Uncle Albert was stationed aboard the destroyer tender USS Dobbin (AD-3), which was at anchor in Pearl Harbor on the morning of 7 December, 1941. According to records, the ship took shrapnel damage in the attack, and several crewmen were injured; one of them was apparently Uncle Albert, because he later was in hospital on 12 December when he wrote a letter home.
Dobbin was moored northeast of Ford Island with five destroyers alongside, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor 7 December 1941. Dive bombers singled out this nest, and fragments from near misses killed three men and wounded several others on board the tender. Concentrated antiaircraft fire from Dobbin and the destroyers broke up a second attack before any additional damage was done. Throughout the attack, Dobbin's boats plied the waters of the harbor, rescuing survivors from burning and sinking ships.
http://www.hazegray.org/danfs/auxil/ad3.htm
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Friday, June 10, 2011
Reflections for Father's Day
As an only child, my dad & I had a special relationship. My first clear memory is of the two of us standing in my "playroom" (really a gigantic walk-in closet in our apartment). Technically, he was the one standing, holding me up to the window. This must have been some time around 1955 or '56, because shortly after that we moved to Alameda.
Anyway, we were looking out the window at the moon. He was telling me about how the moon was going to start changing colors, how it would soon be the color of a new penny. He explained that this was called an "eclipse of the moon", and it didn't happen often, but it was much more common than an eclipse of the sun. I remember being fascinated as we watched the slow progression, as the earth's shadow covered the moon and turned it to a dark coppery red.
What didn't occur to 5-year-old me was that my dad had a 9th-grade education. He had to drop out and get a full-time job to help support his 9 brothers and sisters. He never stopped learning, though. We would watch science and nature shows together. I remember watching a local science show hosted by the director (I think) of the California Academy of Sciences. We were particularly fond of space exploration (this was even before Sputnik was launched!).
A brief digression: Back then, there weren't very many channels on TV, but what they had was excellent. The TV stations were all across the Bay, in San Francisco: 4 (NBC), 5 (CBS), and 7 (ABC). Channel 9 (PBS) came on in the late '50s or early '60s, and I could watch lots of classroom TV programs. Also in the early '60s came Channel 2, an independent station based in Oakland. (If we got any Dumont network programs, they may have been shown on Channel 7. I know I saw a lot of programs that originated there, but I don't recall if they were originals or reruns.)
Anyway, I can recall watching TV with my dad all my life. He would watch the cartoons with me on weekends, and the westerns. He loved westerns. He liked "Gunsmoke" in particular. In the mid-'50s there were a lot of documentaries shown about World War II, and we would watch those. I can recall watching one show, probably "Victory at Sea", about a big naval battle in the Soiuth Pacific, and during a break, he quietly told me that he had been on one of the islands near the battle. I asked if it was loud, and he just gave me a sad smile and said, "Yup, very loud" in that softened East Texas drawl that he never completely lost.
We always watched "Wild Kingdom" together, too. He loved shows about animals and nature. We would visit the Academy of Sciences at least twice a year (no more because he disliked driving in the City). I remember the first time we went to the Morrison Planetarium: what an absolute blast that was! It might have been their traditional "Christmas Star" program, or it might have been about the latest space program advances. Then we would prowl the halls of exhibits, and he would tell me how much he would really like to visit one of the big natural history museums back East. I always said, "Me, too, Daddy. Let's go." And he would smile down at me, knowing that it probably would never happen.
Well, I think I owe it to him to go visit one of those museums. I'm tentatively planning to go to Chicago next summer, so maybe I will be able to get to the Field Museum for him.
Anyway, we were looking out the window at the moon. He was telling me about how the moon was going to start changing colors, how it would soon be the color of a new penny. He explained that this was called an "eclipse of the moon", and it didn't happen often, but it was much more common than an eclipse of the sun. I remember being fascinated as we watched the slow progression, as the earth's shadow covered the moon and turned it to a dark coppery red.
What didn't occur to 5-year-old me was that my dad had a 9th-grade education. He had to drop out and get a full-time job to help support his 9 brothers and sisters. He never stopped learning, though. We would watch science and nature shows together. I remember watching a local science show hosted by the director (I think) of the California Academy of Sciences. We were particularly fond of space exploration (this was even before Sputnik was launched!).
A brief digression: Back then, there weren't very many channels on TV, but what they had was excellent. The TV stations were all across the Bay, in San Francisco: 4 (NBC), 5 (CBS), and 7 (ABC). Channel 9 (PBS) came on in the late '50s or early '60s, and I could watch lots of classroom TV programs. Also in the early '60s came Channel 2, an independent station based in Oakland. (If we got any Dumont network programs, they may have been shown on Channel 7. I know I saw a lot of programs that originated there, but I don't recall if they were originals or reruns.)
Anyway, I can recall watching TV with my dad all my life. He would watch the cartoons with me on weekends, and the westerns. He loved westerns. He liked "Gunsmoke" in particular. In the mid-'50s there were a lot of documentaries shown about World War II, and we would watch those. I can recall watching one show, probably "Victory at Sea", about a big naval battle in the Soiuth Pacific, and during a break, he quietly told me that he had been on one of the islands near the battle. I asked if it was loud, and he just gave me a sad smile and said, "Yup, very loud" in that softened East Texas drawl that he never completely lost.
We always watched "Wild Kingdom" together, too. He loved shows about animals and nature. We would visit the Academy of Sciences at least twice a year (no more because he disliked driving in the City). I remember the first time we went to the Morrison Planetarium: what an absolute blast that was! It might have been their traditional "Christmas Star" program, or it might have been about the latest space program advances. Then we would prowl the halls of exhibits, and he would tell me how much he would really like to visit one of the big natural history museums back East. I always said, "Me, too, Daddy. Let's go." And he would smile down at me, knowing that it probably would never happen.
Well, I think I owe it to him to go visit one of those museums. I'm tentatively planning to go to Chicago next summer, so maybe I will be able to get to the Field Museum for him.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Facebook group for the family
I have created a group on Facebook dedicated to this lineage. It can be found at:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_110475595705570&ap=1.
Cousins have posted scanned photos and document transcriptions.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_110475595705570&ap=1.
Cousins have posted scanned photos and document transcriptions.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Greetings!
THE LEGAL MUMBO-JUMBO
The subject of this blog is the 50% of my ancestry attributed to my father's side of the family.
I am writing this to get my information out on line to preserve it for others. This is very much a work in progress and is subject to change. Approved family members may also post here, but I and I alone am responsible for the information, unless otherwise indicated. All quotations are clearly indicated and are either quoted under "fair use" practices or are with permission of the copyright holder. In case of errors or disputes, please contact me directly.
Note: if you are a cousin and wish to post something, please contact me to set up your permissions.
SUMMARY
If you are reading this, you probably have a Joseph Turner somewhere in your family tree. Let me tell you a little bit about my Grandpa Joe, and you can see if it matches your information. Notwithstanding my title, this also includes ancestral information about my Grandma Jennie.
My Joe Turner was born near Corrigan, Polk, Texas, United States, on 14 May 1889. He spent his life in the East Texas Piney woods, living in Polk, Nacogdoches, Shelby, Panola, and Rusk Counties at various times. He worked as a lumberman and oil field hand, as well as farming for himself and his family.
He married Sarah Jane (Jennie) Cleveland on 7 October 1910 in Panola County. Jennie was born 19 November 1888 in Panola County, the daughter of Thomas Milton Cleveland (formerly of Oconee County, South Carolina) and Mary Susan Gray of Panola County.
Joe and Jennie had 10 children, all of whom lived into adulthood. Her 4th pregnancy resulted in a set of triplets, which became something of a 9-day wonder in the vicinity. Their children survived numerous disasters and adventures during their lives, including the London School boiler explosion, working for the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression, the attack at Pearl Harbor, the invasion of Guadalcanal, and the Korean War. Largely as a result of the Depression, the family spread out across the country, eventually living as far apart as Okinawa, California, Ohio, and Georgia.
Both Joe and Jennie have family trees that go back beyond the American Revolution. Nearly all of their ancestors were Southerners; some were among the first English settlers of the New World. Of these, close to 100% of the 5 most recent generations are from England, Scotland, or Wales. One line, that of Jennie's great-grandfather Christopher Figen Winder, may be from Switzerland. Farther back, Joe's 4th great-grandmother, Mary Toadvine, was of French descent; her family came from Guernsey, an island off the coast of Normandy (now part of the British Channel Islands).
It is my intention to post stories, memories, and historical records of the people and places found in this ancestry, in no particular order.
The subject of this blog is the 50% of my ancestry attributed to my father's side of the family.
I am writing this to get my information out on line to preserve it for others. This is very much a work in progress and is subject to change. Approved family members may also post here, but I and I alone am responsible for the information, unless otherwise indicated. All quotations are clearly indicated and are either quoted under "fair use" practices or are with permission of the copyright holder. In case of errors or disputes, please contact me directly.
Note: if you are a cousin and wish to post something, please contact me to set up your permissions.
SUMMARY
If you are reading this, you probably have a Joseph Turner somewhere in your family tree. Let me tell you a little bit about my Grandpa Joe, and you can see if it matches your information. Notwithstanding my title, this also includes ancestral information about my Grandma Jennie.
My Joe Turner was born near Corrigan, Polk, Texas, United States, on 14 May 1889. He spent his life in the East Texas Piney woods, living in Polk, Nacogdoches, Shelby, Panola, and Rusk Counties at various times. He worked as a lumberman and oil field hand, as well as farming for himself and his family.
He married Sarah Jane (Jennie) Cleveland on 7 October 1910 in Panola County. Jennie was born 19 November 1888 in Panola County, the daughter of Thomas Milton Cleveland (formerly of Oconee County, South Carolina) and Mary Susan Gray of Panola County.
Joe and Jennie had 10 children, all of whom lived into adulthood. Her 4th pregnancy resulted in a set of triplets, which became something of a 9-day wonder in the vicinity. Their children survived numerous disasters and adventures during their lives, including the London School boiler explosion, working for the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression, the attack at Pearl Harbor, the invasion of Guadalcanal, and the Korean War. Largely as a result of the Depression, the family spread out across the country, eventually living as far apart as Okinawa, California, Ohio, and Georgia.
Both Joe and Jennie have family trees that go back beyond the American Revolution. Nearly all of their ancestors were Southerners; some were among the first English settlers of the New World. Of these, close to 100% of the 5 most recent generations are from England, Scotland, or Wales. One line, that of Jennie's great-grandfather Christopher Figen Winder, may be from Switzerland. Farther back, Joe's 4th great-grandmother, Mary Toadvine, was of French descent; her family came from Guernsey, an island off the coast of Normandy (now part of the British Channel Islands).
It is my intention to post stories, memories, and historical records of the people and places found in this ancestry, in no particular order.
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