Honoring Our Ancestors
Where's Parmo?
by Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak

As I've written before in this column, I'm a big fan of Andrew Carroll, best-selling author of Letters of a Nation and War Letters. Luckily for me, he recently came out with another book, Behind the Lines: Powerful and Revealing American and Foreign War Letters - and One Man's Search to Find Them. I explained about Andy's Legacy Project and his worldwide journeys to gather war letters in an earlier article entitled "Seeking Foreign War Letters." In fact, I hope that one or two of you managed to get a letter in this latest book.

In the Flesh
Recently, I had the opportunity to meet Andy when he came to speak in my area. I went already intending to purchase a couple of copies of Behind the Lines, but once I heard him relate a small sampling of the tales, I couldn't wait to read it from cover to cover.

The book includes a phony love letter by a non-existent American woman named Marion -- used as part of his cover by a German spy who was caught and eventually executed by the British.

There's an amazing eye witness account of Pearl Harbor written by William Czako to his sister: "There is only a handful of us down here as most of our men are ashore on liberty. They really caught us sleeping this time. For a ship being in a Navy Yard for overhaul, we're putting up a good fight. . . . I don't know why I am writing this because if we are hit with a bomb here -- they won't find enough of me and the rest -- let alone this letter."

A letter by a German wife to her husband's commanding officer is startlingly direct in her reasons for requesting leave for him (hint: it has to do with companionship and you can read it for yourself on pages 234-235). And there's a never-before published letter by Kurt Vonnegut, telling his family about his days as a POW.

In short, it allows you to absorb the war experience through the eyes of participants of every sort - soldier, spy, civilian, etc. - and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

A Mystery on Page 37
Of course, I read the book through the lens of a genealogist, and because of this, a comment on page thirty-five caught my attention. I had just read a letter written by a soldier from Colorado, P. Thomas Ferck, and taken in the accompanying photo of Hester Hunt (the letter's recipient) and a fellow believed to be Ferck. Tom, as he signed himself, wrote to his friend back in Denver about his "vacation" in Siberia during WWI. In the remarks that followed the letter and photo, it said, "Thomas Ferck's fate is not known for certain, but he is believed to have survived." That sounded like an invitation to do a little sleuthing to me!

Ferck seemed like an unusual name, so I began simply by searching on "Thomas Ferck" at Ancestry.com. I realized he had a first name that began with P, but not knowing what it was, I went with Thomas. A single hit proved to be his WWI draft registration card, which revealed that he was living in Colorado (so I apparently had the right fellow), had been born in Omaha, Nebraska on 23 July 1895, was slender with blue eyes and blond hair, and had weak eyes. But more importantly, I learned his first name: Parmo.

A Moving Target
Parmo? Parmo Ferck? I tried entering "Parmo Ferck" and came up with three hits this time. There was his WWI draft registration again, a reference to a book about Colorado Soldiers in WWI, and a 1900 census from Brooklyn, New York. Wait a minute -- what would a Nebraska-born future soldier from Colorado be doing in Brooklyn? I clicked through to the census image and there he was -- Parmo in the big city along with his Danish-born parents, Soren and Amelia, a brother and a pair of sisters. I knew it was the right Parmo because he was five years old and born in Nebraska. This family got around! Denmark, Nebraska, New York, Colorado . . .

I decided to follow them forward in time, but came up empty when I searched on their first names and Ferck. Thinking that Ferck might be an easy name to misspell, I tried "Parmo Ferc*" and "Thomas Ferc*." One listing for the 1930 census caught my eye - Thomas P. Ferch in Los Angeles, California. I checked it, and sure enough, there was our Parmo with his family, apparently back from Siberia, but now in California. Add another state to the family's collection.

I later backed up and found the family in 1920 in Colorado under "Doren Ferch" instead of Soren Ferck, so Parmo had at least been able to return to his beloved Colorado for a while before heading further West.

What Became of Parmo?
So I knew he had survived, but what happened after the war? Finding him in California, I hoped that maybe he had stayed put, and the California death index showed that he had. Thomas P. Ferch died in Los Angeles County on 30 August 1963.

I continued to dig in the California death index a while longer to locate the deaths of his parents and one sister. Through other resources, I located his father's 1947 obituary and the fact that Parmo/Thomas had apparently divorced in 1955.

At this point, I suppose I should have let it go, but curiosity got the better of me, so I did a little more detective work. His father's obituary gave me married names for his sisters, so I "worked" the California birth indexes as well as some online phone directories until I located a niece and a nephew. What the heck - I had come this far. Why not call the family? I dialed his niece, who couldn't have been more gracious, and was unaware that her uncle's letter was in this book. She was very pleased to hear from me and anxious to call a cousin who's into genealogy, but before we got off the phone, she rounded out my quickly sketched profile of Parmo by telling me that he had become a forest ranger and loved that work. Yes, he had married, but had no children. And oh, by the way, he always hated the name Parmo.

Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak, co-author (with Ann Turner) of Trace Your Roots with DNA: Using Genetic Tests to Explore Your Family Tree (as well as In Search of Our Ancestors, Honoring Our Ancestors and They Came to America), can be contacted through www.genetealogy.com and www.honoringourancestors.com.

Upcoming Events Where Megan Will Be Speaking

• Monmouth County Genealogical Society
  (November 13, 2005, NJ)
• Haddon Heights Historical Society
  (January 17, 2006, Haddon Heights, NJ)
• Brooklyn Public Library
  (January 21, 2006, Brooklyn, NY)
• Charlotte County Genealogical Society
  (March 11, 2006, Port Charlotte, FL)
• Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Philadelphia
  (April 10, 2006, Elkins Park, PA)
• Virginia Genealogical Society
  (April 22, 2006, Location TBD)

Details and links to upcoming events: http://www.honoringourancestors.com/schedule.html

Copyright 2005, MyFamily.com. All rights reserved.

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Honoring the Veterans in Your Family Tree

We at Ancestry.com offer our sincere thanks to all the veterans who have served and who are serving our country this Veterans' Day.

To help you in honoring the veterans in your family tree, we have put together some helpful links in the Ancestry.com Library.

Ancestry Quick Tip
Tombstone in France
William Fehlinger

There are many discussions about how to be able to take pictures of a gravestone. Wire brushes, scrapers, chemicals and many other things that could actually harm the stone.

I have an uncle that was killed in WWI in 1918 and is buried in an American Military cemetery in France. All of the Christian crosses and Star of David stones are a pure white composition stone -- possibly a marble.

When I visited there a few years ago, I was told of the grave site and was met by the man in charge of the cemetery. He placed a American Flag next to the stone and had a container with very fine brown sand that was wet. He rubbed it into the inscriptions on the stone and I took my pictures. When I asked him about cleaning it up, he replied that the fine sand would dry, fall out and be washed by nature with rain, thus no damage to the stone.

I have some great pictures of that stone with fourteen thousand others. A proud, tearful occasion.

Thanks to William for today's Quick Tip! If you have a tip you would like to share with researchers, you can send it to: ADNeditor@ancestry.com

Quick Tips may be reprinted, with credit to the submitter, in other Ancestry publications, so if you do not want your tip included in a publication other than the Ancestry Daily News and Ancestry Weekly Digest, please state so clearly in your message.

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Clipping of the Day
World War I Ends
Evening Telegram (Elyria, Ohio), 11 November 1918, page 1:

HUNS ARE DONE!
ARMISTICE SIGNED!
WAR IS OVER!

Elyria Goes Wild Again with Joy at the Big News of the Surrender

8:30 A.M. Extra

Mayor Jones made a speech in the park at 8:15 in which he officially "threw away the keys to the city."

"You can do as you like," he said, "Anything which would not be offensive to the boys 'over there' and to the President of the United States."

The armistice establishing a cessation of hostilities in the great world war was officially signed at midnight or 5 o'clock Monday morning, Paris time. Hostilities were to cease under the agreement at 11 o'clock today.

As soon as the news was flashed to Elyria, Mayor Jones called up three Cleveland newspaper offices and verified the information, making quite sure that there was no question about it this time. Before 4:30 the fire bells were ringing and a great crowd soon assembled.

Before six o'clock a big parade was started by a drum corps and girls carrying red lights. Whistles were blown, bells rang and all the customary concomitants of a characteristic Elyria celebration were soon in evidence, and sleeping Elyria awakened to hear the glorious tidings.

The great war in the history of the world is over. Elyria mothers can rejoice today in the knowledge that their boys are coming back!

Subscribers with access to the Historical Newspapers Collection can view this clipping.

Subscribe to the Historical Newspapers Collection at Ancestry.com.

Fast Fact
Upcoming Online Genealogy Classes at MyFamily.com

For $29.95 (unless otherwise marked), each class includes:

• Four weeks of lessons and interaction with a genealogy expert.
• 30-day free access to applicable Ancestry.com collections. (For details on which collections will be available, see the individual class descriptions.)
• Tips and advice on how to find ancestors online.
• Lessons through site interaction and worksheets.
• Ability to create your family tree using Online Family Tree software and downloadable genealogy forms.
• Collaboration with other site members to grow your family tree over the course of a year.

To learn more about these classes, see George G. Morgan's article from the 11 July 2003 Ancestry Daily News.

Upcoming Classes

• Adoption Investigative Course ($199.95)
  17 November 2005 with Linda Rakita
• Northeastern United States Research Class
  17 November 2005 with Cindy Rowzee
• Writing My Family History/Newsletter Class
  17 November 2005 with Cindy Rowzee
• Genealogical Research on the Internet Class
  24 November 2005 with George G. Morgan

More Classes:

• Basic Slovak Genealogy Research Class, 05 January 2006
• United States Great Lakes Region Class, 05 January 2006
• Immigration and Naturalization Research Class, 05 January 2006
• Basic Family Tree Maker 2006 Class, 05 January 2006

For the complete list of genealogy classes with links, see: http://www.myfamily.com/gentraining

Click here for a list of investigative courses.

Product Spotlights

		U.S. Military Records: A Guide to Federal & State Sources by James C. Neagles Normally this book retails for $39.95, but today you can buy it in the Shops@Ancestry.com for only $29.95.

Thought for Today
Abraham Lincoln

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that "all men are created equal."

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of it, as a final resting place for those who died here, that the nation might live. This we may, in all propriety do. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow, this ground -- The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have hallowed it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here; while it can never forget what they did here.

It is rather for us, the living, we here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that, from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here, gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve these dead shall not have died in vain; that the nation, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

---19 November 1863 in the "Gettysburg Address"