Archive for the ‘Orphaned Family Treasures’ Category

“On Sunday afternoon, 19 Feb 1969, I had the misfortune of hearing Early, SFC Robert Wimp, and Captain Edwin Ackerman voluntarily charge into the rice paddies with a small SVN popular force team to repel a VC patrol.  I listened to them courageously engage in a fierce fire fight, and request helicopter gun ship support.  Then all at once I heard them caught up in an ambush with no way to escape.”

transcribed by Sherry Stocking Kline
Monday, May 31, 2010

Some time ago at a yard sale (it’s that time of year again!) I picked up a box of photographs and other memorabilia, and I spent quite a bit of time then and a few times since, figuring out the family names, finding out what names were on the photos and also learning what cities and towns the photographs were taken in. Tucked in with the photos was the following clipping.

This tiny news article contains heartbreaking news…

Death Notice of Sgt. Robert Wimp

On the Paper:

Deaths and Services

Sgt. Robert Wimp

Mrs. Fred Newland received news of the death of her brother, Sgt. Robert Wimp, in the Mekong Delta of South Vietnam, on Thursday, Feb 20.

Sgt. Wimp had just returned last week after an emergencey leave when he was called home by the death of his father.

Sgt. Wimp would have completed his second tour of duty this year.

What a heartbreaking news is contained in this tiny little note. Mrs. Fred Newland and her brother had just buried their father, and then Sgt. Wimp had returned to South Vietnam to finish his tour of duty when he was killed, leaving Mrs. Newland to mourn the loss of her father and her brother.

Is the “69” Part of the Newspaper’s Date?

This piece of the paper does not have a date on it, for sure, but I think perhaps the little “69” shown in the upper left hand corner next to the “Deaths and Services” Title might be part of the newspaper’s date.

This short article doesn’t say, but it certainly leads you to wonder if Sgt. Wimp’s loss played a role in his death in some way.

Hopefully, after our KCGS Conference date is past, I will have time to research this box of “orphan treasures” and get them to a good home.

And if someone reading this is part of Sgt. Wimp’s family, please leave me a note!

Additional info: Ah, I love genealogy friends!  What you don’t know, or know how to do, they kindly step in and provide!  Carol Yates Wilkerson, of http://ipentimento.com, family history and genealogy, looked it up on the Vietnam Wall site and said that he did die in 1969. http://thewall-usa.com/info.asp?recid=56872 Now, to find some living family members!

by Sherry Stocking Kline
11 April 2010

Just over a year ago, I picked up a box of photographs at a yard sale.  (they did not belong to the family who was selling them)

Off and on, I’ve worked on trying to locate information about the ‘inhabitants’ of this box, researching the census, etc., but lately I’ve just not taken/made/had the time to do much with it.

So I’ve decided to start posting some of the photographs and other info here, on the off chance that someone will find the posts and I can at last re-unite at least some of the memories with the family who will love to have them.

The names in the box include Wimp and Newland, and the towns include Blackwell, Oklahoma, Wellington, Kansas, and Eads, Colorado.

Wilma Erma Ford Marries Fred Walter Newland

And yes, if we are able to re-unite these family treasures with their family, I’ll be posting about it right here!

by Sherry Stocking Kline
August 30, 2009

Written for FamilyTreeWriter.com after finding a family’s photographic treasures in a yard sale….

Call me crazy, but I love to garage sale.  Go to them.  Not have them.

So one lazy Friday afternoon when I was on my way to somewhere else I spotted a yard sale, slammed on the brakes, jumped out of the car, and went over to see if there was anything I couldn’t live without.

Not much. But there among the mismatched glasses and old pillow cases was a box of photographs with $2.00 written on the box flap.

I looked at the folks holding the yard sale, and trying not to sound like they’d just put a price tag on one of their children, I asked, “You’re selling your photographs?”

“No,” they answered, “they were here when we moved into the house.”

“Oh,” I answered, and feeling better I thumbed through the photographs. Some were old, maybe even early 1900’s old. Some appeared to have been taken in the 1930’s and judging by the clothes, crew-cuts, and cars, they seemed to continue up through the 50’s and 60’s.

Naturally, most were without names.

I walked around, browsed the other tables, but that box kept calling my name. Honest, it just pulled me back to it.

No matter how good or bad, my family photographs are treasures, bits and pieces of our lives, snapshots of our memories. This was someone else’s box of memories, someone else’s babies, someone else’s high school graduation, and someone else’s vacations. Surely somewhere there was someone who would be glad to have them back.

I started to pick up the box, all the while muttering under my breath, “You don’t have time,” “You may not find the family,” and “You’ve got enough to do preserving your own family history.”

But I’m pretty good at playing devil’s advocate, too. “Remember how you nearly cried when that elderly third cousin on your mom’s side that you just located told you she’d thrown her own family photos (your own family photos, too) away?”  “Remember how excited you were when another new-found cousin gave you a photograph of your great-grandparents and you saw their faces for the first time.”

Then, my final winning argument, “if you can’t find the family(s) you can always send the photos to DeadFred.com, a website for ‘orphan’ photographs, as well as a place to upload your own ancestors.

“I’m a genealogist,” I said, explaining that I would like to take them and find their family.

“Do you have any idea who these belong to,” I asked. And that’s when the lady brought out the high school autograph book she found among the photographs and let me go through it. A few had signed their first and last names (a genealogist’s dream) and one or two included the city, state, and date, “Senior 1936” and “Eads, Colorado.” Eureka!   Helpful clues.

So that did it. I was hooked and reeled in.

Ever the bargainer, I asked if they would take a dollar for it.

“Sure,” they said. I had a plan and a fall-back plan if I couldn’t find the family. So after I copied the information from the autograph book onto a raggedy envelope I had in my purse, I packed up the box, brought it home, and set about planning my next move.