Help us Preserve the Veteran Bounty Land Records—Update!

The National Genealogical Society (NGS) is spearheading a campaign to save thousands of precious military records housed in the National Archives that are rapidly deteriorating and of vital interest to genealogists. Along with the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) and the leaders of FamilySearch, NGS is reaching out to local and state genealogy societies across the U.S. in an organized effort to preserve these records, and StLGS has recently begun to assist in these important efforts. We learned about the project a few months ago and posted some preliminary information then. Here is an update, now that StLGS is officially part of the project.

Remembering Our Fallen Ancestors Who Served in the Military

Happy Memorial Day! This day has turned into the unofficial start of summer, but it was never created as a day to show off our barbecue skills or to bring our white jeans and shoes out of storage. The huge casualty toll of the Civil War was responsible for more gravesites than anyone could possibly have imagined, leading to the first "Decoration Day" on 30 May 1868 at Arlington National Cemetery. More than 5,000 people gathered to listen to future U.S. president James Garfield commending people for coming together to "pay their tribute of grateful homage" by walking through the cemetery and decorating the graves of fallen soldiers. During the next few decades, the idea of decorating soldiers' graves became widespread. By 1890, all of the former Union states had an official Decoration Day. Eventually, the name changed to Memorial Day, and by the end of World War II, soldiers from all American wars were being remembered throughout the country. In 1971, the name of the day was changed, and the fourth Monday in May became the fixed day of the holiday. Most of us have military ancestors who served and died in far-off places over hundreds of years. We certainly can't go to all of their graves to place wreaths or leave flowers, but we have an alternative for you, if you would like to remember their service.

Can You Help with a Mystery?

The holidays are upon us, and we were just going to wish all of you a fun week of celebrating and take off to attend our own family festivities, when our resident photo matchmaker, Shirley Waddell, sent us the following plea. What a great Christmas we might make for the family of a deceased soldier if we could find a relative and return the items that were donated some time ago to St. Louis Genealogical Society. Here are the details . . .