OUR STORY FINDING JOHN (JACK) MASKELL JR'S FAMILY

 

BY BEN & SUSAN LANE

January 20, 2003

 

Our story starts out with Ben working for the Army Awards Branch and back in September 2002 he brought home a mailing tube that the U.S.Postal Service had forwarded to his office. They had found it in an old mailbag in the Atlanta,Georgia postal facility. It was dated 1945 and addressed to Mrs. Edith W. Maskell. The documents in the tube had the name of her son,  a young Army soldier who was killed in action at Kaledorn,Germany during World War II and buried in the American Cemetery at Henri Chapelle,Belgium, at the age of 19.

 

My search began with Ancestry.com trying to locate the family on the 1930 census and death index for mother and father. I found the 1930 census and there was listed the parents' names along with John Jr and his siblings. I then contacted Kay Paletz with the Trenton Library. Kay does obituary lookups and I asked if she would be willing help me with that. Kay was very interested in our story and tried to help with the little information I provided her. Especially when I told her Ben discovered that John Jr was buried overseas in 1945 and his military record had been destroyed in the July 1973 fire at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis.

 

I searched and found John Sr's death index and he was living in Orlando,Florida at the time of his death in July 1966. From there I searched on the internet for a volunteer to do an obit lookup for Orlando,Florida. I contacted Lisa G. who works in the genealogy department at the Orlando,Florida library. She found our story interesting and said she would do a Florida death index search on the father to see if he actually died in Florida.

 

In a couple of days Lisa phoned me to say that she was pretty sure John Sr. did not die in Florida and that there would probably not be an obituary in a Florida newspaper on him. She also searched the city directories and found John Sr. living there from 1965-66 as a roomer. If anything, Kay & Lisa were there for me to chat and throw ideas back and forth. I am grateful for both of these women's support and to their volunteers that might have assisted them during this time.

 

Later Ben thought to inquire on a deceased personnel file for John Jr. maintained at the Washington National Records Center in Suitland,Maryland, and that took several weeks to obtain. Once it did arrive it held the info we needed to find John Jr's family. The deceased fild had tidbits of information such as John Jr. was buried overseas in the American Cemetery at Henry Chapell,Belgium, and was killed in action at Kaledorn,Germany. It contained letters between his  father and the military concerning having John Jr's body returned to the states for burial in November 1947. It told us the name of the Bugsbee Funeral Home that handled John Jr's burial. The name of the funeral home is now called Riggs-Bugsbee.

 

Ben spoke to Jay at Riggs-Bugsbee funeral home and was told that their records didn't go back to 1947. Since we were searching for an obituary for both father and son, Jay gave Ben the name of the newspaper that would have been in print when John Jr's body was brought back to the states in 1947 for burial. Jay also said the name of the cemetery was now called Greenwood and not Cedar Run. We then contacted the Asbury Park Press and The Trenton Times online for an obit lookup. At this time we have not heard back from either newspaper. We searched online for weeks and  I then went back online and found another volunteer in NJ and sent an email asking if they could do an obit lookup on John Jr for November 13, 1947.

 

On Monday, January 13, 2002, I mentioned to Ben that he should try to phone Jay at Riggs-Bugsbee funeral home asking for directions to the Greenwood Cemetery. Jay then gave us a phone number for a lady by the name of Dee who lives in Manahawkin, NJ, where the cemetery is located to help us with our search. Ben phoned Dee on Monday and she was very interested in our story and said she would get back to him by Thursday or Friday. In the meantime, Kay Paletz, a librarian in NJ that I had been in contact with contacted another librarian in Ocean County, NJ and got the address for the Greenwood Cemetery for us. Dee phoned Ben back on Wednesday telling us that John Jr. was buried there with both parents in Section 3, lot 45. She also gave Ben's work number to the President of the cemetery Mr. Hazelton. Dee mentioned that Mr. Hazelton knew the Maskells and said he would be phoning Ben.

 

With all these new leads, we knew we wanted to make a trip to Manahawkin, NJ to the cemetery and see for ourselves what we could find there. On Friday, January 17, 2003 we headed for Manahawkin, NJ.

 

It took us 4 1/2 hours to get to Manahawkin,NJ. We drove in on highway 72 which intersected with 9 and the cemetery was about one block from that intersection. It is a very old cemetery that is kept up nicely by those that have family plots there. It had snowed the night before and most of the headstones were covered with snow and it ws windy and very cold. It was pretty easy finding the section the family is in, but finding the gravesites took a bit of walking around. We were in luck as all the flags from Veterans Day last November were still on the vets headstones so we started searching through those first. Ben and I had been searching for about 15 minutes when I looked up to see where Ben was and then looked back down and all I could see on that particular headstone at my feet was the birth & death dates. I knew then it was our John Maskell Jr. from the date that I was so familiar with all these months. I yelled out for Ben and he came running over and brushed the snow off the headstones. At this point we were very excited.

 

John Sr. and wife Edith W. Maskell have one headstone. They were together the whole time until she died in 1964. What confused us earlier about their being seperated was the two different addresses for the parents in John Jr's deceased file and then I could not find a death index on Edith W. and so I  figured she had remarried.

 

Next to John Jr. is Ernest V. Maskell, (brother) he died at the age of 20 in December 1947. I then realized that John and Ernest were buried at Greenwood Cemetery about 6 weeks apart. How sad for this family to have had to bury two sons in the same year.

 

I looked up and I was staring at a huge headstone with the name CHIPMAN on it. It was William B. Chipman and wife Edith M. (John Jrs. eldest sister). Edith just died October 2001 and on the headstone for these two people was the name Heritage Monuments engraved at the bottom. We immediately remembered seeing Heritage Monuments on the drive in on route 72.

 

We headed for Heritage Monuments and spoke to a real nice young woman who shared Edith's daughters name and address with us. I am sorry that I did not get this young woman's name. It is a family owned business and she was most helpful in giving us the information we needed for closure to our search for the Maskell family.

 

We spent the weekend visiting with my sister and her husband and I phoned June Chipman Sheely Monday night when we returned from New York. She was very excited with our news. I immediately inquired as to whether her aunt Dorothy was living. We had a nice chat about the family and June said she would scan one of the old Maskell family photos and send it to us online so we could meet them.

 

Dorothy Maskell Mras, sister of John Jr. is living in Orlando,Florida. Her address was the one that showed up on the 1965-66 city directory that Lisa G. found. John Sr. was living in a small apartment that was attached to the back of Dorothy's home. Her being married and having a different name we would have had no reason to make the connection when Lisa G. found him listed there.

 

I spoke to both sister and niece and they are very excited about this find of their brothers certificate. June & her husband live in Lancaster,Pennsylvania and both work for the Postal Service.......what a coincidence.

 

Ben received a phone call at work from Mr. Hazelton and had a nice chat with this gentleman. He knew the Maskell family, dated Dorothy, sister of John Jr. Mr. Hazelton said that John Jr. (Jack) worked for his family at one time as a helper on a milk delivery truck.

 

John also received a Bronze Star Medal for meritorious achievement in ground combat. His sister Dorothy told me that he was in England for his 19th birthday and was sent as a replacement in March 1945 to the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen,Germany.

 

They speak of this on the documentary "Band of Brothers". Dorothy said that in that documentary the original men said they wouldn't speak or get to know these young replacements when they arrived because they knew they were untrained and were most likely going to be killed. Ben and I will be interested in watching this documentary on these brave heroes.

 

On Tuesday I received an email from Brian and Kim, obituary lookup volunteers that I had contacted. They had found John Jr's obit and how fitting to have found it at this time of our search. It brings closure for us at this time after finding the family and we are most grateful to them for their help.

 

I am trying to email all those that helped us with finding this family to thank them and tell our story.

 

Thank you all for your help and support during these past months.

 

Many thanks to.

 

Kay Paletz,, Trenton, NJ library, volunteer.

 

Lisa G. Genealogy Dept. at Orlando, Florida library, volunteer.

 

Jay,  Riggs-Bugsbee Funeral Home, Barnegat, NJ

 

Dee,  Greenwood Cemetery, Manahawkin, NJ.

 

Heritage Monuments, Manahawkin, NJ.

 

Brian and Kim, [email protected] obit volunteers.