RootsChat.Com

I am trying to track down any records or information available about the Ammunition Supply Depot at Marston Magna (O-680).  I have obtained copies of the "official" US Army histories of the facility, but they have provided no information about my father's service there.  Here is his story as I have reconstructed it from the fragmentary (and chiefly anecdotal) information available:

Shortly after completing officer candidate school and receiving promotion to 2nd Lieutenant in October 1943 my father, John A. Pellman, was assigned to the ammunition supply depot at Marston Magna.  It was there (we think) that he gained his first experiences of command -- over a unit composed chiefly of African-American conscripts -- experiences that had a profound influence on his later life and led him to become a civil rights activist in the '50s and '60s.  He was also involved in tracking down a trainload of lost ammunition that was vital to D-Day, an event we suspect also occurred while he was at Marston Magna (or possibly Cheltenham).

The US DoD claim that the details of his service record were destroyed in a fire in 1978, so all we can obtain from official sources are his dates of service, rank, serial number, Legion of Merit citation, and discharge certificate -- nothing that provides the specifics of his various postings and assignments during the War.  I know it's a long-shot, but I am hoping there are records or recollections in private hands that might shed light on his service ...

This is a longshot!  My grandfather, Leonard John WILLIS was born 09 July 1884 in Blackheath, Greater London to William Outhwaite WILLIS and Margaret Alice (BLENKIRON) Willis.  Sometime early in the 20th century, he traveled to Canada to seek his fortune -- probably 1900 to 1910.  No one in my family is quite sure what he did, but conjecture is that he may have headed for the gold fields in the Yukon.  Where he actually went in Canada is unknown.

We know that he married while in Canada, but his wife's name is unknown.  And legend is that his wife died, possibly from the hardships in the gold fields or other wilderness area.  He was so distraught that one of his aunts was despatched from England to gather him up and bring him home.  This occurred sometime prior to World War I, so I would suppose 1910-1915.

Apparently, he was conscripted into the British Army immediately upon his return.  He demobbed in 1917 or 1918, married my grandmother, and my mother was born 1919.  He remained in England for the rest of his life and died in 1942 in Sydenham.

We are now trying to reconstruct his life in Canada and would appreciate ANY suggestions for how to go about learning where he lived and worked, who he married, etc.  Don't even know where to begin.

Like thousands of others, I can trace a branch of my family back to William Dormer (1438-1506) of West Wycombe, whose parents were Geffery Dormer (1408-1478) and Ursula Collingridge (1407-1502), about whom Collins' Peerage of England states:  "He very much increased his estate by marriage with Ursula, daughter and heir of Bartholomew Collingridge, the heir general of Arundel, ..."  But from that point on, all information is sketchy and highly suspect.  Most online sources list Bartholomew's wife as Alice FitzAlan (c. 1385-1447), and his parents as John Collingridge (1355-?) and Margaret FitzAlan (c. 1360-?).  It is presumably by both his mother and wife being of the FitzAlans of Arundel that Bartholomew became "the heir general" to the Arundel estates (or what was left of them after Richard II distributed large portions of the Arundel estates to his cronies).

Alice FitzAlan is universally described as the daughter of Ranulph FitzAlan (1359-?) and Juliana "of Wycombe" (1361-?).  All of the online references to this relationship, however, cite one another and ultimately lead back to an unsourced citation in the LDS records.  There is no listing that I've ever been able to find of a Ranulph FitzAlan in any of the British peerage records or any other qualified source linking him to any known FitzAlan of Arundel.  He is also variously cited as Ranulf FitzAlan and Ralph FitzAlan.  Many skeptics have now come to describe Ranulph FitzAlan as either an outright fabrication or simply the son ("fitz") of someone unrelated to the Earls of Arundel named Alan.

I had nearly come to accept this verdict until I stumbled across a reference in Montague's Guide to the Study of Heraldry that discusses the unique arms of "Ralph de Arundel" as being "the arms of Arundel and Warenne flanched quarterly" and thus designating him as an illegitimate child of the House of Arundel.  Since the Warenne estates in Surrey did not pass to the Earls Arundel until 1347, none of the Ralph de Arundels prior to the Ranulph FitzAlan born 1359 would appear to qualify for these arms.  The same quarterings later appear in the Dormer arms.  Coincidence?

This Ralph de Arundel ("Radulphus de Arundell") was buried with his wife "Julyan" in the church at  Towersey, Bucks.  A marble slab in the chantry was quoted in Lee's The History, Description, and Antiquities of the Prebendal Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Thame (1883) as bearing the inscription:  "Pray for the soules of William and Christian his wife, also for Ralph Arundel and Julyan, also for Bartholomew Collingridge and Alys his wife and for their son William whose soules now her lyeth."  This is likely the source for assuming marital connections between these three families (FitzAlan, Collingridge, and Dormer).

I lack the wherewithall to fly to England to sort this all out, so I'm hoping that someone in Bucks can provide me with some guidance on how I might determine if "Ranulph FitzAlan" is also "Ralph de Arundel" and "Radulphus de Arundell", if he is indeed the illegitimate son of Richard FitzAlan ("Copped Hat") the 5th/10th Earl of Arundel, and father of Alice FitzAlan who married Bartholomew Collingridge.

I am looking for information about my gg-grandfather, David Kerr (aka David K. Kerr).  What I know thus far is that he was born in Dalton around 1828 to John Kerr (1786-1843) and Agness Johnstone (1806-??).  He married Mary Bell (1826-??) and had the following children that I know of so far:  James Kerr (1848-??), Agnes Bell Kerr (1849-??), (Rev.) John Kerr (1852-1920), Marion Jane Kerr (1854-??), Helen Kerr (1856-??) Elizabeth Kerr (1858-??), William Bell Kerr (1860-??), Margaret Kerr (1863-??), Mary Ann Kerr (1865-??), Sarah Kerr (1867-??), and David Kerr (1869-??).

I would like to find out his vocation, where and when he died, and where he spent most of his life -- or where I should begin to look to find these things out.