My Family History Space-Time Continuum
Remembering Those Who Served I awoke this morning thinking of my dad, my granddad, and other family members who served our nation. As I think about these everyday heroes who are no longer with us, I want honor and thank them and all of the other men and women who sacrificed to defend this country and its citizens. I am grateful to these amazing people who loved me and helped me to become the person I am today. I am also Read More …
R. L. Marshall, known as Don Sroufe When my paternal grandmother, Lillian Florence Howle, married Robert Lee Marshall, Jr. in Beckham County, Oklahoma, on 28 February 1924, she did not realize how profoundly he would change her life. In that first year of marriage, she would become pregnant and give birth to my father a mere eleven days before she and “Bob” would mark their first wedding anniversary. Whatever joy she experienced at the birth of her Read More …
“… known as Don Sroufe” Discovering that Robert Lee Marshall was also known as Don Sroufe was a stunning revelation for me and my family (see The Elusive Robert Lee Marshall). But after reading the entire divorce file, I felt a deep sense of sorrow for both my dad, Alton Jackson Marshall (1925-1984), and my grandmother, Lillian Florence Howle (1902-1994). My heart ached for my dad because he had lived his life knowing very little about his Read More …
Who is Robert Lee Marshall? Using the small bits of information that my grandmother had shared about her early life (see In Search of My Father’s Father), I began looking for Robert Lee Marshall by searching the Internet. Of course, this was such a common name that the search engines returned thousands of hits. Even when I added other identifying terms into the search box, the results were still too numerous. It didn’t take me long to realize that if Read More …