77th Division Items

[Shoreleave]

Greetings Folks! This is my first posting on here so bear with me. Figured you all might be interested in seeing some of the items I have from my Great Grandfather. He's got an interesting story in that he immigrated to the US from Bremen, Germany around 1907-1908. So I have his German birth certificate, his passport AND ... notification from the German Army that he was not fit for service. He took up residence in New York City upon his arriving in the US and come WWI, was drafted. You can see both his draft cards in the documents pictures. His involvement is rather unknown to us. My Grandfather said that he used to have his Captain's saddle and that during the war he was in charge of the Captain's horse, however, no one is quite sure as to what Captain that was referring to. His discharge paperwork shows his participation in the major offensives but I'm guessing with his being in the Message Center, he was more rear guard than anything.

 

The cartoons and map I take particular interest in. The artist that drew the cartoons is unknown to us but they provide a little glimpse into the life they lived and the map just provides a neat view of what Germany looked like at the turn of the century. I ended up with a good number of oddball documents from him, mess tickets, leave chit to Paris, various pictures and postcards from Camp Upton and the ship that took them across the Atlantic. Just fun items that bring a little more life to a man I never had the pleasure to meet.

 

If anyone out there has neat anecdotes in regards to any of the items posted, or possible further information on Oswald Hugo Wehmann, I'm all ears!

 

Photos: https://goo.gl/photos/fMKRJ1AYGFFGNV1J6

 

-Shoreleave

 

 

[tarbridge]

Welcome to the forum and Thank you for taking the time to post.I have resized your images and posted them directly here on the forum...we do not use outside image hosting...the links get removed or go dead and the thread becomes useless.Please use our uploading for images.

[tarbridge]

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[littlewilly]

Thanks for posting these. It's great to see stuff like this still remains in the family. Family history should remain family history. My wife's Grandfather was a 7th Division veteran, and I had many cups of coffee with Grandma over the first several years of marriage listening to her stories passed on from him, along with looking at a number of photos he had of his service. When Grandma passed, the items all went into piles of stuff my sister-in-law decided to sell at an estate auction. No mention of this was made to any family member, and by chance my wife and I had time to go to the sale, not knowing what we would find. Grandma had a passion for 1890's-1920's colored holiday postcards, and several albums of hers were at the sale. We bid on and won two, and to my surprise some of Grandpa's WWI photos and paperwork were in one of them. Sadly, most of the stuff I got to see early on with Granny was gone to others. Other family heirlooms also showed up at the sale, some of which we managed to win so that they will stay in the family for a couple more generations. My wife and her sister do not speak to each other much these days. Cherish these items, and remember what your went through for our benefit today. If there is no one to pass these items on to after you, please consider a donation to your local museum. MHJ

[David D]

Those are are some great items. Thanks for posting.

[Shoreleave]

Thanks for posting these. It's great to see stuff like this still remains in the family. Family history should remain family history. My wife's Grandfather was a 7th Division veteran, and I had many cups of coffee with Grandma over the first several years of marriage listening to her stories passed on from him, along with looking at a number of photos he had of his service. When Grandma passed, the items all went into piles of stuff my sister-in-law decided to sell at an estate auction. No mention of this was made to any family member, and by chance my wife and I had time to go to the sale, not knowing what we would find. Grandma had a passion for 1890's-1920's colored holiday postcards, and several albums of hers were at the sale. We bid on and won two, and to my surprise some of Grandpa's WWI photos and paperwork were in one of them. Sadly, most of the stuff I got to see early on with Granny was gone to others. Other family heirlooms also showed up at the sale, some of which we managed to win so that they will stay in the family for a couple more generations. My wife and her sister do not speak to each other much these days. Cherish these items, and remember what your went through for our benefit today. If there is no one to pass these items on to after you, please consider a donation to your local museum. MHJ

Wow, that's is quite unfortunate those items were just up and sold without asking the family. I'm very glad you were able to save at least a few. I was lucky, my Uncle's all knew I was a history buff so all of these items were earmarked for me at a young age. We almost lost the diary he kept through Armistice to my grandfather's second wife when they split. According to my uncle's some original photos departed our family thanks to her. I guess some people just don't understand the familial value these items hold. Anyways, glad I was able to share.

[Shoreleave]

Welcome to the forum and Thank you for taking the time to post.I have resized your images and posted them directly here on the forum...we do not use outside image hosting...the links get removed or go dead and the thread becomes useless.Please use our uploading for images.

I appreciate the assist on this. I'll see about learning how to resize so the upload function works for me in the future!

[tarbridge]

I appreciate the assist on this. I'll see about learning how to resize so the upload function works for me in the future!

Here is a link designed by a member to use on the forum.

 

http://ben-major.com/tools/usmf-resize.php