Robert C. A. Anderson ~1893-april 28, 1924 Long Island

[Caroline Hale]

Hello. I appologize if I am posting this incorrectly; I am new to this forum.

I am trying to find the grave of my great-grand uncle, Robert C. A. Anderson who was born ~1893 and died april 28, 1924. He was from Long-Island, probably Huntington or Northport, New York. He was a soldier in the US Army in WW1, we believe a corporal. We do not have his service record, unit numbers or where he was based but we do know that he survived being gassed in France in 1918. Sometime after he came home it became apparent that he was not right. His wife came home one day to find him in the livingroom playing with his pistol. He said "Help me, I'm going to start shooting people." He was sent to a hospital, probably a psychiatric or VA hospital, probably in Kings County, new york where he died. His widow was not told what his cause of death was.

He and my great-grand aunt were married July 23, 1917 in Kings County, New York. She was an actress of Polish-Russian descent and as such changed her name a lot for stage. She was born Eugenia Mirskia but she also called herself Eugenia Jane Allen, Eugenia Allen, Jane Allen, Eugenia Jane Anderson and Jane Anderson. She lied about her birth year often so we don't have a precise birth year. Sometime between 1876-1890 something.

Mr. Anderson was reportedly and Odd Fellow and was a lineman for Bell telephone on long-island.

We do not know what the initials C. and A. stand for. We do not know his parent's names or specifically where he was born.

My great-grand aunt was young when he died (he was thirty one) and after he died she waited for death. She died when she was at least 105 years old. She spent the rest of her life crying if he was mentioned and writing poetry about him (which I have), so eventually people stopped asking or mentioning him.

I wish to know where he was buried so we can give him the respect he deserves and make sure that the grave is maintained.

My great grand uncle and my great grand aunt had no children together. Although I do suppose realistically it is possible that he could have had a child in Europe, but if he did we are not aware of it.

I have one photograph of him, but all that I can learn from it was that he was young, good looking and had a shy smile. And he was tall.

I've attempted to contact various state agencies and the VA to assist me in this search. All I will say about that it that I'm running into two brick walls: 1. I am not genetically related to him so there are easy ways to get this information that I am not qualified to request (apparently) and 2. He died before he could be issued a social security number and computers are set up to look people up by them.

And I guess 3, The odd fellows can only look him up by lodge number and we don't have that, however it must be said that they were very sweet about it.

I have sent off a formal request to the feds to try and request his military record, but because he married into my family it is very possible they may not help me.

It is very possible that no one on our side of his family has visited him in 50 plus years and I would very much like to fix that. I want to make sure that he has his flag.

I'm not even trying to get his medical records or his cause of death. Whatever it was it was tragic for everyone involved and I can't fix it.

But I am new to geneology searches and while I have learned a lot looking up other family members, this one seems ellusive and it bothers me viscerally that we don't know where he is.

If I ever met his genetic family I would tell them that he was apparently wonderful and that they should be proud.

If anyone has any information or advice it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

[sotonmate]

cheesehound

Welcome to the Great War Forum !

I did somewhere read that US Army service records for WW1 were lost in a fire,but can't recall the detail.

Having Googled the subject I get a website in St Louis MO,which,if you haven't tried ,you should give it a go !

http://www.archives.gov/st-louis/index.html

There are items on the left of the page to click on,one of which is Veterans. I suggest that you see what they have.

The other thing I would suggest is to seek more detail on the wedding. A register might show if he was already in the Army and may show his unit too.

Good hunting !

Sotonmate

Edit: Having now read the link I have posted (!!) I see that there is an item about the fire in 1970,which in fact destroyed the WW1 Army records.

[The Inspector]

Hi

WELCOME to the forum. This one is going to be difficult I think!!! Have you traced him on the 1920 USA census yet???

Regards Barry

[liverpool annie]

Hi cheesehound and welcome !

I don't have access to Ancestry right now but I wonder if Robert has a WW1 draft card ? ..... if he does that may give you a clue to start you off !

Annie

[Ian Murphy]

Cheesehound,

Welcome to the Forum and thank you for posting such an interesting and personal background on your great-grand uncle. I wish you every success in finding the information you are looking for.

Best regards,

Ian.

[linge]

This may be his draft card:

Regards

Pam

[linge]

This is probably the draft card of the brother of the above:

These two are on the 1910 US Census

Broadway, Brooklyn Ward, 28 King's New York

Mary M Anderson, widow, 39 Ireland (emmigrated 1882)

James A Anderson, son, 18 New York, Electrician Shop

Robert A Anderson, son, 16, New York, Rope Maker Shop

William Anderson, adopted son, 2, New York

Annie Anderson, adopted dau, 1 New York

1900 US Census

Manhattan District 406 West 33rd Street

Mary Anderson, Widow, 28, Aug 1871, Ireland (emmigrated 1888)

James Anderson, Son, 9, Apr 1891, New Jersey

Robert Anderson, Son, 7, Oct 1892, New Jersey

I believe this is Robert in 1920

Brooklyn Assembly District 22 Kings New York Cleveland Street

Robert Anderson, 27, New York, (Father born NY, Mother born Ireland) Installer Telephone Co

Jane Anderson, wife, 29, Texas, (Father born Russia, Mother born Russia)

Regards

Pam

[Caroline Hale]

Thank you all very, very much! I've just gotten off the telephone with my father who told me that the information is indeed correct. But here is the part that will likely as not make you laugh.

As I mentioned, my Auntie Jane was an actress. So was her younger sister who was my great-grandmother. Each chose about 15 stage names for themselves in an attempt to appear to be more American. As such, they and their brother all lied about where they were born, publicly proclaming themselves to have been born in Texas, a state they had never set foot in. In fact my great grandmother, in an early newpaper interview preposterously suggested that she had learned how to shoot and ride a horse in Texas. I would have loved to have seen that....

Additionally, my great-grand aunt was famous for lying about her age to the extent that towards the end of her life she had become younger than her sister who was at least 12 years younger than she.

The Texas lies got my great-grand uncle Julien in trouble. He was an engineer and in the 40's got a goverment contract of some sort. The goverment found out that he had lied about where he was born and there was an investigation. Apparently my grandfather and his father, both in the army in charge or armerments, vouched for him and I'm not sure quite how this worked but the charges were dropped.

we can account for my great grand aunt having lived for at least 105 years, but she could have been older.

There is one lesson to be learned, it makes it much easier for your relatives to look you up if you tell the truth about when you were born and what your name is.

I'm looking at the documents and realizing that we've just missed Mr. Anderson's birthday. His 117th?

Thank you all very much and peace be with all of you.

[Caroline Hale]

I want to thank everybody. We have finally learned where our great grand uncle is buried. He is at the St-John's cemetery in Queens, New York. The information you folks have given me helped in this discovery as well as to piece his short life together. I have also since learned upon being given a box of his uniform pins and buttons that he belonged to the 14th Infantry and was a Machine Gunner.

This summer we are planning a road-trip from Massachusetts to New York to visit his grave and make sure that his grave is respected and has a flag. I am also hoping that now I have the information I need and the understanding of how to use it to learn where he was in France in 1918 when he got gassed. When I started this project I didn't know much about how to research and everyday I am getting better.

Thank you.

Caroline Hale