Monday, July 19, 2010

A Little Bit of Gendzier Family HIstory.

Earlier today, while aimlessly Googling about, I ran across these two documents on the University Of Florida Digital Collection.  I wasn't aware of these, but apparently, my Grandparents on my Father's side both gave oral histories in 1980 for the collection.  I'm not sure of how much interest these will be for most of you, but it's my blog, so...

I'm going to have to go back and re-read both of them, (and do some research elsewhere), but a couple of things stand out and got my curiosity going.  I knew that my Grandfather had been involved in WWI (enlisted at age 17), but I don't think I knew he had been a Sgt., and I still don't know anything about his service in France, much less him being retained after the Armistice to work interviewing German P.O.W.s (as part of a unit he came to suspect was a forerunner to the C.I.A.!).  Also, I guess I never thought about it before, but now I find myself intensely curious how my Aunt Hattie (my Grandmother's sister), was admitted to the country when she was already suffering from polio.  This would have been in 1899 or 1900.

Anyway, here are the oral histories of two of my Grandparents, Harry Gendzier and Belle Finkelstein Gendzier.  I found them fascinating.

1 comment:

Ilya said...

It is a fascinating read, Nathan. I wish I had similar recorded histories from my grandparents...