52 Ancestors Week 16: Air

Question

Time for the next 52 Ancestors challenge...

Please share with us a profile of an ancestor or relative who matches this week's theme:

Air

Share below.

You don't need to share every week to participate, but those who do will earn badges. If this is your first time participating and you don't have the participation badge, or if you pass a milestone (13 shared profiles in 13 weeks, 26 in 26, or 52 in 52) let us know here. For more about the challenge, click here.

Comments

The Four Elements

Just FYI, the above link gives interesting relationships to the elements Air, Fire, Water, and Earth. Air has the following classical connections:

Shakespeare: Thought
Blake: Shame and Fear
Yeats: Logical Thought
general: Liberty and Movement

Other things associated with Air are Giants, Eagles, Monkeys, and Rainbows.

I'll file this under, Things I Didn't Know. 

---

@Eowyn. If we continue with Earth for next week's theme, that would suit me fine.

---

Yeah, I'm already trying to think of a good "earth" picture or story ...

Answer 1

On the back of this photo is written--"The "Slic Chic" 50 minutes before she went down on May 29, 1945"--This was the B-29 that my father MSgt.Chick Lovelace was killed on during a mission to Yokohama, Japan. The plane was hit by so much flack in the air that when it hit the ocean it split in the middle, and my father, who was the flight engineer, and the three gunners did not survive.

 

Comments

Dear Alexis, it always breaks my heart to hear about your dad. Thank you for sharing this photo and his story.

---

Thank you Robin for your sweet comment.

---

So sad. I love your profile of him.

---

What a magnificent photo Alexis

---

Thank you Shirley, one of my most favorite things about WikITree is they way it allows the profiles to honor our veterans.

---

Thank you Susan. I do not know how my mother got this photo, but it is her handwriting on the back.

Answer 2

I got 2! My grandmother Sarah Jane Rogers kept her kids out of school to go see Robert Fowler’s Wright biplane when he landed in Auburn California. Fowler later participated in a cross country flying contest, and was the first person to traverse the United States from the West Coast to the East Coast, though he didn’t get the 50K prize as he finished after the cut off date.  My second one is just for fun :) Bert Simmons, though not a relative, was integral with the family in many ways. I tripped over this Oct 16, 1920 article when looking into my grandmother's arrest records. He must have been a fun sort! 

Answer 3

The person I want to highlight this week is my grandfather, William Barber Morgan II, who lived from 1872 to 1941. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Morgan-10630 

My grandpa never flew in an airplane, but he saw all the changes that occurred during his lifetime, from horse and wagon to automobile, from telegraph to telephone.   He was one of those clever 19th century men who embraced new technology to allow machines do more work on the farm.  He put a motor on a hay wagon and drove it from field to field, without the team.  He was in the same generation as Marconi, who invented radio.  We heard the stories of how the first crystal set came into the house, and the subsequent improvements. He was also in the generation of Orville and Wilbur Wright.

I have snapshots that were in my grandparents' home, that have few dates and names on them.  One is of an airplane that had landed in one of the fields near their home, about WW1 era.  I don't know who took it or why it was there.  But I think it represents another of the significant changes that took place in my grandfather's life.  His mechanic's mind must have been very interested in a machine that flew in the air. 

Answer 4

A different kind of "air" story.  It's just barely in the ancestors category, since it happened to my dad (and Mom and me, as observers) in the 80's.

I was in high school, in northern Minnesota, on a rare warm, even hot, humid spring day, I think April.  Really unusual for that far north that early in the season.  As evening started, we saw storm clouds coming in, looked like rain for sure, maybe hail.

As the rain started, Dad went down to the sheep barn to get the sheep inside.  The ewes weren't sheared yet, so they had a thick layer of wool and may not seek shelter, but the lambs were young and he wanted them inside.  Mom and I stayed in the house, looking out the big picture window that faced west.  Pretty soon it got pitch dark outside, and we could only see what was happening in the lightning flashes.  At one point I saw the birch tree was bent over nearly sideways, but the odd part was I thought it was bending the other way before.  Another lightning flash and we saw it was bent over in a completely different direction.  Mom and I both realized maybe we shouldn't be standing in front of the big picture window...?  We started heading to the basement, and we heard a tree go down.  Get halfway down, and a crash as a window was broken (a small one, luckily, in the TV room).

We stay in the basement until it sounded like it had blown past.  Going upstairs, we looked out and saw a big popple tree down in the back yard, and twisted sheet metal wrapped up in the branches.  If not for the tree falling, that metal would have hit the house (and the picture window, for sure).  The barn looked okay, so we figured the metal must have come from a side shed we had.

Pretty soon Dad came up to the house, and said "you must be glad to see me!"  I kind of shrugged, like a teenager would.  Turns out the barn wasn't all okay.  When in the barn, he heard the roar of a tornado approaching.  A small tornado went directly over the barn!  (At the house, we didn't notice any noise over the constant thunder).

He dove for a big post and just laid on the ground (we'll call it ground, you know what's in a barn) and held onto the post.  He said it was hard to breathe at that point.  After the tornado went by, he stood up and looked around.  The walls were intact, it looked good, but then he felt rain.  He looked up, and there was no roof!  That was what was scattered all over our lawn.  It was the back side of the barn that we couldn't see from the house.

We lost 40 trees in the yard, one window, the chimney and some siding, and the barn roof.  An oats trailer was flipped over.  There was a trail of destruction going thru the woods. But that was about it.  No loss of animals, unlike a neighbor a few miles away who lost several cows when his barn collapsed.

We later learned that if you don't call the weather service and have them inspect it, they don't count it as a tornado.  So officially, our county has only had 8 tornadoes, but I know it's at least one more than that!

Comments

Great story!

---

A tornado story! Definitely fits the theme.

Answer 5

Since I do not have any stories or photos of anyone in my family on a plane - I will have to settle for this photo of my family at the AIR-port!!  LOL.

This photo was taken at Henderson Airport in Honiara, Solomon Islands in 1979. I am on the far left aged 15.

Is 40 years "far enough back" to be considered old??  LOL

Answer 6

During the vietnam war, my dad was a helicopter machanic located in Thailand.

Asked him about it and he said that he did not work on helicopters like i thought, but on F-4 phantoms on a base near the laos/Cambodia boarder area.

Comments

Jennifer, my husband flew an HH-43 in Vietnam. Do you know what helicopters your father was the mechanic on? I loved when my husband went to Thailand, because I would get a present.

Answer 7

I created a profile for Topliff Olin Paine https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Paine-2536, the namesake of our local airport, Paine Field, which opened to commercial flights March 4, 2019.  After about a year of these, it was shut down to jet travel during the current crisis and now we hear only the occasional light plane, as we did before.  I have yet to take a flight out of my own back yard, so to speak.

Answer 8

I'd have to go with my grandpa, H. F. Barr, for this prompt due to his service in the US Army Air Corps.  He served in the Second World War and remained in the Air Corps until he was honorably discharged in 1947.  He loved to fly, but eventually returned home to help with his stepfather's business as opposed to pursuing piloting.  He retained the interest in planes he'd had since childhood and later in life he built his own models.  He made one out of cans that would have made for an impressive art project submission.

Answer 9

Major General Osmond Jay Ritland (aka Osmond O. Ritland Jr) [[Ritland-8]] began flying in the US Army Air Corps in 1932 at Randolph Field, TX. He served as a test pilot and base commander during WWII. He transferred to the US Air Force when it was created after WWII, and held positions of responsibility in the space race and the nuclear weapons capability of the Air Force. In 27 years of service, he amassed over 9400 hours of flight time. His official Air Force biography can be viewed at https://www.af.mil/About-Us/Biographies/Display/Article/105825/major-general-osmond-j-ritland/

General Ritland is my 2nd cousin, once removed. His grandfather [[Tesdahl-7|Oliver Tesdahl]] and my great-grandmother [[Tesdahl-26|Helen (Tesdahl) Christopher]] are siblings. 

Answer 10

In 1936 cousin Walter helped to improve air quality in his home town of Des Moines, Iowa. Employed through the WPA (Works Progress Administration) and the city health department, he measured density of smoke coming from the town's smokestacks.

"The city health department plans to send cards to offending building owners telling them of the nuisance, and congratulatory notes to chimney owners whose flues pass inspection", Walter E Lawrence, project supervisor, announced. — The Des Moines Register, March 27, 1936, front page.

Answer 11

Grandfather Truslow was a US Navy pilot.  He stationed at the Naval Air Station in San Diego, CA where he survived a plane crash.  He was later stationed at Naval Air Station in Pensacola, FL when he met and married my Grandmother.  In 1938, he was transferred back to San Diego and participated in a mass flight of 17 US Navy planes from San Diego to Hawaii, a distance of over 2500 miles, and completed the flight in a new record of 17 hours and 21 minutes.

Answer 12

My great great grandmother Annie Powell is a bit of a mystery.

My great grandmother's birth certificate names her father as Henry Knowles and mother as Annie Powell, I have the marriage certificate for Henry Knowles and Annie Powell which says Annie's father was Moses Powell, and Annie appears in the 1881 census which says she was born about 1849 at Ashford, Herefordshire.

I cannot find any record of Annie before she married in 1874 and nothing after 1881. It is as if she just appeared from thin air, married, had a child, and then disappeared into thin air.

Comments

Now that is cute!!  Thanks for the giggles.

Answer 13

I was the first person in my immediate family to fly in an airplane. I had uncles who had flown before, including one who was a glider pilot during WWII. However, my sister, parents, and grandparents had never been in the air before I was. In 1966 I few with a group of students to study abroad for the summer. We first boarded a prop-jet in Louisville, Kentucky and few from there to New York City. From there we flew from JFK in NYC to Gatwick in London. I had no idea what to expect on either flight; no one had prepared me for my ears popping.

We've now had Water, Fire, and Air. Is Earth next?

Answer 14

For #52Ancestors this week, I share a discovery I made about my grandfather who was a paratrooper in World War 2. https://allroadhaverhill.blogspot.com/2020/04/52-ancestors-week-16-air.html

Answer 15

Air. I'm sharing today about my great-great uncle, Cranston McCabe Bogue  - 1896-1982. He was born in Indiana, the 5th of 9 children of a circuit-riding evangelist and preacher. He served in WWI, but only for a few months. He was stationed in Denver, Colorado, part of the 297th Aero Squadron. The Aero Squadrons were a forerunner of the Air Force. It seems like he was ground crew/ mechanical support. He was back in Indiana in the 1920 census, working as a postman and living with his older brother and family (my great-grandfather and grandfather), but the next record of him is his marriage in Denver in 1924. He lived the rest of his life in Denver, and census records and WWII draft registration indicate he continued to work at the airport as a civilian. He and Hazel, his wife, never had children. My family's oral history says he was a painter. I wish I had had a chance to meet him, or even knew a little of his story when I lived in Denver in the 1990's. But it's mostly thanks to WikiTree that I was able to put together what I have.

Answer 16

Many of my ancestors who were aboard the Mayflower including Richard Warren were likely discouraged to air their grievances while aboard the ship whenever the lack of air speed caused the sails to slow down the amount of time that was expected to cross the ocean, but when they eventually heard the words "land ho!", they likely took in a big breath of fresh air and let out of sigh of relief.  I can only imagine what a sight it was to behold.

Comments

Very amusing

Answer 17

For "Air", I couldn't possibly not share my first cousin twice-removed Margaret Stewart nee Wixted (1883-1925), who left Ireland at 17, described in another relative's diary as "stubborn and self-willed", married twice and became a stunt balloonist, sadly killed when in a trick where she would jump from a balloon, cut her first parachute then deploy a second one didn't work.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Wixted-14

Answer 18

Week 16 - Air, My grandfather Bruce Watkins-6201, was very eager to join the Australian Air Force, and join the WWII war effort. He joined air cadets as a teenager, and as soon as he was old enough, and his father had given him permission, he joined. He flew in training twice, and the war ended. Quite a relief really, with the high mortality rates in pilots. We managed to get to know him and love him for many years, which chance we may have missed.

After the war, he ended up being a purchasing officer for the government, and at one stage they purchased a series of planes for the Australian Air Force, which in the office they joked, that the planes were so unreliable, that they had a 30 year warranty, or 300 yards, which ever came first.

Answer 19

I was torn about which relative to share on this one.  My mother's uncle was a WWI pilot.  The deciding factor was that my brother's birthday is coming up.  

Tom Francis enlisted in the Air Force in 1966. He became Crew Chief on a C-130, based in Taiwan.  They hauled everything from paratroopers to yaks,  literally. He had many adventures in Southeast Asia; if I hadn't followed him into the Air Force,  I would probably have heard about more of them.

These aren't in any specific order:

His trumpet was in a locker that was blown up while he was out.

He ran into a neighbor, in Saigon,  who was working at the Army's ice cream plant.

He was helping a paratrooper,  whose line was stuck,  when the line pulled him out of the plane.  He wrote home that he was in the hospital for three days for broken ribs. We had to wait until he came home on convalescent leave,  to hear the whole story.

On an airfield in Vietnam,  he had to dive into a ditch to avoid being shot at; unfortunately the fuel that had been dumped in the ditch was on fire. The skin grafts on his face were so expertly done,  that they were very difficult to see.

History repeated itself,  in a way,  years later,  when he missed a flight,  but his bags were on the plane. It was the one blown up on the runway,  in Lebanon.

He was barely into his 50's, when he died,  leaving behind smart,  wonderful children.  His grandchildren are beautiful,  too. I could fill a book with memories of my brother, which is on my list,  after I finish the one he started on our father and grandfather.

Answer 20

for this weeks theme of AIR i have used a distant ancestor that has air as the surname. it can be found here on my blog