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Genealogy Blog

4 January 2013

Remains of Nazi Goering's Wife Identied

Swedish scientists have solved the mystery over a a zinc coffin found 21 years ago at the German estate of Hitler's right-hand man, Hermann Göring, by identifying the skeletal remains as those of Göring's first wife Carin.

Born in Stockholm, Sweden, Carin Fock married the decorated pilot Hermann Göring in 1923. The couple settled in Germany, where Carin enjoyed a high social status as the wife of a central leader in the growing National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP).

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2 January 2013

Blood of Louis XVI 'Found in Gourd Container'

A team of scientists have said they believe an old gourd contains the blood of French King Louis XVI. The monarch was killed by guillotine by French revolutionaries more than 200 years ago, on 21 January 1793.

The scientists said the DNA is very similar to genetic material from what is believed to be the mummified head of an earlier French king, AFP reports. After Louis XVI's beheading many spectators were reported to have dipped their handkerchiefs in his blood.

Source & Full Story

31 December 2012

WWI Belfast Soldiers' Letters Found In Cavan

Letters written by Belfast men serving at the Western Front during Christmas 1917, have recently been uncovered in the Republic. The men all came from St Mark's Parish in Dundela in east Belfast.

They were writing to their rector, Reverend Arthur Barton, in response to Christmas parcels sent to them from their home parish. "The women and people left behind were involved in making comfort parcels," explained Dr Susan Hood, an archivist at the Dublin-based Representative Church Body (RCB) Library.

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Union Prisoner's Letter Reveals Augusta, Georgia, Civil War Past

A faded envelope discovered after 148 years sheds new light on Augusta’s little-known role as a place where Union prisoners of war were held during the Civil War.

Its author, Sgt. William S. Marshall, was a young Indiana soldier captured near Rowe Gap, Tenn., on May 3, 1863, and shuffled from place to place for the remainder of the conflict.

Source

21 December 2012

Lost Tombstones Recovered in Greece From Destroyed Jewish Cemetery

In a find that local Jewish groups have described as highly significant, Greek police said Thursday that hundreds of marble headstones and other fragments from Jewish graves destroyed during the Nazi occupation in World War II have been recovered.

The 668 fragments were found buried in a plot of land in Thessaloniki, Greece’s second largest city, following a 70-year search for the remains of graves smashed when the city’s main Jewish cemetery was destroyed.

Source & Full Story

18 December 2012

'Hit Jerry's Panzers Here'... Code On Dead Wartime Pigeon Is Cracked

It was the Second World War code no one could crack – a message from 1944 found decades later attached to a dead carrier pigeon in a fireplace. Wartime code-breaking analysts and experts from GCHQ were all left stumped. But now a historian has come forward with the right codebook to finally reveal what it says.

The despatch, sent by 27-year-old Sergeant William Stott, identified German troop and panzer tank positions in Normandy and highlighted ‘Jerry’ headquarters and observation posts to target for attacks.

Source & Full Story

17 December 2012

Historic Camp Site Discovered on Antarctica

A campsite used by a group led by geologist Raymond Priestle during the 1912 "Race to the Pole" was recently discovered.

Oppenheimer, a volcanologist at Cambridge University in England and working at Erebus as part of an NSF team, found what he thinks is the same camp site using written accounts and historic images from the Scott Polar Research Institute in Great Britain, the NSF release said. (The institute was founded by one of the men from Scott's party who climbed Erebus as part of the 1912 Terra Nova expedition.)

Source & Full Story

14 December 2012

Untouched 18th Century Woodworking Shop Found in Plymouth, Mass.

"The first time I saw it, I about fell over,” said Ritchie Garrison, professor of history professor and director of the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture at the University of Delaware. "It was a bit like walking into the past."

The discovery was entirely accidental. Garrison and Michael Burrey were in the process of revamping Garrison's 19th century house in Plymouth, Mass. Burrey was also working on a project at a local preschool in Duxbury, Mass., where he discovered what turns out to be a 18th century joiner's shop. Garrison invited several experts in material culture got to see the shop for themselves.

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5 December 2012

Monty At War: Rare Photographs of Field Marshal, Winston And Rommel The Dog Emerge

An archive of photos that capture Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery in more informal moments in the final months of the Second World War has been discovered.

About 200 black and white snaps were either taken or amassed by the British army chief's assistant who was by his side as the Allies swept towards Germany. They include one of Winston Churchill sat next to 'Monty' stroking his pet spaniel dog, who he named Rommel after his famous German arch-rival general.

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28 November 2012

WWII Pigeon’s Code Stumps Codebreakers

In 1982, a retired British probation officer named David Martin was cleaning the chimney of his home in Bletchingley, about 20 miles south of London, during a renovation when he discovered the remains of a pigeon among the debris.

But while he was pulling out the bird’s dessicated corpse, he made a surprising discovery. As Martin told the BBC, he realized he had no ordinary bird on his hands when “down came the leg with the red capsule on with a message inside.”

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Internment Camp Letters, Where 110,000 People Of Japanese Ancestry Lived, Found In Denver Building

Some letters arriving from Japanese-American internment camps during World War II were very specific, asking for a certain brand of bath powder, cold cream or cough drops — but only the red ones. Others were just desperate for anything from the outside world.

The letters, discovered recently during renovations at a former Denver pharmacy owned by Japanese-Americans, provide a glimpse into life in some of the 10 camps where 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry, including U.S. citizens, from the West Coast were forced to live during the war.

Source & Full Story

Unverified Remains Dig Up The Twisted Legacy of England’s Richard III

Tyrant or hero? Rightful monarch or child-killer? Despotic hunchback or brave scoliosis sufferer? Now is the winter of our debate over one of England’s most notorious villains: Richard III.

Underneath a drab parking lot 90 miles northwest of London, archaeologists have unearthed what may become one of this nation’s finds of the century — half-a-millennium-old bones thought to be the remains of the long-lost monarch.

Source & Full Story

23 November 2012

War Memorial Register Searches For WWI Plaque in Louis Vuitton Store

Sydney's Louis Vuitton store is usually an altar to glamour, where fashionistas hunt for the latest in global style. But, according to the newly established War Memorial Register of NSW, the store at 365 George St is also home to a wooden plaque commemorating Australia's WWI diggers.

The only problem? No one seems to be able to find it. Attempts to contact Louis Vuitton regarding the small plaque that should still reside in the store were unsuccessful, which raised the concern some of these priceless relics may have been destroyed.

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22 November 2012

WWI Letter in South Tyneside Garden Sparks Search for Soldier's Family

The relatives of a World War I soldier whose letter was found in a South Tyneside back garden are being sought. The letter, dated 15 September 1918, describes items the soldier has found on the battlefields.

Two photographs were also found during the garden clear-out by South Tyneside Council at a property in Lake View, Hebburn. The council now wants to find the relatives of the young soldier to return the "treasured memories".

Source & Full Story

Letters Found in Former Denver Pharmacy Show Glimpse Into Life at WWII Internment Camps

Some letters arriving from Japanese-American internment camps during World War II were very specific, asking for a certain brand of bath powder, cold cream or cough drops — but only the red ones. Others were just desperate for anything from the outside world.

The letters, discovered recently during renovations at a former Denver pharmacy owned by Japanese-Americans, provide a glimpse into life in some of the 10 camps where 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry, including U.S. citizens, from the West Coast were forced to live during the war.

Source & Full Story

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