Don't you just love it when you come across a part of history with which you're not very familiar?

Question

Just though I'd see if anyone else felt this way. Just now while doing some ancestors on a new POW tree, I came across one of his people who had fought with "Black Jack" Pershing in the Mexican Punitive Expedition in 1917. In all the years I've worked on thousands of people, this is a first for me. Now I have to take time to learn about that little piece of our history. For me, this is what makes genealogy so interesting. Of course, my university degree is in Art HIstory which is History too and it makes sense that I would be interested, but I bet a lot of you are too! Of course I have heard of Pancho Villa (even saw his TINY coat in a museum in Mexico City years ago), but I've never gone into depth. Oh boy, new fun!!

Comments

Hi Darlene, very interesting, a new one for me too.

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Sorry Rodney, I was so excited, I put the wrong person's profile #.  This is part of my on-going project with Vietnam guys.

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you are the right lady for the job

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Interesting. I have gotten more interested in history since beginning to work on genealogy. My degree is in geography and I find myself going off on tangents learning about where all these people lived.

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Not to mislead anyone over trivialities, I think the coat I saw belonging to the tiny person was probably Zapata, who was also a leader in their Revolution. Looked like it belonged to a child. Anyone know the right answer to this?  Silly triviality, I know. Too hot to think much today here in Nevada.

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Kay, don't you think that probably keeps the old brain cells stimulated and running? My lovely Aunt Carol always tells me that the reason we don't remember things so well at our "interesting" ages is because we have so much loaded into our brains that we have to sort through. I've adopted it and have decided it's my story and I'm definitely sticking to it when I have those "senior moments."

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Sometimes those side trips make me pleased that I live in the present day. The 1911 UK census revealed that my great aunt and her husband worked at a mental asylum near London. What they must have seen, and perhaps what they had to do for or with their patients is quite scary on one hand and enlightened on the other. The husband was a gardener's apprentice on an earlier census and the patients at this hospital grew their own food. Being out in the garden may have been the perfect cure for some people.

Answer 1

Love those side trips into different histories. We can sometimes be too single focused on our own research and miss these opportunities. My big side trip is adding all the WWI killed in action from New Brunswick, Canada. Started when I found a great uncle had been killed. Each one sends me down other roads to understand more about that time.

Thank you for working on Vietnam era.

Answer 2

I once spent an uncomfortable few hours in Pancho Villa State Park in Columbus, NM (within 3 miles of the Mexican border).  Shortly after pitching our tent, the whole park flooded about six inches deep.  We chucked our soggy tent and soggy dogs in the 4Runner and headed north.

My Mom used to tell us that her father was with Pershing, and the Villistas stole his uniform.  I later found out Grandpa was not in the Army at the time (although he did enlist later).  Beware family lore as a source!