World War II Military Records

Update, 14 February 2014

My client; Benjamin Rauch has published a tribute page for the soldier in this blog. The soldiers name is Walter Cuichnowicz and he was assigned to G Company, 328th Infantry Regiment, 26th Infantry Division (Yankee Division) Here is the link to Benjamin's tribute page  (Look on the map for the Yankee Division patch and click on it)(The one on the Rauch Page, not the one in my blog ;-)

 Benjamin is a French Citizen and English is not his first language, so we will be tweaking his tribute over time.

Walter died in 2005 in Newton MA and is buried in the Massachusetts National Cemetery in Bourne, Massachusetts. Here is his memorial on Findagrave.com

A special thanks to Len and Keith at the MA National Guard Museum and Archives which just moved from Worcester to Concord, MA over the summer for their assistance with my research.

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Locating the owner of a WW2 Wool Coat. Using the shoulder patch and laundry mark?

How many times have you tried to find WW2 records only to turn up empty handed? Frustrating at best! Many folks I have spoken with find this to be the biggest time period brickwall that they encounter.

We are blessed here in Massachusetts to have the Massachusetts National Guard Museum and Archives, which is currently settling into it's new home at the Concord MA National Guard Armory.

I recently located the owner of a military coat that was found in France. The soldier who lost the coat was a member of G Company, 328th Infantry Regiment, 26th Infantry Division; and was wounded by shrapnel in November 1944 near Metz France. He survived to be discharged from the Army in 1945 from Cushing General Hospital in Framingham, Massachusetts.

Starting with a photograph of a wool coat and a laundry mark (first letter of last name and last 4 of the service number) I was able to locate the soldier, who surely nearly lost his life, that day in France.

I have updated the soldiers Find A Grave web page and the owner of the wool coat is in the process of building a tribute page for the soldier. Unfortunately the soldier died in 2005.

More research to determine if any surviving relates is in in progress. At some point I will provide the links to these pages, however I have decided to fold off until it is determined if other family members exist.

During my research I was able to limit the number of possible soldiers to four. Two served in different units and that left two from Massachusetts. Thanks to the MA NG Museum and Archives, it was very quick and easy to locate the correct soldier.

The Hunt for Mary Louise Smith; Dearborn County Indiana

Dearborn County, Indiana has a great library in Lawrenceburg, Indiana. The Lawrenceburg Public Library has an obituary index right on their Genealogy website. http://www.lpld.lib.in.us/history.htm A quick check of the last name of Cormican turns up four hits. The first two are unrelated, but two are for Mary Louise Cormican and Mrs. Hugh D Cormican. Hugh Cormican was the husband of Mary Louise Smith so the last two obituaries are probably going to be for my Great Grandmother.

The index itself has a lot of information on it that helps build my confidence:

Lawrenceburg Public Library District Obituary Finder

Last Name: Cormican
First Name: Mary
Middle Name/Initial: Louise
Maiden Name: Smith
Date of Death: 10/25/1924
Birth Date: 09/20/1853
Spouse: Hugh
Survived By: husband;nine children;twenty-nine grandchildren; two sisters; one brother.
Other: was married Jan. 11, 1874. Preceded in death by one infant.
Cemetery: New Haven, OH
Obituary Source: Register Oct. 30, 1924, Register November 6, 1924, Press Oct. 30, 1924
Source Information:
Obituary File:
Other File:


There are also some clues above that may help me down the road, when I try to find her before she married Hugh.

Right on the Genealogy Page of the Lawrenceburg Public Library is their mailing address and the procedure to follow if you need copies ($1 per obit and a Self Addressed Stamped Envelope). An email address is provided if you have questions. So off goes the check for $3 and an SASE and we will see what we get back in the mail. The hardest part about genealogy is the waiting!

See you next Wednesday.

Back On the Hunt for Mary Louise Smith

For the last several weeks I have been talking about my Great-Grandmother, Mary Louise Smith Cormican. To recap, she married my grandfather in 1874 in Hamilton County, Ohio and I was unable to locate a record of their marriage other than an index entry on the Hamilton County Genealogical Society website.

A check of the US Census for 1860 and 1870 turned up several hundred Mary Smith's in Indiana. Since I looked at the US Census in 1900 and located Mary and Hugh in Harrison Township, Hamilton County, Ohio and it shows Mary has a date of birth of September 1853 and that she and her mother were born in Indiana and her father was born in Ohio. This still doesn't narrow the search down far enough as I still don't have the names of her parents, but I have now some hint that she was born in Indiana in September in about 1853.

Of course, the US census is only as good as the person reporting the information and the person writing it down. It is far from an exact science and the US Census should not be relied upon as your sole source of information.

Around 1920 Hugh and Mary moved to Miller Township in Dearborn County, Indiana and they were there during the 1920 US Census.

Here again, numerous family trees on Ancestry.com have Mary Louise listed as deceased in 1924, with no sources to support this information.

Strike Three?

Well, it was a foul tip, anyway. next week we can talk about where I went from here. See ya next Wednesday!

On the Hunt for Mary Louise Smith

Last week I talked about my Great Grandmother Mary Louise Smith. Mary Louise Smith married Hugh Daugherty Cormican in Hamilton County, Ohio.

According to the Hamilton County genealogical Society website: "On 24, March 1884 a great tragedy struck Cincinnati. A riot started that evening in the downtown area and resulted in the burning of the Hamilton County Courthouse. This fire destroyed many of the records that had been kept previously in the courthouse, one of which was marriage license applications and returns. Apparently many of the 'older' records (before 1860) were stored in another part of the courthouse and did not sustain as extensive damage as those from the period 1860 until March 1884."


The Hamilton County Genealogical Society has done a wonderful job compiling a database of alternate marriage records to compensate for those lost in the fire. They have an online index on their website. 


I located a record entry with Mary L Smith and Hugh Corrigan (spelling) for that date with a code of CT4, which means it was in the Cincinnati Times Newspaper in 1873 or 1874. I contacted the Hamilton County Genealogical Society by mail and they were unable to locate their marriage record. When I contacted the Hamilton County Public Library in Cincinnati, they were unable to locate their wedding announcement in the newspaper.

Some of my relatives have their marriage date as 11 January 1874 and the very helpful staff at the library searched around that date to no avail. I am not sure where my fellow researchers acquired that date, There are seventeen family trees on Ancestry.com that have that date, but none of them have any source for the wedding date.

Strike Two! Next week I will write about my next steps.

The 1940 US Census (Christmas in April)

The National Archives has an informational website up and running for the anticipated release of the 1940 US Census, slated for 2 April 2012. The link to the NARA site is: http://www.archives.gov/research/census/1940/

Their partner in this endeavor, Archives.com has a new website up, however it will not be live until 2 April 2012. Their website is http://1940census.archives.gov/

Indexing of the census will take a bit of time, however for most of us this will be like Christmas in April!

A Genealogy Brick Wall - Mary Louise Cormican

In my last post, I mentioned some of the family names I have  worked on for my own personal genealogy quest. One of these is the Cormican's. My grandparents (on my mother's side) were Albert Trenary and Margaret Amy Cormican. Margaret Amy was the daughter of Hugh D Cormican and Mary Louise Cormican.

My research on the Cormican's has gone along fine, thanks to one of my cousins who has been working on this a very long time.

Margaret Amy Cormican Trenary

The daughter of Mary Louise

The brick wall rears it's ugly head when I reveal the maiden name of Mary Louise Cormican. Her maiden name is Smith, Mary Louise Smith.  Since Mary Louise died in 1924  and was born in 1853, it is difficult to track her down prior to her marriage, especially since her name is so common. There are literally hundreds of Mary Smith's in the US Census during that time with births of 1852-1854 in Indiana.

Strike One!

Next week, I will tell you what steps I have taken to resolve this brick wall.

I plan to release a new step or brick wall every Wednesday.