Genealogy Project
I was very surprised by many things that I found while doing my genealogy project. I previously had not known about certain sides of my family because of lack of communication. Unlike most families that are located in one area or are from a certain city, my family is scattered all around the United States and Europe. The side of my family I am closest to is my mother and her family. Her mother was from immigrants from Lithuania and her father was an abusive alcoholic. He is often left off of family trees and documents concerning the Conroy side of the family. My grandmother and her sisters have tried their best to erase any bit of him from their family history.
My maternal Grandfather, I call him Pops, is from the Philippines and has always tried to suppress that part of his life and does not talk much about it. Upon asking him about his side of the family, he told me that my mother has a tree that one of his siblings made while in the Philippines. I asked him when he had come over and how his time there was compared to the United States. He told me that he left in his mid twenties to come here for medical school, his father was a military man and highly disapproved of this plan. Since he went through with perusing his medical career rather than what his father wanted, he cut off most connection with my Pops. He was born in 1933 and left in his twenties so he was in the Philippines during the 1940’s, a time of violence by the hands of the Japanese.
I asked my Pops about WWII and he recalled one event where he was walking in a field and a group of Japanese soldiers started to shout at him, he ran and jumped into a fox hole to hide from them. He was spotted by one soldier that pointed his gun at him, he recalled looking down into the barrel of the gun and thinking his life was over. The soldier than laughed and told him something along the lines of “we have destroyed everything nearby, you’ll die soon anyway,” and then left him for death. I previously mentioned that my Great Grandfather was a military man, because of this he was targeted by the Japanese. He was taken prisoner and during his time as a POW was taken with roughly 70,000 other prisoners on a march to a new location at Camp O’Donnell, this is known as the Baatan Death March. He and an American soldier from Kansas were able to escape because of notes my Pops and his brother had smuggled to them.
I discovered from doing research on my father’s side that my great great grandfather immigrated from Sweden in 1889. I had originally been given a box with records that people had thrown in for generations. Upon looking through everything, I came across an image of a couple holding a little dog, the caption had placed them in Sweden. I could not read the rest of the text that accompanied the images because it was I Swedish. I then found a family tree of peoples names and their birth places in Swedish parishes, I searched to find any kind of connection between them. I looked up the most recent names on the tree in immigration records and could not find anything. I then finally found a handwritten note from my Grandpa Tucker discussing a man he called his grandfather who was named William Johnson, previously Justinius Pantasari. I had found my connection to the family after discovering that my Grandpa Tucker had been discussing his mothers father, not his fathers father.
My maternal Grandfather, I call him Pops, is from the Philippines and has always tried to suppress that part of his life and does not talk much about it. Upon asking him about his side of the family, he told me that my mother has a tree that one of his siblings made while in the Philippines. I asked him when he had come over and how his time there was compared to the United States. He told me that he left in his mid twenties to come here for medical school, his father was a military man and highly disapproved of this plan. Since he went through with perusing his medical career rather than what his father wanted, he cut off most connection with my Pops. He was born in 1933 and left in his twenties so he was in the Philippines during the 1940’s, a time of violence by the hands of the Japanese.
I asked my Pops about WWII and he recalled one event where he was walking in a field and a group of Japanese soldiers started to shout at him, he ran and jumped into a fox hole to hide from them. He was spotted by one soldier that pointed his gun at him, he recalled looking down into the barrel of the gun and thinking his life was over. The soldier than laughed and told him something along the lines of “we have destroyed everything nearby, you’ll die soon anyway,” and then left him for death. I previously mentioned that my Great Grandfather was a military man, because of this he was targeted by the Japanese. He was taken prisoner and during his time as a POW was taken with roughly 70,000 other prisoners on a march to a new location at Camp O’Donnell, this is known as the Baatan Death March. He and an American soldier from Kansas were able to escape because of notes my Pops and his brother had smuggled to them.
I discovered from doing research on my father’s side that my great great grandfather immigrated from Sweden in 1889. I had originally been given a box with records that people had thrown in for generations. Upon looking through everything, I came across an image of a couple holding a little dog, the caption had placed them in Sweden. I could not read the rest of the text that accompanied the images because it was I Swedish. I then found a family tree of peoples names and their birth places in Swedish parishes, I searched to find any kind of connection between them. I looked up the most recent names on the tree in immigration records and could not find anything. I then finally found a handwritten note from my Grandpa Tucker discussing a man he called his grandfather who was named William Johnson, previously Justinius Pantasari. I had found my connection to the family after discovering that my Grandpa Tucker had been discussing his mothers father, not his fathers father.
Paternal SideLance N. Tucker
A biography about my Grandpa Tucker that was found in a family journal.
Hand written documents from my Grandpa Tucker (John Tucker) about the family, including information given to him from his aunts regarding their family (his maternal side).
Army documents from my great grandfather (Chester Tucker)
A book containing information on families from a Parish in Sweden, including information on the Pantasaris, that was given to my Grandpa from his aunts.
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Maternal SideAileen C. Tucker
The first page of the family tree, beginning with Juan Perez and Maria Soriano
The first mention of my Grandfather in the family tree (4 generations from the originators)
My mother and her siblings mentioned, along with my grandfathers brother, sister, and their children.
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