On The Bookshelf: Dear Mother, Love Daddy

In the good old days, family history books  were typically large hardcover tomes that were filled with a bunch of facts and  little to no story. I love that we are starting to get away from this dry type of genealogy writing that few people want to read to telling the stories of our ancestor's lives.

(Yes, I said it. I'm sorry. I know you and I love names, dates, and places but pretty much no one else does. If we truly want to hand down our family history we have to think outside of the box.)

Some people are lucky to inherit the "stuff" (h/t to my friend Denise Levenick). And those people often find great ways to share their stuff with everyone.

Dear Mother, Love Daddy. The World War II Letters of Roscoe and Gladys Yegerlehner May 1942-September 1942 is one of these works. Genealogist Deborah Sweeney shares with the reader the letters written by Roscoe and Gladys that provides us with another look at the World War II years.

According to the press release :

On Sunday, December 7, 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and so the United States entered the Second World War. American men from all walks of life rushed to enlist, and not all
of them were young, single men.

In 1941, Dr. Roscoe S. Yegerlehner had been out of medical school for three years with a growing medical practice in the small northern Indiana town of Kentland. Married for almost thirteen
years, he had a loving wife and two young boys. He volunteered to serve in the United States Naval Reserve and accepted a commission as an assistant Surgeon with the rank of Lieutenant (jg) in May 1942.

Six months after Pearl Harbor, Dr. Yegerlehner found himself on a crowded train headed towards
the Norfolk Naval Training Station in Virginia. He would eventually serve in several posts
throughout the South Pacific. During his 18 months of overseas deployment, he and his wife
corresponded every day. They lovingly addressed their letters to “Mother” and “Daddy.” This is
the first volume of their letters.

Deborah Sweeney. (c) 2014 Andrea Reese

My post tomorrow will be an interview with the author about this wonderful family history.

About the author: Deborah Sweeney is a genealogist, writer and blogger. Since 2012, she has published over eight hundred of her grandparents’ letters on her website, Genealogy Lady. In addition to the letters, she has written several articles about genealogy and DNA research. She is a graduate of Boston University’s Genealogical Research Certificate Program and the ProGen Genealogy Study Group. Ms. Sweeney lives in Northern California with her family.