I have a friend that has a military oriented web site. It is www.yourmilitarystory.com . To join is free and the members can tell stories of their military service. She has members ranging from age 92 to youngsters serving their first tour of duty. One gentleman asked her for some help. Years ago, he had bought a box of stuff at an auction. In the box was a set of WW1 era dog tags. It had the soldiers name, service number and his home town of New Lexington Ohio on them. So Claudia did some research and found 7 people with that last name. She started calling them. The first one she called was a woman and Claudia told her the story of the dog tags. It turns out that the soldier was her husbands Uncle. So they made arrangements to meet at Motts Military Museum to do the prentation of the tags to this lady. The soldier never married so there are no direct decendants, and it appears that this lady is the nearest relative.
That's so cool that a family member could be found and now has those items for future generations of the soldiers family. I have heard that it only takes three generations for photos and keepsakes to be forgotten and discarded. By the time the great-grandchildren inherit all those things from their parents there is no meaning or history attached to them so they see no reason to hang on to them. That's why so many of them end up in thrift shops or the garbage. Really sad.
We see lots of military medals and other items being sold here at auctions. It's such a pity that the people who served are, sometimes, forgotten as time passes and that their descendants don't want to keep the articles for future generations.
Jerry and I was going through some of His military paperwork last week. Got special case for flag given to him from his Father's funeral
