Local Research Findings

Well, it is time to do some more research. I decide to go to the funeral home that held Grandpa's funeral to see if they had any known information on record. Strange thought to find information there, but leave no stone unturned when researching, and to my surprise they do hold an archive of what is called a 'death call sheet' on each person they have serviced. Grandpa's information didn't hold much more than what his obit said, but it did give Sheffield as his place of birth and his complete birthday. Next I decide to go to the Legion he was a member at and they also had his membership form. This gave me his occupation and some military information. I go back to the library and research the old phone books and find where he lived and what occupations he held but no other leads. More than ever now, I want to see what he looked like. All these papers are just words...

Documents found on Grandpa during my local research

I then had heard there were books at the museum called, "Books of Remembrance" on soldiers of our county from both great wars. They were compiled by our I.O.D.E. ladies many many years ago. I decide to see if they had anything on Grandpa in the books, as some pages even had photos of the soldier. So I make an appointment in advance giving her the names of all the relatives that were soldiers. A week later, I head over hoping Grandpa is in the book - with a photo. They bring up all the Parkers listed in the books for WWI on their computer (as they had the books digitized) and we seen no William. She then says, we do have a Harry right here. I look and said, "oh no, the other names I gave are his sons, and would have been in the later wars." (This is a moment I flash back to every now and then.) So they search for his sons in the other book, and found uncle Harry and uncle Charles's sheets. Uncle Harry's sheet had a photo but not uncle Charles. She then says they have a genealogy section of folders that are donated by the public, and brings me out more info. I think Uncle Bob must have given these to the museum, as I have been told he was a frequent visitor at the library, and heavily involved in the legion. Plus he never did marry or have children, so he likely would have wanted these preserved if he had no one to leave them to. The folders held photos and clippings related to his military service, and a clipping of my Dad sitting with Miss USA Bonds, while recovering from a 'shot' foot. Not sure why he would be recovering in the US, but that is where he was during recovery. So I get copies of it all, and I leave disappointed not finding anything on Grandpa...but quite happy to have more documents and photos on my family...  

Documents and photos of my family gathered from our local museum.

From here I could not figure out where else locally to go to find information on Grandpa, so I head back to the internet and input all I had gathered on him. There are many forums online, and I decided to put in everything I knew and hope for the best.