On This Day - November 6th

On This Day...

1718 - Birth: John McPherson, White Clay, New Castle County, Delaware

1755 - Death: Pelatiah Morgan, Springfield, Hampden County, Massachusetts

1791 - Birth: Lewis Peyton, Lincoln County, Kentucky

1857 - Birth: George A. Erskins, Winn Parish, Louisiana

1865 - Birth: Anthony ("Bob") Francis Kunkel, Jefferson Township, Marshall County, Iowa

1896 - Death: William Peters, Winn Parish, Louisiana

1902 - Marriage: James Riley Smith and Emma Jordan, Winn Parish, Louisiana

1906 - Marriage: Michael Fruth and Franceska Kascht, Collegeville Township, Stearns County, Minnesota

1982 - Death: Estel Elmer Dillman, Yankton, South Dakota

1995 - Death: Genevieve Joanna Fruth, Saint Joseph, Minnesota

On this day I note the passing in 1982 of my paternal grandfather, Estel E. Dillman.  He is my Indiana Dillman connection, and the (at the time) mystery of his ancestry is what got me interested in, and then hooked on, genealogy.  At that time, he either didn't remember, or wouldn't discuss his childhood and ancestry.  Turns out it was for good reasons, told elsewhere on this blog.



This and all other articles on this blog are © copyright 2013 by Daniel G. Dillman

Military Monday - Home on Leave!

Military Monday

Estel E. Dillman and children at Sheffield, SD.  Ca. 1942, scanned from original negatove

This and all other articles on this blog are © copyright 2013 by Daniel G. Dillman

Wordless Wednesday

 Wordless Wednesday...

Estel and Alta Dillman ca. 1941 in Sheffield, SD. Scanned from original negative.

 This and all other articles on this blog are © copyright 2013 by Daniel G. Dillman

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Veterans Day (Late!)

I know I'm over a week late with this, but I'm going to participate anyway!  Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings put out his usual fine quality Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge last week:

Is the bloom off of the Genea-Rose here?  There has been very poor participation in SNGF the last two weeks, likely because the tasks were too hard or too esoteric.  I'll try to fix that this week!

(No, Randy, at least on my part, the problem has been lack of time, more than anything else.  I'll admit on a couple of occasions the challenge just didn't fit or apply to me or my family, so I skipped those.  But mostly I've just been busy lately.  Keep 'em coming!

Your mission this week, should you decide to accept it, is to:

1)  To celebrate Veterans Day, pick one of your ancestors or relatives with a military record and a gravestone.

2)  Tell us about your ancestor's military service.

3)  Tell us about your ancestor's gravestone - where is it, what is the inscription, when were you last there?  Show us a picture of it if you have one available. 

4)  Write your own blog post about this ancestor and his gravestone, or share it in a Comment to this blog post, in a status line on Facebook, or in a Google Plus Stream post. 

Here's mine:

My ancestor of choice is Estel E. Dillman, my paternal grandfather.  I've written about him several times before.  He's easily the best-documented of my ancestors when it comes to military service, and I recently made a trip out to his gravesite.

Estel was the product of a dysfunctional home, his father left home after his mother died in 1920, and Estel and brothers were taken in by the Sacksteder family in New Albany, Indiana.  Estel's sister Reva was taken in by someone else.  Estel's older brother Orville Wayne fudged his age on the papers and enlisted in the Navy early to escape the family situation.  Estel followed suit a few years later.  I've recently been piecing together more of that time period.  I have a copy of the paper Mrs. Sacksteder signed to vouch for Estel when he enlisted.  It includes their address at the time.  He enlisted for the same reason as Wayne, to get out of that family situation and make something of himself.  He enlisted in 1927, at age 19.

His service record papers include pages on which he states his intention of making the Navy a career, but we know that sometimes life events have a way of changing our plans.  While in the Navy, he met a man named Jack Cornett from Beadle County, South Dakota.  Jack liked to hear news from home, and so became a pen pal to Alta May Day, who would later become my grandmother.  At some later point, Jack introduced Estel to Alta, and the two became an item.  Estel got out of the Navy and moved to South Dakota to marry and make a life with Alta.  They were married in February 1931.

What with the Depression and all, things just didn't go that well for Estel and Alta, so he decided to go back into the Navy to help boost their nest egg.  He re-enlisted in 1937.  In late 1941 the United States entered World War II, and Estel remained on active duty.  He served until the end of the war, and would have stayed in had the Navy honored a pledge to let Estel serve stateside.  However, he got wind of their plans to station him in Japan, where his family could not live with him, and so he took advantage of the draw down in forces following the war to leave the Navy and head back to South Dakota.  Within a couple of days of his return to Huron, South Dakota, he had a firm job offer from the local power plant.

Estel and Alta's grave marker is in Restlawn Cemetery, a few miles south of Huron, South Dakota.  I visited the site about a week before Veterans Day and took this picture:

Estel E. and Alta M. Dillman grave marker in Restlawn Cemetery, Huron, Beadle County, South Dakota.

This and all other articles on this blog are © copyright 2011 by Daniel G. Dillman

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - Grandparents' House

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History by Amy Coffin is a series of weekly blogging prompts (one for each week of 2011) that invite genealogists and others to record memories and insights about their own lives for future descendants. You do not have to be a blogger to participate. If you do not have a genealogy blog, write down your memories on your computer, or simply record them on paper and keep them with your files.

• Week 31: Grandparents’ House. Describe your grandparents’ house. Was it big or small? How long did they live there? If you do not know this information, feel free to describe the house of another family member you remember from your childhood.

My grandparents Estel and Alta Dillman lived at 1603 Pearl Street in Yankton, Yankton County, South Dakota for several decades.  It was a small pink house with two bedrooms on the main floor.  It had an eat-in kitchen with a door to the driveway.  The living room was also on the main floor, and there was one bathroom.  The living room had a large picture window that looked out to the street, and a door to the sidewalk, but no one used that door, they all came to the kitchen door on the side.  The major items in the living room were the console television and an old upright piano.  The basement was open with concrete block walls.  It had two beds, a dresser and an armoir in one corner for a makeshift bedroom, which was where my brother and I slept when we visited.  My parents had one of the main floor bedrooms.  The laundry was also in the basement, and some storage space. 

There was a single-car detached garage.  The garage and driveway were adjacent to the neighbors' driveway and garage, making for a pretty big space to be cleared after snowstorms.  The yard wasn't huge, but was decent.  There were several trees in the back yard, and my grandmother always grew flowers, most notably tulips, in several areas around the house.  She took after her mother in that.


This and all other articles on this blog are © copyright 2011 by Daniel G. Dillman

Maritime Monday - Service Record Pt. 4

Here we see another page from the Service Record of Estel E. Dillman, my paternal grandfather.  This particular page has a number of different pieces of information on it, so let's look at them one section at a time and talk about the significance of each.

First, it has the usual name, service number, rate, date and command information.  This is how we keep track of who this particular piece of paper is reporting on.  We can see that as of 13 May 1940, my grandfather was a Machinist Mate 2nd Class aboard the U.S.S. Brooklyn, having previously served aboard the U.S.S. Chaumont.  I discussed both of those ships, including links to Wikipedia articles about them in previous posts.

Next, we see that on 7 Mar 1941, my grandfather crossed the equator and was initiated as a Shellback in a ceremony I also described in an earlier post.  A week later, he crossed the International Date Line.  So far as I am aware, there is not a similar ceremony for crossing the date line as there is for crossing the Equator.  As I served in the western hemisphere, I did not have opportunity to cross the date line to find out.

Next, the record details his participation in the first expedition to Iceland for a month in the summer of 1941.  Better than a winter visit, I'm thinking!  Remember, though, that this was during World War II in Europe, and even though the United States were not formally involved in the war at that point, we were aiding our allies by providing suplies, and our ships were targets for German u-boats.

Next we see that on 01 Nov 1941, Estel was promoted to Machinist Mate 1st Class, which is the E-6 paygrade.  This is an upper supervisory level just below middle management if you want a civilian equivalent.  Sailors at this level are starting to do more management and supervision of lower ranked men, but are still very much in the thick of getting the work done.  They still get their hands dirty frequently.  They also train the lower ranks by providing guidance and experience working with the equipment involved.

In my own service record, it is unusual to have several different kinds of event recorded on a single page as it is on this one, but this page is by no means unique in Estel's service record.  Also, these old service record pages are narrow, where my service record has full letter-size pages.


This and all other articles on this blog are © copyright 2011 by Daniel G. Dillman

Maritime Monday - Service Record Pt. 3

This time we'll look at another page from the service record of my paternal grandfather, Estel E. Dillman.  Last time we looked at a page that contained several types of entry, and today's example likewise contains more than one kind of entry, one of which is significantly more interesting than the other.

Service Record Entry

We see some of the same data as on the previous post's example.  Service member's name, rank and service number are on most of the pages in the service record.  This facilitates keeping the records together in the correct person's folder.  We also see the same ships reported to and coming from, as this wouldn't change often.  We will see later that a change of duty station did happen on this page.

First, we see the important, significant entry: Estel was aboard on 3 Sep 1942 when the USS Brooklyn, as part of Task Force 38, was involved in the rescue at sea of 1173 survivors of the USS Wakefield, which experienced a major fire onboard.  As one of the diesel mechanics onboard the Brooklyn, my grandfather was essential in ensuring that the ship was in good running order to assist in rescue of the troops on the Wakefield, which was serving as a troop transport.  It took damage control people over four days to finally put out the fires on the Wakefield.

Fire is one of the worst events on a ship at sea, as there is nowhere to escape the fire.  Virtually everyone on modern Navy ships goes through some sort of firefighting training and is assigned at some point to damage control parties that would be responsible for fighting fires in case of emergency.  I personally went through Shipboard Aircraft Firefighting school not once, but twice during the three and a half years I was on Sea Duty.  I was trained in use of 1.5" and 2.5" high pressure hoses and a variety of firefighting chemicals.

The next event we see on this page is a transfer to US Naval Training Station in  Norfolk, VA, to attend Diesel Engine School (Surface).  As you can see, this happened on 27 Sep 1942, a couple of weeks after the end of the Wakefield rescue.  This was in the works before the incident, but the record does not say this directly.  It is hinted at in that the authorization listed is a letter of 4 Aug 1942.  As part of the transfer, we see the Ship or Station  being the new command, or N.T.S., NOB Norfolk (the Navy loves acronyms!  This one means Naval Training Station at the Naval Operations Base in Norfolk, VA), and the Ship From is listed as USS Brooklyn, where he was stationed.  This sort of transfer for schools happened fairly often, and was usually for a period of a few weeks or a couple of months, and then the service member would return to their originating ship or station.  Sometimes the training was in conjunction with  permanent transfer to another ship or station to report to a new job with fresh training.

These two events add more data points to the timeline we can develop from study of a service record.  Are you beginning to see some value to ordering a copy of  a service record?  While they can be fairly expensive, there is a lot of information you won't find anywhere else about your military relative!

Treasure Chest Thursday - Military Record Pt. 2

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This post would have been online yesterday, but Blogger was unavailable for some sort of "maintenance" work.  Thanks, Blogger.  This is one reason why cloud-based applications aren't always the great solution that their proponents would have you believe they are.


This page from the service record is somewhat unusual in that it documents several different things all on the same page.  In my experience, the military prefers to use more paper and document one incident or one type of thing on a page.

In this page, we see first the service member's full name, service number (serial number), rate (or MOS), when the person reported to the current command, what that command is, and where the service member was stationed prior to the current command.  My grandfather, Estel Elmer Dillman, was a MM2c (Machinist's Mate 2nd class) on board the U.S.S. Brooklyn, and was previously stationed on the U.S.S. Chaumont.

While on the USS Brooklyn, he did cross the equator on 7 Mar 1941, and participated in a Shellback ceremony, which I talked about in an earlier post about his Navy Log.  This page confirms what was in the log, and we love to have confirming evidence about our ancestors, even if it doesn't directly further our family lines.

The next bit shows that a week after crossing the equator, he crossed the International Date Line.  There's no corresponding ceremony for this particular event, but apparently it was worthy of mention in a service record.

Next we see that the USS Brooklyn was in the first expedition to Iceland on 22 Jul 1941 as part of Task Force 19.  She escorted convoys carrying Marines to Iceland.

Lastly, this page shows that he was promoted to MM1c (Machinist's Mate 1st class) on 1 Nov 1941.  This is the only time I've seen an advancement included on a page of other documentation.   It's usually important enough to warrant a page of its own.

You can see that even on a single page, we're starting to develop a timeline of events for this person's service.  A full service record can do a good job of recreating the whole timeline of events for that person's time in the military.  This can help fit other life events together, including marriage and descendant births. 

Treasure Chest Thursday – create a post with the main focus being a family treasure, an heirloom or even an every-day item important to your family. A special thanks to Leslie Ann Ballou of Lost Family Treasures for suggesting Treasure Chest Thursday as a daily blogging theme!  (Blurb shamelessly stolen from Thomas McEntee at Geneabloggers!)

Maritime Monday - Service Record

I recently received a copy of my paternal grandfather's military service record from the National Personnel Support Center in St. Louis, MO.  Over the next few weeks, I'll be posting some of the pages from the service record to give you an idea of what kind of information can be found in them, and how they might help in a family search.

Statement of Service

Today's first example is a Statement of Service.  This is a total of the time(s) the service member was in the service.  In this case, my grandfather was in from 13 Dec 1926 for exactly four years, and then again from 5 Oct 1939 to 21 Oct 1943 - a period of four years, seventeen days.  He remained in the Navy past this date for over two more years, but this page does not reflect that.  Other pages in the service record do show that later service.

This is something that should be verified, if possible, as it may affect benefits of the veteran that are based on length of service.  Examples of this could include health and dental benefits, or G.I. Bill.  Of course, this really only applies if the service member is still alive.

Receipt for Campaign Medal / Honorable Discharge

 The next sample is a combination of a receipt for a campaign medal awarded, and Honorable Discharge document.  In this case, my grandfather signed receipt for a 2nd Nicaraguan Campaign medal he received.  The other side is the Honorable Discharge he received at the end of his first enlistment in December of 1926.  Interesting information to note is the full name, the service number (serial number), the place of discharge (San Diego, California), and the service member's home address.  We see here that the home address given was in Jeffersonville, which is in Floyd County, Indiana.  As his mother was buried in Jeffersonville, this is both reasonable as a home address, and a confirmation of his ties to that area.  It also means that this address would suggest good places to search for more records.  We also see the name of the ship, U.S.S. Upshur (144), which confirms information found in his Navy Log, for which you can see some of my earlier posts.

The last one for this post is of a more personal nature.  It's a descriptive list of physical characteristics for the service member.  This includes age, height and weight, hair and eye color, complexion, and other identifying markings, such as birthmarks, scars and tattoos.  You can see this would be a very nice way to get an idea of what your relative looked like if you had no pictures.  As my grandfather lived until I was 16, I did get to see him and remember what he looked like, and have loads of pictures from my shutterbug grandmother, but for many people, this description might be the only thing available.  This particular example also includes the signature of the service member, in their own handwriting.

Descriptive List

Treasure Chest Thursday - Military Record

I recently wrote that I had sent for my paternal grandfather's military service record.  I received it last week, and spent this evening running the 251 pages through a scanner.

Cover letter - click to enlarge.

Here's just one quick reason why this is a good idea and you should do this if you have a close relative who was a military service member:

Beneficiary Slip, click to enlarge.

This Beneficiary Slip contains the names and addresses of the service member's next of kin - who gets the death benefits if he is killed on duty.  In this case, it was his family - wife and children.  The address is where they lived at the time, which I had from other sources, but would be quite valuable information to help search if I had not already had it.  There are a number of these slips in the service record, covering a number of years.  This could help document family moves.  It can also help document children - names, and when they were born if one shows up on a later slip that was not on an earlier one.

Treasure Chest Thursday – create a post with the main focus being a family treasure, an heirloom or even an every-day item important to your family. A special thanks to Leslie Ann Ballou of Lost Family Treasures for suggesting Treasure Chest Thursday as a daily blogging theme!  (Blurb shamelessly stolen from Thomas McEntee at Geneabloggers!)

Wordless Wednesday - Estel E. Dillman

Estel E. Dillman Eng2c circa 1927.

Wordless Wednesday – a great way to share your old family photos! Create a post with the main focus being a photograph or image. Some posters also include attribute information as to the source of the image (date, location, owner, etc.). Wordless Wednesday is one of the longest running “memes” in the blogosphere and is an ongoing series at GeneaBloggers.

Treasure Chest Thursday - Military Record

A recent arrival in the mail makes Estel E. Dillman (my paternal grandfather) easily the best documented of any of my relatives.  I received his military service record from the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, MO.

I've wanted to do this for a long time, but never got around to actually following through the whole process.  Recently, I decided I should do this sooner, rather than later, in case some disaster in St. Louis might remove the record forever from access, such as the fire that destroyed the 1890 US Census records.  So I hit the eVetRecs website, looked up the record, and placed the request using the SF-180 form.  A couple of weeks later, I got notification that the records had been located and were available, and that a copy would be $60.00.  Well, I was unemployed at the time, and $60 would definitely be of more use in other areas, so I declined to order.  However, my folks agreed it would be a good idea to have a copy of the records, so they paid the fee and ordered the copy.

It took a few more weeks before the records arrived, and I began to see why it was so expensive.  The postage cost alone was nearly $8.00.  The copy sent is nearly a full ream of paper, all copied single-side.  The original records are no doubt, at least in part, on both sides, so would not occupy quite so much paper.

This is the full Navy Service Record of my grandfather, including medical and dental, of a service that lasted over 10 years in two separate blocks.  All of his schools are detailed.  All of his duty stations are noted, including many that I was never aware of, some of them short-term, for schools and such.  Advancement is detailed, and quarterly evaluation marks are all listed.  Medical and dental records include physical descriptions including tattoos and birthmarks, hair and eye color, height and weight, and so on.  Excellent stuff for genealogists!

I'll be scanning the entire record, thanks to a friend with a sheet-fed scanner.  I'll be posting example pages as well so you can see what is included, and perhaps be persuaded to order your own family members' service records.

Treasure Chest Thursday – create a post with the main focus being a family treasure, an heirloom or even an every-day item important to your family. A special thanks to Leslie Ann Ballou of Lost Family Treasures for suggesting Treasure Chest Thursday as a daily blogging theme!  (Blurb shamelessly stolen from Thomas McEntee at Geneabloggers!)