Sunday, April 12, 2009

WWI & WWII Relics

First of all, Happy Easter!
I mentioned WWI & II items that I had recently; however, these were not the ones that intended. But, I think they'll do for now. They're two of my favorite pieces that I've found in amongst the forgotten piles of artifacts that sat so long at my grandparent's (Bob & Marguerite Clinton). In all honesty, as with the earlier letter, these are just a small portion of the photos/relics that I want to preserve and/or digitize that we found at the house. I'll have these two in chronological order.

Death Certificate of Corp. Edward Gordon Ponder
This one is fairly explanatory in terms of what it is, and the heading pretty well takes care of that. Whether it's actually his signature or not, I don't know, but it is signed by General John 'Black Jack' Pershing, who was the commander of the AEF during the Great War.

As I've mentioned previously Gordon, as he was called by his family, and was mentioned in the previously published letter on this blog, died of illness, rather than gunshot or any violent means, at the end of Oct. 1918, within a couple weeks of the armistice. Here's a BW photo (courtesy of my new camera) that I took of the certificate.



V-E Day!
This one is even more self-explanatory. Another 'relic' that I found at my grandparents' house. Whether my grandmother (M.E. Thompson Clinton) or great-grandmother (Belle Crenshaw Clinton, one of the wayfarers) kept the paper originally, I do not know, but it was likely one of them who held onto the paper at the end of the European war. Again, in BW.

More to come as I can get things digitized.

AFN

DCC

Vidalia, GA 12 April 2009