What also interested me was the genealogical possibilities. Apparently that occurred to other folks as well. Lisa Louise Cooke recently discussed the documentary portion at the end on the Genealogy Gems podcast. After I saw the film I wondered just how many men in my tree HAD served in WWI. Now I have covered the service of my grandmother's brother, "Harry" Tapply, in a previous post. But it took me almost three months to compile a complete list. Some are American, some are from the British side of my tree. Many times, if the name was too common, I couldn't verify the service; there may be some omissions. Some of the older British soldiers served in the domestic "service corps" and some of the Americans in the Coast Guard. However, this is the list I came up with.
Right around 70 men in my tree served. Some gave their lives. I decided NOT to distinguish that here. Service is service. When I think about the men in Jackson's film telling their stories (he used old recordings from the British War Archives) I wonder what my relatives would tell us. I'll bet the stories would be fascinating.
