limited to hospitals. Overseas the Red Cross staffed and supplied permanent service clubs, travelling clubmobiles, and other recreational facilities that stretched literally around the world. At its peak, the Red Cross operated nearly 2,000 recreational service facilities abroad, staffed by 5,000 Red Cross workers and approximately 140,000, mostly local, volunteers.
Service clubs ranged from large facilities in major cities, often requisitioned hotels, to small facilities in towns and villages in both the European and Pacific theaters of war. The large clubs offered not only meals and recreational activities but also overnight accommodations and such amenities as barbershops and laundries. Probably the most famous of these was the huge Rainbow Corner Club in London whose doors never shut and where up to 60,000 meals could be served in a single 24-hour period. The smaller clubs provided food and sometimes recreation but not overnight facilities and were usually located in outlying areas close to American military camps. Many were called Donut Dugouts, while those serving sailors were known as Fleet Clubs and airmen went to Aeroclubs. The Red Cross also operated rest homes in some usually rural and tranquil locations overseas for service personnel needing respite from the pressures of war. The homes provided sleeping accommodations, dining room service, and a variety of recreational pursuits for the servicemen who were assigned there by the military authorities.
In order to serve multiple sites, particularly in isolated areas, the Red Cross introduced clubmobiles in Great Britain in 1942 and later deployed some to the continent. They were converted half-ton trucks and single-deck buses acquired from a former London bus company. Each operated by three American Red Cross women and a local driver, they were equipped for making and serving coffee and doughnuts and for distributing newspapers, chewing gum, and other small items. Some were equipped with phonographs and loudspeakers to provide music for the troops. A few were outfitted with movie projectors and became known as cinemobiles.
Marge's sister Connie was also in the Red Cross in the same area, and Marge refers to Connie's letters frequently. Wouldn't it be fascinating to compare their experiences, if we had Connie's letters too?
The letters are in the database under "Albums" or you can use this link to go straight there.
(As always, you'll need a user id to log on. If you need one, just fill out the registration form and I'll set you up.)
At our family reunion in Gay, GA last month, my dad's cousin Rocky brought a wonderful scrapbook to share with us. It had lots of pictures of my grandfather Deam, most of which I had never seen before. Rocky very graciously loaned me the book so I could bring it home and scan it, which I have done. The results are in the album named Rocky Davison's Scrapbook in the genealogy database.
Thank you, Rocky and Beth!!
(As a reminder, you'll need a login to get into the database. If you're family and you don't have a login yet, just click the register link from the database page and I'll set you up.)
PS - Pictures from Gay are on flickr here (mine) and here (mom's). If you're not seeing any people in those pictures, send me your flickr id so I can add you to my contact list :-)
I've been working on adding Gay cousins to the database in preparation for our trip next month. Most of my data so far has come from the Culpepper Daughters pages on Ancestry.com. At this point I've only copied names and dates into my database--I'm not sure what the etiquette is for the biographies and pictures. (I have emailed the contact, asking if I can duplicate those as well. I'd hate to lose the information.)
[Update: Not only do I have permission to copy the photos and biographies, Lew has some of Munnie's correspondence and some pictures from our branch of the tree!]
That site has Gays back to Munnie's grandparents, Columbus Gay & Martha Jane Sasser. Here's a cheatsheet of the results (click to embiggen) or go directly to this chart in the database.
(Note: My database requires a login. If you don't have one already, you can request one from the main page.)
What an incredible undertaking!
Alexander Cheek's Genealogical History Chart
This personal project of mine, a four month task, compiles both sides of my family—twenty generations in some cases—and nearly six-hundred years of ancestors and cousins. On paper it measures 36" by 120"....
The author shares several images and explains in detail how the chart is laid out. After reading that, don't you want one of your family? I know I do :-)
[link from information aesthetics]
Mr. Manning described the battle of Mande St. Etienne on 04 Jan - 05 Jan 1945, where John Deam was killed (04 Jan) and Mr. Manning wounded (05 Jan).
He did not witness the action that was cited for John Deam's Distinguished Service Cross, but he described what he thinks must have happened, based on the situation. He also described his actions that led to his own Distinguished Service Cross citation.
