Memorial Day

-


Image by Suzanne Morris from Pixabay 

In Flanders Fields


BY JOHN MCCRAE



In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
    That mark our place; and in the sky
    The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.


We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
    Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
        In Flanders fields.


Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
    The torch; be yours to hold it high.
    If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
        In Flanders fields.
















Human need to honor

The need to remember our dead seems to be part of our human psyche. From prehistoric and Viking burial mounds to Egyptian tombs and Roman coffins, from Victorian mausoleums to battleground burials and monuments, humans from the beginning have sought to remember the ones they loved or revered.


Origins of the US holiday Memorial Day

The United States Memorial Day we now keep as a federal holiday had its beginnings as “Decoration Day,”  as states following the Civil War recognized the need to “remember” those who served and lost their lives during the War.


Early Commemoration in South Carolina by Freed Slaves

One of the earliest Memorial Day commemorations was in Charleston, SC, organized by freed slaves less than a month after the Confederacy had surrendered.

Washington Race Course and Jockey Club, Charleston, SC
Photo from Library of Congress


Union soldiers as prisoners of war had been held in deplorable conditions at the formerly posh Washington Race Course and Jockey Club. More than 260 soldiers who died of disease were buried in a mass grave behind the grandstand.

After the surrender, former slaves disinterred the bodies from the mass grave and reburied them in a new cemetery. Newspaper articles from the day described how the graves were decorated with flowers and the freed slaves staged a parade around the race course.  https://www.history.com/news/memorial-day-civil-war-slavery-charleston


Federal Honors at Arlington Cemetery

In 1868 a ceremony was held at Arlington to honor the Federal soldiers who lost their lives. Observed on May 30 through 1970, this holiday is now observed on the last Monday in May. National Cemeteries usually have a special public ceremony marking the day, and across the nation there may be parades and other forms of remembrance.


Decoration Day in the US South

In the South, Memorial Day is often still called Decoration Day, and in many areas has expanded beyond military observance to include remembrance of other family, both recent and further back. Family members visit private and public cemeteries to clean up family graves and leave flowers or mementos.


How do we remember and honor?

As genealogists, we work to remember our ancestors and loved ones by telling what we can find of their story. We work on our family trees, try to solve dead ends and puzzles, & hopefully contact new cousins.

And there are other creative ways to remember and pay respect to those who are gone. Many people choose to incorporate heirloom personal belongings and treasures into everyday life.

The following examples are from the family of Alexis Hacker Scholz:

Thomas “Tom” E. Pape, 1950-2010, U.S. Navy, service in the waters off Viet Nam during that war. Tom was my-brother-in-law, kind, talented, generous, funny, and a great dad. He was called "Tinker" by his family, because from the time he could walk he was interested in how things went together and could rebuild or take apart just about anything. He is so missed.

This is a large shadowbox with contents selected from Navy memorabilia by Tom’s wife Maria Hacker Pape; it was professionally framed.


Joseph “Joe” G. Scholz, 1911-1974, US Coast Guard, my husband’s father. He was the son of German and French immigrants, a first-generation American in the Scholz family. Joe and I share a birthday, but I never got to meet him. Someday. In the meantime, Joe’s famous penchant for telling puns and play-on-words lives on in his descendants, including grandchildren.

These Silver buttons are from Joe’s USCG blue dress uniform, mounted on black velvet in a 1-inch deep frame/shadow box by his deceased daughter Gay Scholz.



Have a safe and peaceful Memorial Day!


Thanks to Alexis Hacker Scholz for contribution to this article.

MaryLynn Strickland

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What's the Question?

-
Image
We genealogists are often told by experienced researchers how important it is to begin with a research question. I resisted doing this for a long time, but now that I use a series of questions to guide my research, the search is more focused and actually finds more of the history of the family I'm investigating. I use a Google Doc as the  research proceeds, where I keep the question(s), the plan, timelines, checklist of resources to search, etc. all in one place. I've seen others use spreadsheets in the same way, perhaps splitting up things in tabs (Excel or Google Sheets). I prefer a document because I add source citations as I find them and I can begin writing up the case right there in the doc as the hypotheses are proven. Specific Questions in Previous Successes As beginners we often have no clue how much and what details we already know about a person, event or relationship, so it's hard to specify what we want to know. But when looking back at successful research, it
Read more

Looking for a Needle in a Haystack? GAME CHANGER at FamilySearch

-
Image
Generated with Bing ImageCreator (AI), March 13, 2024 Where is YOUR Needle, Your Missing Record? Genealogical Proof Standard When we use the GPS (Genealogical Proof Standard) as our guide, we all know that "exhaustive research" can be both tedious and exhausting. Is life long enough to search page by page through all the counties where all the members of a family might have lived, paid taxes, bought, leased or sold property, made a will or died intestate? It is possible that the new Full Text Search at FamilySearch will  eventually  allow us to do just that. It has been estimated that 75% or more of the records at FamilySearch were browsable but not searchable; the only indexes those found in the records themselves. Those records are certainly attainable by using those indexes and browsing to the record of interest, but the process is tedious, often frustrating, and slow. And once found, the record must be read and transcribed to be useful. This new Full Text Search tackles a
Read more

Shedding Your Genealogy "Stuff"

-
Image
AI: Bing Image Creator Generated Changing realities force many of us to consider the future of our genealogical collections. Whether a change in health, a new location or even just downsizing, it can be useful to evaluate what we have now, with an eye to the future. What we can pass along? Plan Ahead First: if you have online trees, create a plan to grant access to interested fellow researchers, even distant cousins. Depending on the website, you may need to add a codicil to your will, or just tell the site whom your successor will be.  Ancestry.com: there are two considerations: your DNA test and your tree(s). It is wise to share your DNA results with a cousin or other relative; no need to wait. Or you can  Assign a Manager .  For overall accounts and trees, there is  Ancestry® Family Plan Memberships .  FamilySearch help file:  How to Connect to a Family Member’s Tree .  B ecause it is a shared tree, a person cannot pass along their FamilySearch account. Ensure that your interested
Read more