To celebrate the launch of my new Facebook page for my genealogy business, Grit & Grace Genealogy, I am excited to offer a fantastic giveaway - a DNA Testing Kit from MyHeritage! 

 

It's easy to enter - just like the Grit & Grace Genealogy page and share the giveaway post. 

 

One winner will be drawn on Saturday, December 23rd. I will mail the kit out to the winner that afternoon or arrange local pickup.

In November we remember . . .

 

November . . . one of my favorite months of the year. The beginning of the holiday season and gathering with family. It is also the month that always get me thinking . . . remembering...  my grandfather, Dwight Washburn. 

Saying that I remember him at this time of year seems a bit odd to me as I don't really remember him in my own memories. He had passed away before I was ever born. 

Dwight Washburn at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, 1954

Dwight served in the United States Army Corps of Engineers during the Korean War. So, November always makes me think of him as Veterans Day rolls around.  I would love to be able to sit down with him and talk about his service.

 

Dwight was oversees November 1954 and sent home a copy of their Thanksgiving menu to my grandmother. My dad kept it tucked away with a box of Dwight's service medals and other momentos. 

 So, I always remember Dwight later in the month too, as Thanksgiving nears. What was Thanksgiving like that year? Did he enjoy the more unusual items on the menu like shrimp cocktails? Or was he comforted by the reminders of home - roast turkey, dressing, and giblet gravy? What was the holiday like for my grandmother, at home with three young daughters under the age of 3?

 Dwight returned home to the Midwest, and he and my grandmother had 4 more children including my dad, the youngest of their family. Dwight passed away in March of 1977 when he was just 44 years old.