ScottB's onMason

My father LOVES this sort of research so I have been consulting his expertise as we have proceeded through this exercise.  My dad has spent hours upon hours researching our family history and has quite an extensive narrative to show for his efforts.  He has acquired many primary sources such as letters, diaries and sheet music written by our forefathers to compliment his online history of my family.  His work is an excellent template for digitizing a family history.  Hopefully one day my son, and his son, and his son, and his son will appreciate all the hours of work he has put into it as much as I do.  He has assisted my efforts during this process and been of vital help finding more sources for my project. I hope this is in no way antithetic to the Honor Code, but since he is simply offering advice and directing me towards further information online I do not think it would be.  He wishes he lived closer so he could take this class with me!

Entering all the information into my Soldier Summary spreadsheet required a LOT of squinting.  I guess I am at that age where I might need glasses.  Back and forth and back and forth between the photos of the docs and the spreadsheet.  Once I got into the groove of the process it became a little easier.  Once I turned to my online sources this process became even easier.  

My soldier, George Karn, spent almost half of his life trying to bust the bureaucracy of the federal government in pursuit of his due pension.   He enlisted at age 15, dubiously conscripting the help of an older friend to vouch for his stated age of 18 at the time.  Mr. Karn could not read or write when he joined and signed his papers with an X.  But curiously enough, learned both skills during his service in the military.  He never married, and never lived any farther than 100 miles of where he was born.  George Karn died at age 61 at a home for disabled veterans in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  The cause of death was listed as myocarditis and acute alcoholism.  

The story unfolds….