Bulldog Psion
2015-06-22, 04:55 PM
My paternal grandfather disappeared.
By dint of using the Internet, contacting vital records offices, and so on, I've found out quite a bit about my paternal grandfather, George Woodford F., or "GWF" henceforth. He led an interesting life for the first 20-some-odd years, but then he just vanished abruptly, like the earth swallowed him up.
I've discovered he was born to James F. and Mary Edith M. in 1923, in a town in New York state; his parents emigrated to the U.S. from Liverpool in 1919. At age 17, in 1940, he was living on his own as a boarder at the house of a couple in the 50s, in his birth town.
In 1942, he joined the U.S. Navy, and served first on the submarine hunter USS Bogue in the Atlantic. He was transferred to the USS Ticonderoga and served in the Pacific for the rest of the war. He was part of the firefighting crew initially, then got transferred to the engine room as a Machinist's Mate 3.
When the "Big T" got hit by kamikazes in early 1945, he returned with the rest of the crew to the U.S., where he met and, as turned out, impregnated my grandmother. He then rejoined the crew once the repairs were complete and participated in the actions off the Philippines, Okinawa, etc.
He got his discharge when the Ticonderoga returned to the U.S., in Alameda on October 5th, 1945. He returned to the east coast and married my highly pregnant grandmother on October 30th, 1945.
And then he vanishes from the records.
My grandmother claimed that he got drunk, got in a car, and rammed it into the house trying to kill her after an argument, but died in the crash instead. However, in addition to my father living in that house for years and knowing that it is almost impossible to get to a car anywhere near it, plus the profound stupidity of the alleged action, I contacted the vital records office and police in the town, and found that my grandfather, GWF, did not die in that town as stated, or at any other time for that matter. (She also claimed an exactly similar car-ramming-the-house scenario with another husband years later, I mean verbatim, with just the name changed, so you can make of that what you will.)
He did leave some kind of fund that paid a monthly amount for 4 or 5 years to pay for my dad's upkeep while he was small. My great-grandmother, whom my grandmother left my dad with, tried to get the whole sum paid to her at once, but the court denied her.
I've looked in obituaries, passenger lists, prison records, even phone books, and I can't find hide nor hair of this guy. It's like he just evaporated, and my grandmother always refused to tell anything at all about him to either my father or me.
Sorry for this long speech and various details of my family history, some of them rather sordid, but I've sort of hit a stone wall here and I'm not sure how to find out anything more.
There's a remote possibility he's still alive -- at 92 years of age. Heck, I found a guy he served with on the USS Bogue, still alive and completely lucid at 94, though the guy has absolutely no idea what happened to him after he transferred to the Ticonderoga.
When I get a little ahead on money, I'm going to get GWF's service records from the Navy (by great good fortune, I managed to find his service number).
But, does anyone have any ideas on what I might do next to try to find out what happened to this guy? How would I find him if he's still alive? I have a certain urgency here, because on the tiny chance he is still alive ... well, that clock is ticking fast.
Please bear in mind that I'm not rolling in dough :smallwink:, so solutions would have to be on the cheap side. Hiring a private detective is right out, for example. :smallbiggrin:
Thanks in advance for anyone who has any suggestions!
By dint of using the Internet, contacting vital records offices, and so on, I've found out quite a bit about my paternal grandfather, George Woodford F., or "GWF" henceforth. He led an interesting life for the first 20-some-odd years, but then he just vanished abruptly, like the earth swallowed him up.
I've discovered he was born to James F. and Mary Edith M. in 1923, in a town in New York state; his parents emigrated to the U.S. from Liverpool in 1919. At age 17, in 1940, he was living on his own as a boarder at the house of a couple in the 50s, in his birth town.
In 1942, he joined the U.S. Navy, and served first on the submarine hunter USS Bogue in the Atlantic. He was transferred to the USS Ticonderoga and served in the Pacific for the rest of the war. He was part of the firefighting crew initially, then got transferred to the engine room as a Machinist's Mate 3.
When the "Big T" got hit by kamikazes in early 1945, he returned with the rest of the crew to the U.S., where he met and, as turned out, impregnated my grandmother. He then rejoined the crew once the repairs were complete and participated in the actions off the Philippines, Okinawa, etc.
He got his discharge when the Ticonderoga returned to the U.S., in Alameda on October 5th, 1945. He returned to the east coast and married my highly pregnant grandmother on October 30th, 1945.
And then he vanishes from the records.
My grandmother claimed that he got drunk, got in a car, and rammed it into the house trying to kill her after an argument, but died in the crash instead. However, in addition to my father living in that house for years and knowing that it is almost impossible to get to a car anywhere near it, plus the profound stupidity of the alleged action, I contacted the vital records office and police in the town, and found that my grandfather, GWF, did not die in that town as stated, or at any other time for that matter. (She also claimed an exactly similar car-ramming-the-house scenario with another husband years later, I mean verbatim, with just the name changed, so you can make of that what you will.)
He did leave some kind of fund that paid a monthly amount for 4 or 5 years to pay for my dad's upkeep while he was small. My great-grandmother, whom my grandmother left my dad with, tried to get the whole sum paid to her at once, but the court denied her.
I've looked in obituaries, passenger lists, prison records, even phone books, and I can't find hide nor hair of this guy. It's like he just evaporated, and my grandmother always refused to tell anything at all about him to either my father or me.
Sorry for this long speech and various details of my family history, some of them rather sordid, but I've sort of hit a stone wall here and I'm not sure how to find out anything more.
There's a remote possibility he's still alive -- at 92 years of age. Heck, I found a guy he served with on the USS Bogue, still alive and completely lucid at 94, though the guy has absolutely no idea what happened to him after he transferred to the Ticonderoga.
When I get a little ahead on money, I'm going to get GWF's service records from the Navy (by great good fortune, I managed to find his service number).
But, does anyone have any ideas on what I might do next to try to find out what happened to this guy? How would I find him if he's still alive? I have a certain urgency here, because on the tiny chance he is still alive ... well, that clock is ticking fast.
Please bear in mind that I'm not rolling in dough :smallwink:, so solutions would have to be on the cheap side. Hiring a private detective is right out, for example. :smallbiggrin:
Thanks in advance for anyone who has any suggestions!