Nimitz' WWII 'diary' to be unveiled online on Monday

[Caliga]

  A Huge swath of the United States has German-Americans as a plurality in terms of ethnic background, like nearly the entire Midwest and most of the Great Plains.

[Razgovory]

A Huge swath of the United States has German-Americans as a plurality in terms of ethnic background, like nearly the entire Midwest and most of the Great Plains.

The ones here came over after 1848 then fought for Lincoln.  I know my ancestors did.  Families kept contact with Germany up until WWI.  I do have it on good authority that f a particular relative did fairly well for himself in Germany in the 1930's before his career took a nose dive in 1941.

[CountDeMoney]

The Naval War College Foundation funded the endeavor, which started in August 2012. The documents have been scanned before, but the higher quality scans will offer researchers, scholars and enthusiasts a better way to search through the tome. The Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC) directly supported the digitization effort, and is currently actively remediating its archival holdings and facilities in order to both safeguard them, and ultimately to make them safely accessible to improve future naval understanding and decision-making.

Awesomeness.

Dealing with the originals had to be a painfully delicate process, God knows how much of it was on onionskin typing paper.

[Caliga]

The ones here came over after 1848 then fought for Lincoln.  I know my ancestors did.  Families kept contact with Germany up until WWI.  I do have it on good authority that f a particular relative did fairly well for himself in Germany in the 1930's before his career took a nose dive in 1941.

Ha, not my German ancestors.  They left Europe in the early 18th century and never looked back.  The fact that their homeland was constantly being invaded and ransacked by the French might have had something to do with that.

[PDH]

Awesomeness.

Dealing with the originals had to be a painfully delicate process, God knows how much of it was on onionskin typing paper.

My last year of undergraduate work I did part time in the archives here.  Fucking onionskin from the 1940s turns into dust if you look at it with a fierce look.

[Neil]

I really enjoy this sort of thing.  It's really interesting to watch them learn things and have some insight into how they reacted and what they thought at the time.  I have Alanbrooke's war diaries, but this sounds even better.

[Valmy]

Ha, not my German ancestors.  They left Europe in the early 18th century and never looked back.  The fact that their homeland was constantly being invaded and ransacked by the French might have had something to do with that.

Well if you left Europe in the 18th century you were not realistically expecting to be able to keep up communications this being prior to the telegraph and reliable overseas mail.  Further ideas like ethnic and national identity were not nearly as strong.  Are all your German ancestors from this group?  I know I had Anabaptists from this area but I have no proof they fled specifically because of war.

The people who came over in the 19th century came over after nationalism and all that so they had a much stronger identity and an expectation of being able to stay in communication and to be informed of events back home.

However, your anti-French brainwashing has been noted.    I mean even if this vile black propaganda full of lies were true why would that make them anti-German?

[Caliga]

Yes, all of my Germanic (I say that because many of them were Swiss) were Anabaptists and came over in the period of c.1700-1740.  Most of them were on my father's side, which is literally 100% Pennsylvania Dutch, but I have a few on my mother's side too.

I don't have any specific proof either, but in cases where they were Palatines as opposed to Swiss, the towns that they came from were destroyed by the French.  My direct paternal line came from Kreuznach in the Rhineland, and the French destroyed Kreuznach in 1689.  That dude was born in 1695 but I'm not sure if he was born in Kreuznach or Rotterdam... records are unclear.  He definitely left from Rotterdam for America though.  Some of my Palatine ancestors fled first to London because the English Protestants took pity on them, and then from there the British dumped them in the Colonies after getting tired of putting up with them.

Some of my Swiss ancestors were actually martyred for their religious beliefs... one guy was beheaded after he was at first exiled to Saxony, and then defied his exile and went back to Zurich.  Another dude was burned at the stake but I don't know his backstory really.

[Caliga]

Oh, on the anti-French thing... it's always been a thing in my family and among other Dutchies that I know of to make French and Catholic jokes, but we're talking ribbing as opposed to vile hatred, similar to how people make Polack jokes but don't actually hate the Poles.  I have a feeling that those ancestors came over with a deep hatred of France and the Church, but over time and generations it 'evolved' into something much milder as generational distance between their European ancestors' misery increased.

[Valmy]

Yes, all of my Germanic (I say that because many of them were Swiss) were Anabaptists and came over in the period of c.1700-1740.

Damn mine to.  From Basel.  Gebhart was the name.

Some of my Swiss ancestors were actually murdered for their religious beliefs... one guy was beheaded after he was at first exiled to Saxony, and then defied his exile and went back to Zurich.  Another dude was burned at the stake but I don't know his backstory really.

Yeah Anabaptists: not popular.

[Caliga]

I have ancestry from Basel too but it'll take me a while to find it since my family tree is so gigantic.

The dude who was beheaded was named Hans Landis and he was from Hirzel in Zurich Canton. I was able to find him and it turns out he was my 14th great uncle... I could swear he was my grandfather (or maybe I had another grandfather who was beheaded too).

[garbon]

since my family tree is so gigantic.

Wouldn't that be the case for many people?

[Valmy]

I have ancestry from Basel too but it'll take me a while to find it since my family tree is so gigantic.

It gets messy pretty fast, doesn't it?  Even just to go back to the 1500s we are talking 32,000+ direct ancestors and that is not even counting people of interest like Uncles.  It is the hobby that never ends.

[Valmy]

since my family tree is so gigantic.

Wouldn't that be the case for many people?

Depends on how much information you have.

[Caliga]

since my family tree is so gigantic.

Wouldn't that be the case for many people?

I meant my documented family tree, obviously.