Soldier’s bedroom has not been touched since he died in World War 1

A French soldier’s bedroom has not been touched since he died in World War 1. 

Dragoons' Second Lieutenant Hubert Rochereau died aged 21 after fighting in Loker, Flanders, in April 1918. 

When his parents left their home in Belabre, south-western France, they sealed the room, preserving it exactly as he left it.

Take a look at the amazing photos of this young soldier's room as it was over 100 years ago.

WW1 ID Tags & Tributes

One of the  missions of Olive Tree Genealogy Blog is to reunite found items such as  Dog ID Tags, Medals, etc of soldiers with their descendants. To date my readers have worked on the following cases and been successful in reuniting soldiers’ dog id tags with family members.

We still have more cases coming in and we have old cases that have not yet been solved. If you have a moment would you read through one of the open cases and help find family?

Below are some of the tributes to the soldiers whose dog tags, medals or photographs we own.

WW1 Nursing Sister Gertrude Billyard Gertrude Billyard was born in Windsor Ontario on March 1, 1881. When Gertrude enlisted at the age of 34 on February 24, 1915 her mother Annie was living in Young Saskatchewan. This address was later changed to Winnipeg Manitoba as Gertrude’s pay was sent to her mother. Surprisingly, Gertrude enlisted in London England not in Canada.

Tribute to WW1 Soldier William Bulger Pte. W. R. Bulger’s name is stamped on the side of this Canadian WW1 Medal which my husband and I have in our WW1 collection. Pte. Bulger’s Regimental Number is difficult to read but it ends in 2369. He is noted as being assigned to 2-CMR which stands for 2nd Canadian Mounted Rifles. A search for his Attestation papers online reveals that his full name was William Robert Bulger and his Reg. Number was 3032369. He was born Sept. 28, 1888 in Georgetown Ontario but was living in Toronto when he enlisted.

WW1 Soldier W. J. P. Bullock One of the framed photos of CEF (Canadian Expeditionary Force) soldiers on our wall is labelled “Pte. W. J. P. Bullock” of Toronto Ontario. This young man enlisted on September 2, 1915, one year  after WW1 began in August 1914.

WW1 Nursing Sister Jean Cameron-Smith Jean Cameron-Smith was born in Perth Ontario on September 22, 1871. A search of the online Birth Registrations for Ontario provides a late registration dated 1933.  Her father’s name is given as Robert Ralph Cameron-Smith. Her mother is  Helen Mason.

Tribute to WW1 Soldier Walter Culbertson This WW1 Medal is stamped with the name of the soldier on the side. It reads 3056604 (Regimental Number) and GNR (Gunner) R. Culbertson C.F.A. We believe that CFA stands for Canadian Forces Artillery.

Tribute to WW1 Soldier Arthur Fitzgerald This is another Tribute for a Canadian soldier. His name and service number are given on the front of his WW1 ID Tag – A. Fitzgerald, Service Number 55422.

WW1 Nursing Sister Edith Mary Harston Edith Mary Harston was born in Warwickshire England June 5, 1886. On her CEF (Canadian Expeditionary Force) Attestation Paper she provides her mother’s name as Mrs. Emily E. Harston of Stafford England.

Tribute to Ira Harry Huehn WW1 Soldier in PPCLI ra Harry Huehn was born 10 June 1895 in Toronto. He enlisted in the CEF (Canadian Expeditionary Force) on August 15, 1915 when he was just 20 years old.

WW1 Soldier Douglas McNabb Private Douglas McNabb’s framed WW1 photograph hangs on our wall. We don’t know Douglas and we are not related. But he is one of several CEF (Canadian Expeditionary Force) soldiers who we honour.

WW1 CEF Soldier Charles H. Welsh We own the Pay Book of Gunner Charles H. Welsh #335325 who attested on February 4, 1918. His pay book gives his next of kin as his father David H. Welsh, and his mother Mary Ann Welsh, both of Palmerston Ontario.

Lizzie the Black Sheep of the Vollick Family

Lizzie, the blacksheep of the Vollick family, was known as rebellious and stubborn. Her birth in 1863 was uneventful. There was no indication that her nature would prove to be much less compliant than her ten brothers and sisters.

Baptised as Mary Elizabeth to parents Isaac and Lydia Vollick, little Lizzie grew up in a bit of a rough and tumble, yet loving, family. What led her on her path to her eventual death of starvation at the age of 51 with only her 17 year old son at her side?

We might look at her involvement at the age of 15 with Stephen Peer who was a drifter some 10 years her senior. Stephen was considered a no-good drifter by Lizzie's parents and they did their best to keep the two apart. It did no good and a few months after her 16th birthday she eloped with Stephen. That was the start of Lizzie's downfall. Her family disowned her and her parents never spoke to her again.

June 5, 1895

Stephen couldn't hold a job and over the next several years he and Lizzie moved from town to town. By the time Lizzie hit her 33rd birthday, she had brought 9 children into the world. Stephen took whatever work he could find but the family lived in poverty. Not many details are known of their life for the first 17 years of their marriage but in June 1895 Lizzie's husband Stephen was attacked by a neighbour and the neighbour's son, struck repeatedly in the head with an axe and ended up in the local hospital with a serious skull fracture. He was not expected to live but managed to pull through.

A court case followed but Stephen could not attend due to his injuries. As it turned out, the attack began over an ongoing argument over the use of a water pump on the property where Stephen rented a small house. When the neighbour, a Mr. Hyde, tried to get water that hot summer day, Stephen attacked and punched him. At that point Hyde's son ran out of his house with an axe and the two men beat Stephen using the axe and their fists.

Two years later, Stephen died of Typhoid Fever, leaving 34 year old Lizzie an impoverished widow with 9 children between the ages of 1 and 11 years old. The family was so poor that Lizzie could not afford to bury Stephen so the city stepped in to assist her financially.

The brief notice in the local newspaper stated

Oct. 28, 1897
        Levi [sic] Peer died at General Hospital on Wednesday afternoon from typhoid fever.  Leaves a wife and nine children in destitute circumstances.  City relief officer made arrangements for burial and attended to needs of family.  Trinity Baptist church also assisting.  (article from Guelph Herald.)

Besides the tragedy of losing her husband and being left in such destitute circumstances, what has always struck me is how the newspaper did not even get her husband's name right. We know this is the correct death notice for Stephen as his death certificate confirms the dates. It may be that his middle name was Levi in honour of his father, and perhaps he was known by that name.

My grandmother was the oldest child when her father died - being just 11 years of age. I knew her quite well, as she lived until I was 15 years old. She never spoke of her parents, nor of the hardships she undoubtedly suffered after her father's death.

Mary Elizabeth Peer's grave

But back to Lizzie. One by one her children married and moved away. Eventually she was left with only her youngest boy Philip Edgar. When he was just 17, Lizzie died, leaving him an orphan. She was just 51 and died of starvation.

Shortly after her death in May 1914, young Philip Edgar joined his older brothers in the Canadian Expeditionary Force, fighting overseas in World War 1. He was killed in France shortly before his 21st birthday, bringing to an end the story of Lizzie and her life. I am glad she didn't live to see her boy die. But she certainly had a traumatic ride through life.



Update: If you are interested in the Vollick family I also wrote three books on the Vollick and Follick descendants of Lambert Van Valkenburg. They are: 


From Van Valkenburg to Vollick: The Loyalist Isaac Van Valkenburg aka Vollick and his Vollick & Follick Children (Volume 1) 

From Van Valkenburg to Vollick: V. 2 Cornelius Vollick and his Follick and Vollick Descendants to 3 Generations 

From Van Valkenburg to Vollick: V. 3: The Loyalist Storm Follick and his Follick and Vollick descendants in North America