Clipping Describes Names Discovery

Today, I’d like to share some reader queries and tidbits.

Virginia Bronson of Spokane mailed a clipping from the Sept. 27, 1997, Washington Times newspaper about the graves of 600 Confederate soldiers, dead from wounds and diseases suffered during the two battles at Bull Run.

Seems the men were buried in a mass grave, their names lost when Union soldiers burned the graveside markers for firewood one winter night in 1863.

But, the names of 520 soldiers were discovered by an Illinois man searching for his ancestor’s grave.

This is a wonderful article. Send me an SASE if you’d like a copy.

Mae Schaffer of Spokane reported about finding a cousin.

Mrs. G.A. Troxel was researching in the genealogy section of the Spokane Public Library downtown when she found the Troxel name in the card file and contacted Mae. Both were pleased to have found one another. Moral? Use the resources at the library to help with your research!

Jeannie Robinson, 1340 Campbell Way, Turlock, Calif., 95382, (209) 634-1761, wrote to say she has a scrapbook with several articles from the 1939 Spokane Daily Chronicle about Josephine Kostenick and her sister, Helen Penny, who were taking flying lessons. There are also clippings about Roy Shreck, a local pilot who crashed and was rescued in the Idaho mountains. Robinson would like to give her mother’s scrapbook to a descendant of one of these three people.

Another Spokane genealogist mailed a clipping about the Polish National Tourist Office, 275 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016, which provides helpful information to those researching in Poland.

Check out their web site: www.polandtour.org. Or, contact Miriam Weiner, whose company, Routes to Roots, specializes in genealogical research and travel in Poland. Contact her at 136 Sandpiper Key, Secaucus, N.J. 07094, or visit her web site: www.routestoroots.com.

Carlyine Ritter, P.O. Box 1115, Winchester Bay, OR 97467, wants to contact descendants of Philomena Augusta COLLINGS, widow of John, who died March 12, 1914, and is buried in Spokane. She died of typhoid fever contracted on an Idaho camping trip with her husband.

Lois Habel Burlo, 737 Calle Pensamiento, Thousand Oaks, CA, 91360-4839, is looking for descendants of Robert ISRAEL, who died in a Spokane car accident on April 19, 1924; and his wife, Grace Arkill Israel, who died in 1975. Their children were Naomi Israel, born in 1905, married Arthur Clark and lived at Liberty Lake; George Wilbur Israel, born in 1907 and died while in high school; and Arkill Maynard Israel, born 1909, married Pearl (whose last name is unknown) and died in August 1974.

Peg Kelley, 55 Sprucewood Drive, Cheektowaga, N.Y. 14227-3223, seeks descendants of two sisters: Lillian METZLER, born in 1889 and married Louis BENEDICT, who lived on Mercer Island with their daughter Marilyn; and Florence Metzler who married Benjamin GREY, had a daughter named Jean and lived in Seattle.

I’ve found a neat website offering “Tips on Making Your Salt Lake Research Trip a Big Success.” Check them out: http://www.genealogy.org/~uvpafug/fhlslc .html and http://www.rootsweb.com/~genepool/slc.htm.

Today’s Tip: The new Family History SourceGuide, produced by the Family History Library in Salt Lake, will soon be available. This CD-ROM disk carries “Research Guides” for all 50 statesand more. Price is $20.