Patriotic Past



For those of you who may not have heard, last week was Flag Day.  Falling only 8 short days after D-Day's remembrance, I find myself yearning for the stories of my family members that were once either in the military or gave their life for this country. 



My Dad (left) during Vietnam



Last year as I was just beginning my conversion of my materials over to ancestry.com, I came across the cemetery of my great-great-grandfather, John Robert Jordan, in Rochester, New York- in the most famed Mount Hope Cemetery.  I wish I could say that he was buried directly next to the Anthonys (Susan B. Anthony's family) or the Douglasses (Fredrick Douglass's family), but I found out he was in fact buried somewhere much more notably than that.  He was buried in the Civil War section of the cemetery.  My heart jumped for joy!  A member of my family had fought in the Union Army during the Civil War, something I thought was only in history books. 

William Gilbert Edge-
Died during WWI

Also last fall as I went through my grandmother's strategically placed photographs, I came across a photo I will forever cherish.  It is a photo of my grandmother standing next to a white cross.  What is ironic is that it is the first time my grandmother had ever visited the burial grounds of my great-grandfather's grave, because when he left on a boat headed to France during the closing months of World War I, my grandmother was only two months old.  Unfortunately, on his way to the war front as a Quaker "nurses aid", my great-grandfather contracted the flu and died.  His life's story never has though.

Uncle Lafayette

Just as I have always thought that teaching is a skill or love that is passed down from generation to generation in a family, I have also come to the realization that participating in the military is also passed down through the generations.  Yes, I know there are things like the draft that skew this claim; however, the passing down of the stories to younger generations has to affect them somehow.  Thank you to all of my family members, both past and present, that have helped preserved the stories of our great nation.  Every time I see Old Glory flying, I will pause and think of you and your sacrifices.