My Dad and his WW2 Air Force buddies

My father, Warren Westcott Grant, served 2 years with the Army Air Force during World War II as detailed here. I've recently been going through some old boxes and scanning all his old photos and came across these. I assume they were taken in 1945 when my dad was stationed at the Army Air Force base in Amarillo, Texas for his flight training.

Warren W. Grant

Warren Grant, Ray Garrett, Goode, and Gus

Ray Garrett (on left) and Gus

Goode, Garrett, Gus and Paul

Goode, Warren Grant, Gus and Ray Garrett

Ray Garrett became a good friend of my dad and they maintained a friendship after the war. Ray's Aunt Bea Garrett became a friend of our family too and often stayed with us when she was visiting from Florida. Ray married Lydia  (I remember  Christmas cards signed "Ray and Lydia Garrett") but I don't know anything more about them.
As of now, I do not have full names for Goode, Gus, or Paul. I think because of my father's month-long emergency leave during his flight training, he was in two different units at Amarillo. The first was "Group R, Sqdn 251" and the 2nd was "Sqdn W 3701st AAFBU Amarillo". This second designation was on his discharge papers, the first came from his personal address book.

Ralph Grant - Captain 1913 RISD football team

Susan Clark over at the blog Nolichucky Roots published a picture of her football-playing great-uncle today. It reminded me of this photo of my grandfather, Ralph Westcott Grant.

GRANT
Captain and Centre of School of Design Team

There is a date on this newspaper photo of Tuesday, October 21, 1913. The name of the paper was not included but it was probably The Pawtucket Times, published in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. My grandfather received an drafting degree from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) around 1915 but until I came across this newspaper photo, I had no idea that he played sports as a young man.

Tombstone Tuesday - Nathaniel Freeman

My 5th great grandfather is Nathaniel Freeman. He was born in 1740 in Norton, Bristol County, Massachusetts and died there July 27, 1793 at the age of 53. I was recently able to get a good (or better than my last!) photograph of this hard to read, lichen-covered tombstone.

Nathanial Freeman Tombstone
Norton Common Cemetery, Norton, Massachusetts

In memory of
En[.]ign    [Ensign]
Nathaniel Freeman
who died July 27th
[...]3, in the 53rd
Year of his Age.



Nathaniel is buried in the Freeman plot at Norton Common Cemetery in Norton, Massachusetts alongside his wife, Bethiah Hodges, and other relatives.

Acadia Mines Family

One of my father's cousins has a photo album that belonged to our Betts ancestors who immigrated to Rhode Island in 1884 from Acadia Mines (now Londonderry), Colchester County, Nova Scotia. Unfortunately, most of the portraits in this album are unidentified although most of the photographer's imprints are from Nova Scotia. One of these is the following group photograph.

unknown group
Acadia Mines, Nova Scotia

On the back of the photograph is the following stamp:

James O'Connell
Photographer
Acadia Mines, N.S.

I need to research when James O'Connell was active in Acadia Mines to more accurately date this early 20th century photo. It appears to show what is probably a family group in front of a small store. Are these Betts or Fulton or Wilson ancestors? Are there city directories from this area? Or can I determine store-keepers from the 1901 Canadian census? Would the Colchester Historical Society have listings of small shop-keepers for this period?  I will publish an update if I can find out any information about this photograph.