I may have mentioned in my last post about my grandfather, Ellis Adams, that I had a sniff of a lead that he died in Virginia. I asked a … easier to say ‘extended cousin’ as the relationship between he and I works out at about 7th cousin 1 x removed … to order a death certificate from the Virginia Department of Health, giving the place of death as ‘Unknown’. Unfortunately the response was “more information, please …”.

As I had his date of death (August 1971) I thought I’d search on the Find A Grave website. In their own words:

Find a Grave’s mission is to find, record and present final disposition information from around the world as a virtual cemetery experience.

Memorial contributions to Find A Grave should fulfill that mission – registration of the final disposition. If the memorial contribution corresponds with only the main mission, then the memorial fulfills its purpose as part of Find A Grave’s mission.

Find a Grave memorials may contain rich content including pictures, biographies and more specific information. Members can leave remembrances via ‘virtual flowers’ on the memorials they visit, completing the virtual cemetery experience.

Find A Grave is a resource for anyone in finding the final disposition of family, friends, and ‘famous’ individuals.

It was here that I found a picture of a grave located in Emmett, Gem County, Idaho …

It was also the start of a series of questions. Although the name was correct, and the date of death was correct, the date of birth is off by 9 days. “9 days, is that all?” you may ask. His date of birth of 10 April 1924 is stated on both his application for a Social Security number and on the Social Security Death Index. Error on a gravestone? Quite common, in fact, as its information provided by the purchaser and not checked against any other source. I am currently in the process of purchasing a copy of the death certificate through the US provider VitalChek. And what a pain in the ass that is as a non-US resident! And it’ll leave me $60 poorer … (that’s about £37).

As you can see, the gravestone also lists details of his military career. The listing as Private First Class matches his discharge papers, but it also states that he was part of Company A 310th Infantry Regiment. I hadn’t known any details, so this was a definite plus! I started to research the regiment …

I learnt that the 310th was part of the 78th Infantry Division, also known as “the Lightning Division” which alludes to the combat record of the division being likened to a “bolt of lightning”.

I then started to research the 310th and 78th in more detail and came across some other details that didn’t quite gel …

Wikipedia (that wonderfully accurate font of all knowledge) states:

…the 78th embarked for the European Theatre from the New York POE on 14 October 1944, whereupon they sailed for England. They arrived on 26 October 1944, and after further training crossed to France on 22 November 1944.

However, if we compare this with dates from Ellis’ life we see that something isn’t quite right.

• Ellis’ discharge papers state that he entered service outside of the United States in May 1944 and was wounded in battle in July 1944.
• The date of Ellis and Eva’s marriage is 23 November 1944. Did Ellis go later? Was he held back as he was still recovering from being wounded in July 1944? Questions only his service record would have answered!
• Given my mother’s birth date, Eva was a month pregnant at the time of her marriage. Using the October arrival date, this gives Ellis a very short window of opportunity to get the ball rolling!

Of course, it may be possible that Ellis started off in a different regiment and was subsequently transferred to the 78th at a later date. The 78th did take part in  the Western Allied invasion of Germany (Central Europe Campaign) and were involved in the Battle of the Bulge, and also the taking of the Remagen Bridge (later made into a film starring George Segal and Napoleon Solo Robert Vaughn).

Ellis was discharged in March 1945, so would not have taken place in the battle of encirclement known as The Ruhr Pocket in May 1945.

Perhaps once I receive a copy of the death certificate it may lead to some new information regarding a new family in Idaho. In the meantime I have contacted the Idaho State Archives and the offices of the local newspaper, the Emmett Messenger-Index, to see if they hold an obituary for him (assuming that he died in the same town that he was buried). So I guess its another waiting game to see what the Gem State (or Potato State, depending on what you prefer) holds!