Celebrate Your Ancestors with a Connection to August!

Question

Let's celebrate our ancestors who have a special link to the month of August!  Please answer this post with some words about your ancestor and what you'd like the WikiTree community to know about them.  Don't forget to include their WikiTree ID number so that folks can visit their profile.  Photos are welcome too, though not required.

We'll celebrate your ancestor with a shout out on the Saturday Roundup Livecast; we love stories, so please share whatever you can to bring them to life.

If you need inspiration for which of your ancestors to tell us about, go to your Watchlist and then click on the Anniversaries tab.  It will give you a list of all the significant dates in August for anyone in your watchlist.

Looking forward to meeting your favorite August ancestor!

Answer 1

My Dad Reino R Sarlin (Johansson-7080) married my Mom Grace E Leyde (Leyde-37) on 9 August 1938 in Gold Beach, Curry County, Oregon.  A forestry graduate of the University of Washington only because Mom (BSc. Math/Physics with Honors, WSU) had been hired by his frat to tutor him in math, he was working with the US Park Service as a Ranger at Mount Rainier, and their first home was at the Nisqually entrance to the Park.  Mom had some bad moments wondering if he'd gotten cold feet, though, because the wedding was delayed so he could fight a major forest fire.  After President Franklin Roosevelt founded the Olympic National Park, Dad was transferred there to patrol for weeks on end by horseback while Mom staved off grizzly bears at their remote mountain log cabin. Dad was away on patrol when she had to be loaded on a mule to trek down to a road so she could be driven to hospital in Port Angeles, WA, to give birth to me.  Looking back, I'm not sure that she ever forgave me.  

Comments

Wow! What a story! Thank you for sharing.

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Your parents' story paints such vivid images, Ray.  I also greatly enjoyed reading your father's profile.  You certainly did some detective work to uncover his birth record in Finland.  I'm excited to show your dad's profile on the August 5th Saturday Roundup livecast.  

Answer 2

I have so many August ancestors. My sister, my dad, both grandfathers, my maternal great grandparents, and on and on. But I want to focus on my paternal grandfather, Elmer Allen Sayers-Howell. In his younger years, he served in the Navy during WWII on the USS Fogg. He was on board when a torpedo struck the ship, ripping it in half. He survived. I spent every summer with my sisters in Weaverville, California visiting our grandparents. He was an avid outdoorsman and I have so many memories of camping, fishing, and spending the 4th of July watching the parade go through the small community, with the firehouse pancake breakfast and softball games in the park. It was the best time! He worked for many years for Hughes Aircraft before retiring. He passed away from throat cancer on 31 August 1994. He is sorely missed!

Comments

Hi Shonda, 

If you haven't already, you can find a good description of the attack on 20 December 1944 by U-Boat U-870 commanded by Ernst Hechler on the webpage USS Fogg (DE 57) (American Destroyer escort) - Ships hit by German U-boats during WWII - uboat.net.  The link has an excellent photo of the USS Fogg.  A profile of the U-Boat captain (including his photograph) is at Korvettenkapitän Ernst Hechler - German U-boat Commanders of WWII - The Men of the Kriegsmarine - uboat.net.  He won the Knight's Cross (like our Medal of Honor) for the action that damaged Gunner's Mate Second Class Elmer Allen Sayers's (Crewlist from USS Fogg (DE 57) (American destroyer escort) - Ships hit by German U-boats during WWII - uboat.net) ship.  Interestingly, although badly damaged and with 14 crew dead and 2 wounded, the crew heroically kept the ship from sinking and it ultimately made it back to a US port.  You were correct about the ship "breaking in two" because the stern fell off two days after the attack, but the crew kept the vessel afloat.  

I loved the newspaper article on his profile about the race to be at the birth. Your grandfather had some awesome war stories.

Thanks for sharing.

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Thank you, Ray. I have read quite a bit (and of course my grandfather shared stories). I'm currently working on getting all the crew who were on the boat that day uploaded to WikiTree for a project.

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Hi Shonda,

Thanks so much for sharing your grandfather's story.  And what an amazing project to create profiles for all his fellow crew members that were on the USS Fogg that fateful day.  Good luck!

We'll show your grandfather's profile tomorrow on the Saturday Roundup Livecast (10 am EDT/2 pm UTC).  Hope you can join us!

Betsy

Answer 3

My Father  Tuckett Clary Clary-1232 Aug 19 1935 and my Mother Ann (Poythress) Clary  Poythress-204 Aug 5 1937 birthdays. My mother's death is also Aug 31 1995

Comments

Hi Teresa--Thank you so much for sharing your parents' story with us.  I really enjoyed reading their profiles!  We'll show them tomorrow on the Saturday Roundup Livecast at 10 am EST/2 pm UTC.  I see that tomorrow is also your father's birthday.  Hope you can join us live or watch later.

https://www.youtube.com/live/upxy_PF1SoU?si=CV14dtfcFZJBRE8S

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Thank you, I'll be there

Answer 4

I'd like to point out 3 generations:

My Mom, Betty Lowery (Lowery-3311) was born on the last day of August, 1945. (She never went back to Lowery after her divorce, but I am þinking of her more as a Lowery lately, since her deaþ.) 

Her father, Paul Lowery (Lowery-3312) was born on 26 August 1906.

His parents Lewis Lowery (Lowery-3323) and Dora Cooper (Cooper-31772) were married on 21 August 1902. It was þe second marriage for boþ of þem.

Lewis and Dora, and their two sons Paul and Fred. Paul is the younger, so I think he is the one kneeling.

Comments

Hello Vik-Thor--I was glad to see your post on this thread and thank you for sharing this wonderful photo.  We'll celebrate your mother, grandfather and great-grandparents tomorrow on the Saturday Roundup Livecast.  We always love having you in the chat; hopefully you can make it tomorrow.

Answer 5

My great uncle Alfred Thomas Ross was born 1 August 1899, apparently he was a 'bit of a rascal'.

Last year while we were in England, we found the family grocery shop where he grew up, with his grandfather's name-also an Alfred- still on the side of the shop, a picture of the shop is on his grandfather Alfred's profile.

In the picture attached to his profile taken about 1904, he is the child escaping off to the right side of the photo.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Ross-20031

Comments

Hello M--Life would be far less interesting without rascals.  I got a good chuckle out of the photo and also said to myself, "Not a joiner, eh?"  We'll celebrate your great uncle on tomorrow's Saturday Roundup Livecast at 10 am EST/2 pm UTC.  Hope you can join us live or watch later.

https://www.youtube.com/live/upxy_PF1SoU?si=CV14dtfcFZJBRE8S

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Thank you Betsy, there's another picture of him, and family that I just realised was only attached to his parents, not to him or his older brother and younger sister. It's now attached to the rest of the family members.

In the that picture he looks like he's firmly under control between his parents.

Answer 6

My 2nd great grandaunt Catherine (Pritchard) Freyer died 120 years ago today, August 13th, 1903 in Williamstown, Victoria, Australia.  She was born in Liverpool, England, the daughter of a Master Mariner, then she married Captain John Kennedy Freyer and they emigrated to Australia on the ship Waratah, which was under his command. 

Catherine was very important to my research as her baptism included the name of her mother, Mary Lindsay.  All her siblings, including my 2nd great grandfather Joseph, just recorded the mother's name as "Mary".

http://wikitree.com/wiki/Pritchard-3424

Comments

Hi Pat--I can just imagine the happy dance you did when you saw Kate's mother's maiden name on her baptism record.  Thanks for sharing her story with us.  We'll celebrate Kate on tomorrow's Saturday Roundup Livecast at 10 am EST/2 pm UTC.  Hope you can join us live or watch later.

https://www.youtube.com/live/upxy_PF1SoU?si=CV14dtfcFZJBRE8S

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Thank you, Betsy.  I can't be live but will check it out later.  The "happy dance" was more of a gasp.  The dance came when I later found two of Catherine's brothers (my Joseph and his brother Benson) named sons George Lindsay Pritchard.

Answer 7

As I've been filling in the siblings of my second great grandmother, I've been particularly interested in her brother, Theodore Jones (Jones-129340), my second great granduncle, who was born in August 1832.

 He served in the Civil War twice, lost two wives and a few small children, and stepped up to help his younger sisters when their father died. 

I'm also very happy he left a surname book profile in 1897, which I have found to be a very helpful set of clues to research in source records. A link to the page in that book is found in the See Also section at the bottom of his Wikitree profile.

Comments

Hi Sally--Theodore's profile is a very interesting read; thanks so much for sharing it with us.  Ah, the trials brought on by common names!!  We'll celebrate Theodore on tomorrow's Saturday Roundup Livecast at 10 am EST/2 pm UTC.  Hope you can join us live or watch later. :-)

https://www.youtube.com/live/upxy_PF1SoU?