Family Military History

Recce21

Recce21

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Rating - 100%
100   0   0
Location
Hurtin' Albertan
With all the talk about wanting to collect certain guns and equipment because of family members and descendants on this forum it got me thinking I should start a thread so people could share these stories with like minded folks and possibly shed some light on what weapons and equipment they would have used.

All my info has been vetted through independent sources and records. There is much much more but any military records that has not been verified I have not included. Also, to avoid Ad Nausium I will just outline the unit (if known) and the conflict.

I have relatives that have fought and been wounded while serving with:

Kriegsmarine - WW2
2 CIB Coy RCASC - WW2
7th Bavarian Infantry - WW1
16th Iowa Infantry and 9th Iowa Cavalry - American Civil War
Capt Archibald McIntyre's Coy, 1st Regiment, New York Volunteers - War of 1812
Capt Andrew Finck's Coy, 1st Regiment, New York Lines - Revolutionary War
Privateer and United Empire Loyalist - Revolutionary War
Militia Commander in the French and Indian Wars (1689-97)
Knight and Crusader (7th-9th Crusade)

All I can say is thank god for family trees and records passed down from generation to generation. With a little help from ancestry.com it is amazing the things you can find.
 
Alright, let's see what we can see. I'm listing only direct blood relations, otherwise the list is too complicated.

Current - my Brother; Captain in Canadian Army, Two tours in Afgan (so far)
Current - my Uncle; Commander, HMCS [too much info thanks], multiple overseas tours starting with gulf
WWII - Anglo GGrand father; Merchant Marine, died when the [ferry] was torpedoed
WWII - Nada on the french side; French Newfies seem to have kept out of it, but the english side lost heaps. None of my relatives from what I know.
WWI - Great Uncle, French Newfie in US infantry (pretty unique, but not as rare as people think; No jobs for french in NFLD back in the day often mean working steel in high rise construction in the US. Getting in the wrong bar fights one too many times = option of prison or US mil service). Looks like they were going to use him for translation and coordinating with the french french, but the war ended first. Got him out of having any prison time, or record, and with the war ending he just went home... Have a great photo of him in his Uniform, and apparently he cleaned up his act.

(Occupation by the english means a couple of hundred years w/o military service, so we jump back more than a few generations for the next military service. ***NOTE: Interesting information from CGNer Smelli: The French in Newfoundland DID in fact serve in WWI, with several names known in the records. I just didn't know myself. I'll have to take a closer look for any family, but I'm pretty sure we stayed out of WWI, other than the Great Uncle in the US Army)

GGGGGrandfather - French Military Commander of Port La Joye, signed the surrender to the english

GGGGGGGrandfather - French Calvanist who fled the to Britain to escape persecution in france. Served with the english as an officer, and served as lieutenant governor of occupied new france with Tomas Temple from 1657 to 1667. Moves with his Scottish wife and youngest son to Boston where he probably died. We decend from the elder son who remained and swore allegiance to the french (he was apparently in love with a local Catholic girl, hence the choice).

GGGGGGGGrandfather - Armourer to the King of France. (Not really military, but I just think this one is cool...)

Most of the rest in between are blacksmiths or cops. In more modern times we've mostly become engineers, military officers and cops.
 
Last edited:
Father, The Royal Canadian Regiment, 1951-57, combat in Korean War (with one brother in same battalion), then paratrooper in Canada and West Germany. Five other brothers served in peacetime Canadian Army and RCAF in one capacity or another.

First ancestor on mother's mother's side served with the Royal Navy during the Seven Years War, settled in PEI in 1771.
 
Recce21 said:
No Kidding. My GGGGGGGGG Grandfather was Pieter Schuyler who was the first Mayor of Albany, NY and the British Military Commander at Port La Prairie. Small world.
Click to expand...

Very neat to hear... I wonder if they "knew" each other: IE either shot at, near, or negotiated with/against one another.

Here are the specifics, on our end:

Germain Doucet-Laverdure (ref 18 & 19)
French Military Officer; capitaine d’armes de Pentagouët
DOB: 1595 · DOD: 1654
Signed the act of capitulation of Port Royal, 16 Aug 1654

That's straight out of the digitized version of our family tree... A little project I've been working on for a while. The references refer to a number of family documents, historical text, etc.
 
Both sides of my family where in poland, One was cavalry, the other faught in the polish resistance in warsaw. So I would like to pick up a polish version of the Gewehr 98, but something tells me its going to be hard to find.

On the other hand I can probably find/make molotovs with homemade liquor easily enough :p
 
Robert0288 said:
Both sides of my family where in poland, One was cavalry, the other faught in the polish resistance in warsaw. So I would like to pick up a polish version of the Gewehr 98, but something tells me its going to be hard to find.

On the other hand I can probably find/make molotovs with homemade liquor easily enough :p
Click to expand...

I once had a Polish K98 since I have the same ancestors, however It now resides with a friend whose father fought in the Austrian army and then with Pilsudski. He's not about to let it go. The Polish eagle is so much better looking than the german chicken.

Now one grandfather was a draft dodger. He was working on a farm in germany and the farmer gave him two choices.
1. Marry his daughter, or
2. he would report him and get him drafted into the kaiser's army.
He picked none of the above, walked to Hamburg and got on a boat, arriving here in the early 1900's;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom