Another great-great-grandfather, Francis “Frank” Gaume, was 19 years old when he volunteered and joined the Union forces during the American Civil War. In the Fall of 1862, Frank signed up with the 19th Ohio Volunteer Infantry in Stark County, Ohio. In September of that year, his unit was in reserve at the Battle of Perryville in Kentucky. Then at one of the bloodiest, muddiest battles … Continue reading They Simply Fade Away

I was looking at the nationalities of my great-great-grandparents, and I figure that I am only 6% French, 13% Belgian, almost 20% British, one-quarter German, and nearly 40% Irish. Yet, although I can trace one British branch back to Charlemagne via a daughter of Edward I, and I can trace my DeBacker family back to the early 1500s, most of my Irish branches cannot be … Continue reading The Shamrock Wall

Searching through newspaper archives, I discovered something about my paternal grandmother, Geraldine O’Malley DeBacker, that I did not know. Apparently, she was a singer of enough renown to have that mentioned a few times in her hometown newspaper. I found the following item in the August 29, 1918 edition of The Atchison (KS) Daily Globe. My father’s mother, Geraldine O’Malley DeBacker, died the year that … Continue reading Atchison People Will Be Interested in an Omaha Item