52 Ancestors 2023: War and Peace
This one is a little hard for me. My oldest son, Army SPC Thomas Doerflinger, was killed in Mosul Iraq on November 11, 2004. He was 20. But, he wanted to serve, and he also was really proud of his two grandfathers who had both served in the Navy during World War II. I don't know much about my husband's family, but I do have a few snippets about my maternal family's history in the military. The earliest one I know a little about is Moses Case (1749-1776) who served very briefly as a private or maybe a sergeant in the Connecticut militia. Moses sent a letter to his wife, scoffing at what he thought were Tory lies about smallpox. Yes, Moses died in August of 1776, probably of smallpox. He is my 5th great-grandfather on my mother's side. (This story and the letter were reported in a DAR application.) More murkily, there appears to be a story of a Prewitt ancestor (on my paternal side) who gave the Continental Army 60 pounds of baco...