Dian Darr
The Robson Ranch Genealogy Club has had a busy summer. Many members have been finishing the final drafts of their stories, which will be published in our third edition of Argent, our Robson journal of our ancestors’ lives. Argent is an acronym for A Robson Genealogy Tribute. Our Argent, Journal 3, focuses on those who have served in the military and contains members’ research on relatives who served in World War II, World War I, the Civil War, and the American Revolutionary War. Research was made easier by the meetings of the previous months, which focused on accessing military records from various sources, such as The National Archives and Fold3 from Ancestry.com. These riveting accounts of our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents from several generations reveal stories of patriotism and bravery. Several stories tell the narrative of ancestors who were POWs during World War II, while another shares the journey of a relative who was on the Bataan Death March. One member’s father, who was a radioman in the Coast Guard, was the first to receive the dispatch from Truman that World War II was over. Another member shared the story of her grandfather who was a wire cutter in World War I. He was the first on the battlefield to cut the rolls of barbed wire so troops could advance to battle.
Several members chose to research ancestors who were in the Civil War. One ancestor fought in the Battle of Atlanta, while two were at Gettysburg. Other Civil War stories reveal the account of a relative from Iowa who was captured and became a POW during the Battle of Poison Springs in Arkansas and of a family who sent six sons from Indiana to various regiments to fight for the Union.
It is often more of a challenge to research our Revolutionary War Patriots, but several members submitted stories of their ancestors’ adventures during the American Revolution. One ancestor built and maintained a fort in Pennsylvania to protect settlers, while another member discovered that her ancestor was a member of George Washington’s elite Life Guard and served with him at Valley Forge.
A special thank you goes to Emily Richardson, professional genealogist and program director of our RR Genealogy Club, for directing this project. By encouraging us to write the stories of our ancestors, she has enabled us to develop our research skills so we can discover many hidden gems about our heritage.