A Locket of Hair Helps Identify Body of WW1 Soldier Almost 100 years After Death

Sidney Halliday died in the Battle of Amiens, 1918. Before he left Manitoba for the front, he and his sweetheart Lizzie Walmsley exchanged lockets with hair inside.

Attestation Papers for Sidney Halliday

Sidney was one of many soldiers from a Winnipeg regiment (the Winnipeg Grenadiers) who were killed  at the Battle of Amiens in France. He was just 22 years old. His body was never found.

But in 2006 the remains of 8 soldiers were found in a muddy field in France. 4 were identified but 4 were unknown. Luckily the  locket with Lizzie Walmsley's name engraved on the outside and containing a lock of her  hair was found. A search of the records of the missing soldiers from that Winnipeg regiment revealed that Sidney Halliday asked for $10.00 to be given to Lizzie Walmsley in the event of his death.

I was curious about what happened to Lizzie  so I did a little research. I suspect that she may be the Elizabeth Walmsley born in Manitoba in 1900 who married David Sands in 1920.

Continue reading this touching story at WW I Canadian soldier's remains identified

Case #14: MIA bracelet for Gordon C. Hall - Help Find Family

Rhonda wrote to Olive Tree Genealogy blog about wanting to find the family of Gordon C. Hall, MIA in Vietnam.  Perhaps my readers can help? Here is Rhonda's email:

I am very touched by these stories I have read about these MIA bracelets. I too am trying to find any family belonging to the soldier of the MIA bracelet that I have. His name is Gordon C Hall. 

I went to the Vietnam Wall last week and penciled a sketch of his name and left a letter thanking him for his service. (my father was in Vietnam). My mother has kept this bracelet all these years and I wanted to leave it at the wall, but we decided to hopefully find his family.

Descendant Found for MIA Illinois Soldier

Readers may recall that in May I posted a request for help in finding a descendant of an Illinois soldier who went MIA and was later found to have been killed during the Vietnam War.

The soldier's name was Charles Peter Claxton and Debbie had a copper bracelet with his name engraved. She wanted to send the bracelet to a descendant.

Readers jumped in to find Charles. Within a few days we had quite a bit of information (see the comments on the original post) but no contact with a descendant. Well, I'm pleased to say that yesterday his daughter Kimberly wrote to me!

Here is her email:

Hello, my name is Kimberly (Claxton) Samuelson and this is my father. My mom, sister and brothers are all currently living in Michigan. My dad was originally from Illinois and was career Air Force. Thank you all so much for caring about my dad and family.

Now I can put Kimberly in touch with Debbie and the bracelet can be given to Charles' daughter. Hopefully it will bring some joy to the Claxton family.

We've had great success with our Lost and Found requests thanks to the generous help of Olive Tree Genealogy blog readers. But we still have a few missing. Please take a moment to read the stories and perhaps have a look to see if you can help bring a Lost and Found item back to a soldier's family.

MIA bracelet for Illinois soldier Vietnam War - can we find a descendant?

Debbie wrote to me to ask for help. Here is her note:

In the mid 60's, during the Vietnam War, people bought copper bracelets with the name of a service person who was MIA. I have one that I got in 1966. I now know that the individual was removed from the MIA list and his name is engraved on the Vietnam Wall as KIA. I'd like to find his wife and/or children to give this bracelet. I have saved it for over 40 years in the hopes of giving it to a family member. So, how can I do this? I do know his name, his branch of service and other bits of information.

The soldier's name is Charles Peter Claxton. Here is a picture of the bracelet that Debbie sent.



I'm asking for readers' help once more to find a descendant so that Debbie can send the bracelet to them. You can post here in the comment section but if you have details on living people you might want to send them to me privately in email olivetreegenealogy@gmail.com

I found an article about Charles and the rest of the air crew that went MIA in 1967. It stated their bodies were found in 2000 although only two were identified positively.

29 Dec 67- Donald E. Fisher, LTC 05, Navigator, of Halfway, Org; Charles Peter Claxton, Pilot, MAJ 04, of Chicago, ILL; Edwin Neims Osborne, Jr., Aircraft Commander, CPT 03 of Ralford, FL; Frank C. Parker,III, Electronic Warfare Officer, CPT 03 of Bridgeport, Penn; Gerald Gordon Van Buren, Pilot, CPT 03 of Toledo, OH; Gordon J. Wenaas, Navigator, CPT 03 of Mayville, ND; Jack McCrary, Flight Engineer, SSG E-5 of Madison, Tenn; Gean Preston Clapper, Radio Operator, SGT E-5 of Altoona, Penn; Edward Jospeh Darcy, Loadmaster, SGT E-5 of Portlandm Org; Wayne Allen Eckley, Flight Engineer, SGT E-5 of Enterprise, Org; and James R. Williams, Loadmaster, SGT E of Charlotte, NC all USAF, Air Crew, C- 130, "Combat Talon", l4th Special Operations Wing, US AIR FORCE, Ops 32/75, Nha Trang-Performing aerial resupply mission for Project Oodles phantom team over North Vietnam they never returned MIA-Remains not recovered. [See page 85, SOG A Photo History of the Secret Wars, by John Plaster]