I attended high school in Bradford, Illinois (the school no longer exists) and during my sophomore year (1947) I became interested in the Civil War. I had checked out a library history book that detailed lists of the local boys who had gone off to the Civil war. Two of those local boys were my great grandfather and his brother who had enlisted in the Illinois 19th Infantry Regiment in 1862. The book reported that my great grandfather was listed as a deserter. That cooled my interest in family history for the next 65 years, until, in 2011, I purchased the military records of my great grandfather and his brother. After all those years, I was delighted to discover my great grandfather DID NOT desert but rather was discharged because of the loss of the thumb on his right hand. Apparently, the false report of his desertion was caused by his transfer from Company "D" (which reported the desertion) to Company "B", from which he was discharged. It took several years for the military to correct this inaccurate report in his records. After learning my great grandfather was not a "deserter", I regained my interest in family history.

After completing high school and one year of college, the Korean Conflict came along. From 1951 to 1953 I served in the U.S. Army spending fourteen months in Korea with the 10th Combat Engineers, Third Infantry Division. Upon returning home in 1953 I married my high school sweetheart and attempted to farm. After two years on the farm, I could see that once the GI Bill ran out, I was not going to be able to make a living on the farm. Since I had completed one year of college prior to the Army, my wife and I decided I best complete my college degree. We packed up two kids and moved to Urbana, Illinois (home of the University of Illinois) where, over the next twenty years, both my wife and I completed Bachelor's, Master's and Doctorate degrees – and acquired two more kids.

After college, both my wife and I completed careers with the University of Illinois. I retired in 1992 and she in 1994. We then operated a family insurance agency with a daughter until 2009, when my wife and I retired again. Since our second retirement, I have started to get active again in researching my family history. My wife's major retirement activities are volunteering and quilting.

I see the Find-A-Grave site as a way to preserve some family history for grandchildren and great grandchildren, most of whom will have no idea where Bradford, Illinois is -- but will all have access to the Internet -- no mater where they happen to be in the world.

I attended high school in Bradford, Illinois (the school no longer exists) and during my sophomore year (1947) I became interested in the Civil War. I had checked out a library history book that detailed lists of the local boys who had gone off to the Civil war. Two of those local boys were my great grandfather and his brother who had enlisted in the Illinois 19th Infantry Regiment in 1862. The book reported that my great grandfather was listed as a deserter. That cooled my interest in family history for the next 65 years, until, in 2011, I purchased the military records of my great grandfather and his brother. After all those years, I was delighted to discover my great grandfather DID NOT desert but rather was discharged because of the loss of the thumb on his right hand. Apparently, the false report of his desertion was caused by his transfer from Company "D" (which reported the desertion) to Company "B", from which he was discharged. It took several years for the military to correct this inaccurate report in his records. After learning my great grandfather was not a "deserter", I regained my interest in family history.

After completing high school and one year of college, the Korean Conflict came along. From 1951 to 1953 I served in the U.S. Army spending fourteen months in Korea with the 10th Combat Engineers, Third Infantry Division. Upon returning home in 1953 I married my high school sweetheart and attempted to farm. After two years on the farm, I could see that once the GI Bill ran out, I was not going to be able to make a living on the farm. Since I had completed one year of college prior to the Army, my wife and I decided I best complete my college degree. We packed up two kids and moved to Urbana, Illinois (home of the University of Illinois) where, over the next twenty years, both my wife and I completed Bachelor's, Master's and Doctorate degrees – and acquired two more kids.

After college, both my wife and I completed careers with the University of Illinois. I retired in 1992 and she in 1994. We then operated a family insurance agency with a daughter until 2009, when my wife and I retired again. Since our second retirement, I have started to get active again in researching my family history. My wife's major retirement activities are volunteering and quilting.

I see the Find-A-Grave site as a way to preserve some family history for grandchildren and great grandchildren, most of whom will have no idea where Bradford, Illinois is -- but will all have access to the Internet -- no mater where they happen to be in the world.