My Dad, WWII, the Internet and Family!

Back on Memorial Day in 2015, I’d posted my normal blog in honor of my father, Ronald Allen Myers, and his ultimate sacrifice for our country at the end of World War II in Europe.

The photo shown above is of my father (right side), his brother Clifford in the stroller…as well as an unidentified little girl.

I’d also mentioned that my mother and my Dad’s family had drifted apart for some reason following my Dad’s death.  Communications were almost non-existent and my mother rarely mentioned any family members other than my father…

In my 2015 Memorial Day posting I’d mentioned that I was looking for family members from my Dad’s side of the family.  I wanted to learn more about my heritage… In my blog, I identified the boys in the photo above as Ronald Allen Myers and his younger brother, Clifford Cerrow Myers.  My Dad was born in 1908 and Clifford was born in 1911.  To date, these are the only 2 photos I’ve found of the 2 of them…

I’ve used this photo before…but I like it a lot!   It’s my Dad and me when I was close to 2 years old.  Unfortunately, I was just a little over 2 years old when I last saw my father and he was killed in action on May 6, 1945, just a little more than 2 months before my third birthday.

The Internet can be destructive but it also can be a lifeline… In the past 2 years, Laurie has connected with her Scottish relatives and she’s reconnected with our old friends from Iceland and Denmark.  I was reconnected with my 1961 DeVeaux School (Niagara Falls NY) graduating class which led to a reunion.  A historian from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources also found me on the Internet.  At the request of the daughter of one of my father’s coworkers at the DNR, he’d been searching for me so she could give me a letter that my Dad wrote from Germany to her mother and father in March of 1945. 

Then about 3 months ago the Internet Lightning Bolt struck again…!

This photo shows me with some ‘found’ members of my Dad’s family!  From left to right…Alex, Sandy, Mike, me and Dale.  Mike and Dale are Clifford Myers’ grandchildren.  Sandy is Dale’s wife and Alex is Sandy and Dale’s son.  This ‘reunion’ was at our house between Christmas and New Year’s Day.  Unfortunately their sister Darleen (from Michigan) had to work.  Mike and his family live in South Carolina and Dale, Sandy and Alex live in Western Tennessee.

About the flag… The old family home in Jackson Michigan was about to be torn down so the family got together and went through it looking for any family items worth saving.  This presentation flag was sent to the family by the War Department to honor my father’s and the family’s sacrifice.  I will have to do some research on the flag but it appears to have been flown somewhere as some strong steel rings are at the left in the photo.  The flag is in amazingly great condition!   Very Cool Indeed!

And the flag wasn’t all that that my cousins found recovered and brought with them!  This huge heavy wooden trunk and all the boxes are full of items and memorabilia that belonged to my Dad and even some from my Mom!  Dale, Darleen and Mike had decided to save all of this even before they ‘found me’ on the Internet.  They felt that it just wasn’t ‘right’ to throw these things away. 

There are many textbooks and papers related back to my Dad’s time at Michigan State College, now Michigan State University, as well as texts from my Mom's nursing school.  There are even some love letters that my Dad wrote to my Mom!  It will take me quite a while to go through this ‘family treasure trove’ to see just what I can find and learn about my father…

Laurie took this photo of me with Alex, Dale, Sandy and Mike in front of our Christmas fireplace mantle. (Note my 65+ year old Christmas stocking over my shoulder...made for me by my Mom when I was just a little tyke)

Dale, Darleen and Mike had been at a funeral for their Uncle Bob (my first cousin), when they decided to Google their Grandpa Clifford’s name.  They found him right away, and my Memorial Day posting was the third item listed on the first page!  That’s when they determined to make contact and to ensure that I learned about the family and would have my father’s belongings…

What a great Christmas present!  I not only have a lot of memorabilia from my Dad, but I also have ‘new’ relatives who cared enough to save my Dad’s things and then took the time to deliver them to me… We had a great time learning about our families and personal history plus Dale, Mike and I spent a lot of time working on the family tree on Ancestry.com. 

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave