Sepia Saturday 741. First in a series about 1943 letters from my dad’s brother Frederic Mason Charboneau while he was in the US Army during WWII.
One challenge that family historians grapple with is teasing out the inter-relationships that existed among the family members and friends of our ancestors and collateral relatives.
How to discover kinship and friendship connections so many generations later?
That’s where diaries and letters prove invaluable — such as the WWII letters home from my paternal uncle Frederic Mason Charboneau.
Uncle Fred’s letters were written to his mother, Mary (Owen) Charboneau. Since he was barred from mentioning military details he often turned to writing about family and friends — especially at holiday time when he cataloged the gifts and cards he had received.
Nearly a year in this man’s army
“Somewhere in North Africa, January 1, 1943, Dear Mom, Well here it is another year and almost a year since I have been in this man’s army,” Fred wrote. “To begin with, I received the two boxes of candy from Loft’s and also the box of spreads and jellies from New York. By the way, did you buy that from Franklin Simon?“
“The reason I ask is this,” he continued. “The package itself came from a firm called Canteen Goodies, and the same day that I got it, the mailman found a card in the bag with my name on it, with the card signed Mom and Dad, and Franklin Simon’s name on the envelope. There wasn’t a sign of any other package, and the package that I did get was broken open on one end, but there wasn’t anything missing. Let me know when you write about this.“
Family and friends network
Uncle Fred followed this with a list of who else he had also heard from and what they had sent him, including this short, but interesting, passage:
“I received a flashlight from Hubert and Doris, and also a couple of books from Nora and Mr. and Mrs. Desjardins,” he wrote. “Also, Christmas cards from Mae, Genevieve, and Dewey and Beulah.”
Hubert and Doris were Fred’s middle brother and his wife. Mr. and Mrs Desjardins were the in-laws of Fred’s oldest brother Owen (married to their daughter Aline) — as well as long-time neighbors. Nora was likely Aline’s sister, Nora (Desjardins) Dibbins, also a neighbor, who was a high school teacher of French and English, according to the 1950 US Census.1FamilySearch requires free login to view records.
Mae was likely Mae (Charbonneau) Van Ry — a cousin of Fred’s father Wm. Ray Charboneau. She grew up in Camden, N.Y., and I recognized her name from family history research. Dewey Charboneau was Wm. Ray’s brother (and Fred’s uncle), who lived in Dolgeville, N.Y., with his wife Beulah and her daughter Genevieve Kany. They all worked at the Daniel Green shoe factory, according to the 1950 US Census.2FamilySearch requires free login to view records.
Hube, Doris, Owen and Aline — and even Aline’s, mother, who we called Ma Mère — I had known as a child. But the others, whose names I had only seen on documents, came alive as part of Uncle Fred’s family and friends network. So did Fred’s future wife, Jean Bastow, who I don’t remember meeting.
A billfold from Saks Fifth Avenue
“Did I tell you that Jean Bastow got me a nice billfold?” Fred asked. “She bought it at Saks so I imagine it is a pretty good one. It was the only one that I had for Christmas.”
In his next letter, dated Jan. 9, 1943, Fred wrote, “I also received a letter from Jean Bastow today. It was kind of an odd situation. She started off by thanking me for the present, and I didn’t even know what it was that I sent her. [Fred had asked his mother to arrange the gift]. But she went on to say that it was her favorite candy and when I opened your letter, I found out what it was.”
In the same letter he mentioned a few more gifts. “Today I received the Jack knife from Viv [Vivian Norton from Otter Lake] and the scarf and picture from Franny and Marion [Fred’s second oldest brother and wife]. I imagine the rest of my packages will be along in a little while as the APO is just jammed with mail.”
Of course I knew Uncle Franny and Aunt Marion, but not family friend Viv Norton — a great pal of my grandfather Wm. Ray — who my dad used to talk about.
These two letters from Uncle Fred were invaluable in establishing some long-ago family/friend connections — and also underscoring how important gifts, cards and letters were to the troops stationed far from home during WWII.
Up next: More of Uncle Fred’s 1943 letters. Please stop back! Meanwhile, please visit the other intrepid bloggers over at Sepia Saturday
© 2024 Molly Charboneau. All rights reserved.
Totally agree; journals and diaries are invaluable! I’m still amazed that he was able to get so many letters, cards, and gifts oversees without any mixups or loss! 🙂
I am, too! Initially, the mail service was a hot mess. It was a special battalion of African American service women who eliminated the backlog in record time and saw that service members received their mail, which I wrote about in a previous blog post.
What wonderful letters. We have a few from my father-in-law while he was in England.
How fortunate you are! I have only one letter from my dad while he was in the WWII Navy. Alas, he was not as prolific as his brother, Uncle Fred.
It’s so nice to get a glimpse into the lives of those who served in the military. My grandmother received V-mail letters from her friend who was an Army nurse stationed in England in WWII. One she wrote on VE day and talked about how the soldiers were behaving. It’s great you can tease out the connections. It really does bring those folks back to life.
Thanks, Nancy. Teasing out the connections was fun. I knew many of the names from genealogy research, but Uncle Fred’s letters reveal the inter-relationships that research sometimes misses.
I can easily imagine Fred’s delight when he received his mail. He seems to enjoy the game of sorting out the timing and news of his correspondents. Many wartime postcards (mostly WW1) have dates, codes and numbers added to the message show a sequence of a writer’s letters and to acknowledge family members that their mail was received.
Your comment on the genealogist’s puzzle on figuring out the inter-relationships of family and friends hit home with me as I’ve been struggling to dispose of several generations of old postcards, letters, and, of course, thousands of photos. Recently I realized that I am now, sadly, the only person who can remember the who, what, when of my family’s relationships. It’s required a new set of harsh rules about ephemera as I can’t save everything. Holiday greeting, school pictures, vacation postcards are easy to discard. But what about notes about marriages, births, deaths? Those are harder to toss. There is something about the handwritten letter that feels more personal than any email or text message.
Very interesting about those postal codes added to postcards. As for family ephemera, you may want to consider digitizing the letters, etc. then donating the originals to a historical society or family history library — particularly if they mention family members. They often capture typical correspondence from an era in history and may be of interest to repostories.
How long was your uncle Fred away from home?
Uncle Fred was in the U.S. Army from 1941-43 (3 years), which included basic training in the states before he was stationed abroad.
My generation still appreciates the enormous efforts many Americans made to liberate Europe. Your Uncle Fred spent three years of his life doing so. Many sacrificed the most precious thing they had. There is an American cemetery here (Margraten) with over 8,000 graves. Seeing all these white crosses there gives an immensely sad feeling. In a way, your Uncle Fred has been lucky to survive, hopefully without too many traumas.
I went and read about the American cemetery in Margraten after reading your comment. So moving that families have adopted every fallen soldier’s grave and continue to visit decades later. Thank you for sharing this information.
From his letters it sounds like the mail was kept up pretty well – especially at that busy time of year. And receiving those gifts & cards would have meant so much to Fred & the all the other fellows.
The APO must have been very busy with all the holiday mail. Amazing how it all reached the troops, even if a package was dinged, as Uncle Fred mentioned.
Gifts are a good way to establish those connections for sure.
Totally! It sent me off on a new bit of research to identify people and make the connections.