My primary focus here is the ancestry of my father, Mitchell A. Babb (1923-1993). Using the late Jean Sargent's taxonomy, he was 1-2-2-3-1-1-2-9-5-2.
Never heard of me? While I appreciate Penny Kilgore's work... it's been a great resource... Mitchell Babb had been married at least a time or two before he met and married Polly Johnson.
I'm coming to the party late in life. I grew up in the midwest, served 20 years in the Navy, and remained in California for another twenty years. Initially, I was all about uncovering family medical history; but discovering my surviving aunt, listening to her recollections of growing up with my father, meeting Polly and her children, finding the graves of grandparents and their parents and their parents, returning to places I haven't seen since early childhood... every genealogical page that was turned piqued my interest further.
I recently got an e-mail from another Babb researcher asking me if I had any background information to personalize his research. The limitation of a data search is that we accumulate facts and figures, but who enjoyed learning history that way? People are more than their statistics; our ancestors were people with lives. I just discovered that Perry's son, Claud, was awarded the Croix de Guerre by the French "for personal bravery in support of the French advance on German positions" at Belleau Wood less than a week before he was killed in action there. That tidbit was in his Company muster reports, and only recently released. How many other stories await the light of day?
My hope is that by sharing what I've learned, and by inviting participation by others... especially family members... maybe I'll be able to find answers to some of my lingering questions... to flesh out the dry statistics.
