This Week's Webinar: Identifying Missing Canadian Service Personnel

Historical Photo credit: Library and Archives Canada

Nearly 28,000 members of Canada's Army, Navy, and Air Force who have served in the First World War, the Second World War or the Korean Conflict went missing or have no known grave.

Mags Gaulden is a member of the Canadian Casualty Identification Team whose job it is to attempt to identify newly discovered human remains of military personnel who went missing during active service.

She is a Professional Genealogist specializing in Genetic Genealogy as founder of Grandma’s Genes in Ottawa. Growing up in a family full of family historians, Mags was primed to become a Genealogist. After earning her Bachelors Degree from Columbia College, she began to work her own Genealogy as a “hobby”. This 30 year “hobby” eventually lead her to a Leader role with WikiTree, where she currently leads: the the DNA Project, the United Empire Loyalist Project, and the British Home Children Project. She also leads the Templeton and McElmoyle Name Studies and the McElmoyle DNA Project. Work with WikiTree led to Mags starting Grandma’s Genes in 2016. Mags is a Genetic Genealogy Lecturer, Blogger and a Social Media Maven. She serves as Admin for Facebook groups including the ISOGG FaceBook Group. 

Mags will by my guest this week on the webinar. Don't miss out on what is surely going to be a fascinating and heart-warming interview.

Thursday November 8
1:00 pm ET | 12:00 noon CT | 11:00 am MT | 10:00 am PT | 6:00 pm GMT | 7:00 pm CET

Friday November 9
4:00 am AEST | 5:00 am AEDT | 7:00 am NZDT

REGISTER HERE to save your spot for this week's Genealogy with a Twist webinar.

© Copyright by Kathryn Lake Hogan, 2018. All Rights Reserved.

Remember Them: Private Leslie Gerald Lake

Private Leslie G. Lake,  4th Perth Regiment, Canadian Forces, c. 1941,
digital image held by Kathryn Hogan.

Telegram received by Les' father, Herbert Lake advising him  Les had been dangerously wounded in combat. 1

Letter received by Herbert Lake notifying him of the death of his son,
Private Leslie Gerald Lake. 2

Sources:
1 "Canada, WWII Services Files of War Dead, 1939-1947," database and images. Ancestry.ca [http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 11 Nov 2015], entry for Leslie Gerald Lake: citing Canada, Ottawa: Library and Archives Canada, "Services Files of the Second World War - War Dead, 1939-1947," RG 24, v. 26296.

2 IBID.

Copyright by Kathryn Lake Hogan, 2015.

Free Access to Historic Canadian Military Records

Photo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lest_we_forget.jpg

November 11 is Remembrance Day in Canada. The opportunity you have been waiting for to research your Canadian military war ancestor has arrived. Until November 12th, 2013, Ancestry.ca is offering FREE access to all its Canadian Military Records collection.

Go research your military ancestor who served in the Canadian forces, and learn more about your family.

 
Copyright by Kathryn Lake Hogan, 2013.

Remembrance Day 2011

In Flanders Fields
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918) Canadian Army

IN FLANDERS FIELDS the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.






Lest We Forget.

Remembering Les

In Honour of Private Leslie Gerald Lake, 1918 - 1944

Private Leslie Gerald Lake, 4th Perth Regiment, circa 1940. Digital copy of photograph. Privately held by Kathryn Lake Hogan UE, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Windsor, Ontario. 2004.

Leslie Gerald Lake was born 18 March 1916 in Kirton Holme, Boston, Lincolnshire, England. He was the second youngest child of Herbert and Fanny (Crawford) Lake. Les immigrated to Canada with his family in 1926. The family eventually settled in London, Ontario.

Les and his brother, Ray (my grandfather) enlisted in the army in St Mary's, Ontario. Ray was not accepted for overseas duty as he had curvature of the spine. Les served as a private in the 4th Perth Regiment. He was part of the Canadian Division who fought against the Germans in Ortona, Italy in December 1943 and January 1944. It was a horrible battle. Many men died or were wounded. It was the only battle in which the Perth Regiment did not succeed in its objective.

Les was first reported wounded in The London Free Press. However, the next day the paper reported that he had actually died of shrapnel wounds.

The London Free Press, "Wounds Fatal". London, Ontario, Canada, January 1944, page 4.

Uncle Les died of shrapnel wounds on Thursday, January 20, 1944. He was 27 years old. He was not married and he had no children. He is buried in the Moro River Canadian War Cemetery in Ortona, Italy.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission, The Maple Leaf Legacy Project and Veterans Affairs Canada among others are all working hard to keep the memory alive of the men and women who served Canada to keep it "the true North, strong and free".

Digital image of page 357, The Books of Remembrance - Second World War, listing Pte. Leslie Gerald Lake, Perth Regiment.

Last week I received an email from a secondary school teacher located in Woodstock, Ontario. Thirty of her students will be travelling to Italy next week. Each student has been paired with one Canadian soldier who was killed at the Battle of Ortona or during the Italian Campaign in World War II. One of these students is representing Private Leslie Gerald Lake. This student will be participating in a ceremony on November 25, 2008 in Ortona, Italy.

Uncle Les will not be forgotten.