Honoring Women Vets of World War I

Veterans Day is coming soon. And Yes! Women served back in World War I, a fact which has nearly been forgotten.    Here's a reposting about their service..

Next month marks 100 years since the United States went to war again Germany and the other members of the Central Powers in the Great War – later called World War I. This month, we celebrate Women’s History Month. Hence my post: to introduce five young women whose war stories I share in  In the Fields and the Trenches: The Famous and the Forgotten on the Battlefields of World War I.

Irène Curie, daughter of the groundbreaking physicist Marie Curie, served as an x-ray technician along the Western Front, driving her “petite Curie” vehicle with portable x-ray equipment to diagnose soldiers’ injuries. Still in her teens, she confronted both the French Army and its doctors in order to carry out her work.                                                                                                         

Katherine Stinson Otero, America’s “Flying Schoolgirl” crisscrossed the US and Canada in her plane to entertain crowds and sell Liberty Bonds. She ached to fly for the US Army but was forced to settle for driving an ambulance in France.

Eleanor Butler Roosevelt, wife of Theodore Roosevelt Jr., ran a YMCA for American doughboys in Paris. She was one of few American wives allowed to serve in France.

Elsie Janis, a famous actress, raised her own money to tour France to entertain the troops, whom she lovingly termed “my boys.” She once arrived at a show standing on the cowcatcher of a locomotive. (My Aunt Jan was named for Elsie.)

Helen Johns Kirtland, American photographer who went to the trenches on her honeymoon and snapped memorable photos of the war and peacemaking afterward.

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I’m sharing an easy activity: tap—or point and click—your way to some top websites on World War I. Imagine my surprise when I looked at Grandpa's draft card—it's transcribed incorrectly.  Frederick Corban Logan, as recorded, was actually Frederick Urban Logan. Someone at the National Archives couldn’t read old fashioned cursive! 

Library of Congress portal https://www.loc.gov/topics/world-war-i/

“World War I: Online Offerings” from the March/April 2017 Library of Congress Magazine https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2017/02/world-war-i-online-offerings/

100: First World War (United Kingdom) http://nationalarchives.gov.uk/first-world-war/

The National Educational Assoc. offers a wide-ranging set of links to useful website to help target your research http://www.nea.org/tools/lessons/60045.htm/

A private individual has built FirstWorldWar.com/, admittedly non-academic but worthwhile. http://www.firstworldwar.com/about.htm/

Take a family trip down memory lane by ordering the war record of your World War I soldier: https://www.archives.gov/research/military/ww1

Find your loved one’s draft card here: https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1968530