Adams News Clip - Sgt. Bellew Receives Award and Loses Left Eye

Yet another glorious find today - about my Grandmother's notification of her husband being wounded. The story isn't complete, not mentioning that prior to receiving word that he was wounded she actually received word that he was MIA. After further investigation, I found that he was more likely on a plane that did not return to base the evening of his last mission, being so damaged that it was forced to land at another base.

This article is again from the North Adams Transcript, dated August 16, 1944. Found on the NewspaperArchive website


I am sure that this article is too small and not clear enough to read so I've transcribed it here:

William P Bellew Receives Award
"Exceptionally Meritorious Achievement"
ALSO WOUNDED
Waist Gunner on Flying Fortress Injured While Over Germany - Wife Receives Messages

"Wounds that he suffered while on a bombing mission over Germany have been followed by the award of a second Oak Leaf Cluster for Staff Sgt. William P. Bellew, according to information received by the Transcript today from an eighth AAF Bomber station in England.

A letter received by his wife, Mrs. Dorothy Bellew of 11 Temple street last Friday from Sgt. Bellew said that he had lost his left eye but did not mention any other injuries. After the letter arrived Mrs. Bellew received a telegram from the War department stating that her husband was seriously wounded while over Germany on July 29.

The announcement from the Bombing station in England states that Sgt. Bellew, who is 26 years of age and the son of Mr. and Mrs. John Bellew of 19 Temple Street was a waist gunner on a B-17 Flying Fortress and that he was awarded a second Oak Leaf Cluster for "exceptionally meritorious achievements" during bombing attacks on Nazi military and industrial targets.

Sgt. Bellew was employed at the British embassy in Washington D. C., when he entered service in the Air corps Oct. 1, 1942. He received training at Chicago Ill., Salt Lake City, Utah and Ardmore Okla. His younger brother, John Bellew, Jr. was killed in action while serving with British forces at Dunkirk in 1940."

In case you missed it, I received replacements of all my Grandfather's medals from the Air Force back in February of this year.

Walter Leeming - Death Notice Found

Another fab find at the NewspaperArchives today!

Walter Leeming, my 2nd Great Grandfather who came to the US via Canada in the late 1890s has always been on my 'to do' list for finding a date of death. I knew he was still living in 1920 but found his wife as a widow in 1930, and honestly I hadn't investigated much further to find it. Today the newspapers came through for me again when I found this small write up:

So, if this was in the paper dated Tuesday Sept. 22, 1925 that would make his supposed date of death Saturday Sept. 19th, 1925.

Even if you can only subscribe for one month (which is what I've done) I suggest that anyone who has even small success in the 'free' areas of NewspaperArchives try it out for a month. I had a few successes in the free area, and I could see that there were clearly other articles that contained my family info which were not part of the free subscription - shameless they are in hooking you! But, for me it's been well worth the one month fee and I will get everything I can during the next 3 weeks!

The Search Continues

My yearly "Looking for Hugh Bellew" message has been posted to the message boards, and while I was thinking about Uncle Hugh, my thoughts turned to Uncle Al. What if the same fate came to Hugh? Unfortunately I may never know.

After much contemplation, I decided to publish this photo. I had wondered how others would feel about it, when I told the story of Alfred Bellew in a previous post here, at that time I wasn't comfortable putting it out there. His story is a sad one, as noted in the caption below this photo.



I'm still searching for Hugh, or at least information on what became of him. I know he was born about 1916 in Preston, England, his parents were John Bellew and Margaret McCann Bellew. I know that he came to the US with his mother in 1926. I also know that he graduated from the School of the Holy Trinity in Central Falls RI, and went on to live in North Adams Massachusetts in the 1940's. The family last heard from him in the 1950s, at which time it is believed he may have been in the area of Chicago. What we don't know is what ever became of him after that - there was no further contact.

Adams News Clip for the week

This week's social news clipping is a story about a party given for the 39th wedding anniversary of my Great Grandparents Joseph William Leeming and Sarah Hanna (Roe) Leeming.

News clipping image: Ancestry.com. North Adams Transcript (North Adams, Massachusetts) [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006. Original data: North Adams Transcript. North Adams, MA, USA. Database created from microfilm copies of the newspaper.

Adams News Clip Of The Week

I haven't written much about my 2nd Great Grandmother Jane Fountain Roe and came across this news clipping in my favorite little newspaper The Adams Transcript.

This article is again from the social pages, about a 69th birthday party in honor of Jane Roe. This clipping is from the paper dated August 13, 1935. Jane's birthday was August 10th. The party was held at the home of her daughter Sarah Leeming (my Great Grandmother - see stories about her "accidents" here and here).

Not sure what "musical program" was playing but I am very curious about what "Round Dancing" is.. anybody know?







This is a photo of Jane. We're not sure about the date of this photo, but she certainly appears to be in her 80s.

Jane died in March of 1958 at the age of 91, at a nursing home in Cheshire MA.







News clipping image: Ancestry.com. North Adams Transcript (North Adams, Massachusetts) [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006. Original data: North Adams Transcript. North Adams, MA, USA. Database created from microfilm copies of the newspaper

Adams News Clip for the week

As I've mentioned in previous posts, the social pages of newspapers in small towns are chock full of little tidbits about all the families in the area. If you took a few days off work sick, they wrote about it.. have a new baby? It's in there!

When I found this little notice about my Great Grandparents Joseph & Sarah (Roe)Leeming, I called and asked my Grandmother (their daughter) what had happened.


Apparently if your husband is in the hospital having an operation and you go to visit and fall down in front of the hospital on some ice... you guessed it, they wrote about it.

This clipping was in the North Adams Transcript newspaper 02/02/1934.

This is a seperate "fall" incident from the one that I wrote about here that also involved Sarah Leeming - which is worth a look for a good chuckle :-)




Image: Ancestry.com. North Adams Transcript (North Adams, Massachusetts) [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006. Original data: North Adams Transcript. North Adams, MA, USA. Database created from microfilm copies of the newspaper

Adams News Clip Of The Week

I mentioned in a previous post about a newspaper collection from the North Adams Transcript - a very small town paper in Mass. What a treasure that collection has been! In doing searches for my Bellew & Leeming families, I found an enormous amount of little stories and obits for family members who lived in that area. The best stories are found on the social pages - you couldn't have company, or catch a cold for that matter, without the whole town knowing about it. Imagine my surprise to find this article about 5 generations of family members gathered for a birthday celebration, but then imagine my shock to find a photo of my Great Great Grandmother (in the center of this photo, sitting down) staring back at me! The article was wonderful but the photo? I couldn't have asked for more! My Grandmother (who is still living - age 91) was as shocked as I was to see a photo of her Grandmother, Mother, Sister, Neice and Grand Nephew pictured in this photograph taken in 1956. What a find!!!

Pictured are Brian Gary Mull (baby), Jane Fountain Roe (seated), Edith Leeming Jones (left), Marjorie Jones Mull (center standing), Sarah Roe Leeming (right).

Image: Ancestry.com. North Adams Transcript (North Adams, Massachusetts) [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006. Original data: North Adams Transcript. North Adams, MA, USA. Database created from microfilm copies of the newspaper.

The REAL Story - Sarah Leeming falls and breaks ankle

I am absolutely amazed that this type of thing was considered news of the time but apparently the reporters back then were looking for every little tidbit to put in the local social section of the paper. This is totally not the kind of thing I was looking for when I started searching the Ancestry newspaper collection for the North Adams Transcript newspaper. North Adams is where my grandmother's family is from - much to my surprise, her mother was pretty well known around town... and not for her baking or parties!

This news clipping is about a woman, apparently on her way home from a local "restaurant" and she takes a fall in the street and breaks her ankle. The date is December 8th, 1952.

I can't believe I found this tidbit about my Great-Grandmother and immediately call my mother:

"Mom, I found this news clipping about Grandma Leeming, when she was knocked down and broke her ankle."

"Huh?"

"Yeah, it says that Sarah Leeming was walking home when two large boys came into the street and knocked her down, breaking her ankle." "It says she was walking home from the Greylock Restaurant."

..... Long Pause from Mom ........

"She was probably drunk." "The Greylock also was a bar that she went to, when I was a kid we used to have to go over there and get her sometimes."

Okay, so this conversation wasn't going where I wanted it to go, but my Mom has a great sense of humor and was already laughing at this point so we shared a good laughter moment and talked more about the article. I later talked to my Grandmother - Sarah's daughter and she said the same thing! "Yeah, she liked to have her drinks" she said.

I can tell you from this experience - be careful what you mention when you find it. What if Great-Grandma's drunkenness was a big family sore spot or secret that wasn't discussed? Many older generations simply didn't discuss such behavior (and lots of other stuff). I would've opened the genealogists can of worms and possibly upset my Mom and my Grandmother in the process! Keep in mind when you do find something that's possibly controversial, approach it gently, there could be reason why you haven't already been told about it.

In this case, I had no idea that the lady liked to drink so I kinda had an excuse :-)

Watch my blog for more interesting "Social News" from Adams!