The home movies I’ve been digitizing have opened the memory vaults, which is interesting because the first few reels were shot before I was born.
The appearance of the first Mueller house, which I never lived in and have never seen the inside of, struck me with its resemblance to the house I grew up in. The patterns on the floor were different, but the colors were very similar. There was plenty of wood paneling throughout, too. I saw more than a few pieces of furniture and kitchen accessories that I’d long forgotten about, like two cookie jars and some cane-bottom chairs. There’s a rug in the living room that lived in my bedroom for the longest time.
One disappointment in this second film was that despite my dad’s notes that some of it was shot in New Orleans, Nan didn’t make an appearance. I haven’t looked at the note cards in the other movies to see if she appears. I hope she does.
A third film that I converted this week had some New Orleans footage, but nothing of Nan in that one, either.
Another Genealogy Find
There’s an iconic World War 2 photo of the last moments of a B-24H Liberator bomber over Germany, taken 20 November 1944. The aircraft, 41-28853, was hit by flak near the left wing root. The hit ruptured the fuel tank, and the plane erupted in flames. The photo shows the ship rolling over on its back as the left wing peels away. Statements in the Missing Air Crew Report reported only a single parachute as the plane went down. I later learned that about half the crew survived.
I know this because my uncle Robert Ross Cahal wrote a witness statement for the Missing Air Crew Report.
When I turned my Ancestry subscription back on, I regained access to Fold3, which controls access to a huge quantity of military records. I haven’t had much luck finding things pertaining to my family there, but I’ll still occasionally search for them. It was one of those random searches this week that turned up the MACR link. It startled me at first, because while I knew Uncle Ross had flown Liberators in World War Two, I was pretty sure he’d never been shot down. Once I clicked through to the report, I recognized the photo from stories about the air war over Europe.
According to the 465th Bombardment Group’s alumni website, the 783rd Bombardment Squadron—Ross’s squadron—lost aircraft, 91 men killed and 182 captured out of about 2,200 over the course of their combat tour.
The other officer who wrote a statement in the MACR died just a few months later.
It’s not surprising that Uncle Ross didn’t talk about his experiences.
Follow the Lead
This is another example of how genealogy investigation can work.
The MACR created a bunch of leads for me. I now have my uncle’s serial number, which I can use to request his records from the NPRC. Like my wife’s uncle, Ross’s records were likely lost in the 1973 NPRC fire, but with his serial number, I can make a request for archived records that will help me rebuild his history. I also have his unit information: 783rd Bombardment Squadron (Heavy) of the 465th Bombardment Group. The Group has a fairly informational website where I may even be able to find out what aircraft he flew.
There are 14 surviving airframes out of the 18,482 Liberators built during the war. It’s ridiculously unlikely that his airframe survived, but wouldn’t it be cool if it did?
I’m going to make a point to see Diamond Lil the next time she’s anywhere close. Then again, she lives in Dallas, and that’s only a 4-5 hour drive…
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