Sunday's Obituary - Thomas Jefferson Burnett

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories - Christmas Cookies

What is it about the month of December that just makes cookies taste better? I must admit that I prefer savory foods to sweet, but I very much love Christmas cookies. When I was young, holiday baking and cooking were a big part of our Christmas traditions. There were many recipes we had to make every year:

• Divinity
• Caramel fudge (some people call this penuche)
• Marshmallow fudge
• Popcorn balls
• Sugar cookies
• Lemon drop cookies

Yes, we usually made all of the above every year. Clearly we leaned a bit more to the candy side than the cookie. My mother was the sugar cookie fan and she always made some to take to our annual Christmas celebration at my grandmother's house. We didn't get all Martha Stewart fancy in our decorating. Just two to three colors of powdered sugar icing and we were done.

But, by far the cookie that we loved then and still do today was my grandmother Burnett's lemon drop cookies. It is a very simple recipe, but yummy. And without these cookies it just isn't Christmas!

Lemon Drop Cookie recipe in my mother's handwriting. Note all the "love" splotches...a much used recipe mainstay!

The grandmother I never met...she would have been 90

Lois Burnett Kuhn

I just realized that today is my grandmother's birthday. If she were still living we would be celebrating her 90th birthday. I never got to meet my grandmother, as she died well before I was born, but she is the one ancestor I wish I could travel through time to meet. My father has told me countless stories about her and I can't help but think that I take very much after her. Happy Birthday!

Mildred and Ruth Burnett - Wordless Wednesday

"5 weeks old (July 1917); 3610 Prospect, Kansas City, Missouri"

This photo is of Ruth Butler Burnett and her first child Mildred Burnett. I love the "newness" of this photo. The new family, new baby, new neighborhood. Unfortunately, the beautiful houses are now run down and dilapidated; I love that this photo shows their glory days.

Military Monday: Killed in Action November 11, 1918

As I have mentioned, I am fascinated by my military ancestors. I enjoy tracking their service and have found ancestors that have participated in every major U.S. conflict. Except for World War I, that is. I have always been fascinated by that conflict, one that I felt was glossed over in the classroom. I never knew much about World War I, outside of my basic school-room knowledge, until I was able to visit the National World War I Museum in Kansas City, Missouri. The museum was designated by Congress as the nation's official World War I museum and re-opened in 2006 after having been totally redesigned. That visit inspired me to learn more about the war and I have since read books, novels, websites and more to understand the conflict better.

As a part of that desire, I hoped to find a relative that participated in World War I. No ancestors from my direct line participated in the War. I did find an ancestor on my husband's side that was enlisted during that time: Frank Herman Roelker. Frank did go overseas, but did not get to the conflict until after November 1918.

So the next option was to look into distant relatives. I finally found one on my father's side: James Smith Trabue. James was a very distant cousin by marriage and I stumbled across his WWI service quite by accident. I had received information on my Burnett family line written by Estella George Trabue. Estella had long since passed, but I was interested in knowing more about this family historian, a kindred spirit. Estella married James Smith Trabue in 1911. As I do with all ancestors, I went to Findagrave.com to see if I could locate their death information. I found SGT James Smith Trabue's headstone, which indicated that he had served in Company H, 356th Regiment, 89th Infantry Division, American Expeditionary Forces. The dates on James' headstone were 1890 to 1918. Did James die in combat?

James was buried in Missouri, so I decided to visit the Missouri State Archive's Digital History website and search their military records. What I found was astounding to me: James enlisted in September 1917 and served overseas from 4 June 1918 until 11 November 1918...the day he was killed in action. My relative, however distant, was killed on the final day of the conflict. I was now on a conquest to find out more about James Trabue. My next step was to visit the National Archives website and place a request for his service record. Because I was not a direct descendant from James I had to fill out Standard Form 180 to request his file. I made a copy of the document and then mailed it on 10 March 2010.

I had to wait a very long time for a response, and when it finally came on 18 October 2010 it was not good news. "Dear Sir or Madam: The record needed to answer your inquiry is not in our files. If the record were here on July 12, 1973, it would have been in the area that suffered the most damage in the fire on that date and may have been destroyed." The letter goes on to suggest that there may be a "casualty file" maintained by the Department of the Army and they gave contact information for the U.S. Army Human Resources Command. I sent the specific department mentioned an email, but never received a response.

But I have not given up. I will continue to look for information on James Trabue. I can't possibly quit looking for the story of James because not only am I kindred spirit of his genealogist wife, but I am also a military sister: I served with the 89th Infantry Division's descendant, the 89th Regional Readiness Command, as my first unit in my military career.

To Meet Tuesday: Lois Burnett Kuhn

I have decided to start my own blog prompt for Tuesday: To Meet Tuesday. I know what you are thinking...why not Meet Monday? Well, I like Military Monday too much. Anyway, this prompt is all about the ancestors you wish you could meet in person, if only for a little bit, and what you would say to them.

If I'm honest I would like to meet every ancestor I find, but I have no problem picking the first person I would want to meet. It would be my grandmother, Lois Burnett Kuhn. Lois was my father's mother and she died when he was only 18 of a heart attack. She was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri and following a divorce was a single, working mother. She was in her mid-twenties during WWII and worked in a factory...and fell in love with a Soldier. My father has told me many stories of his mother including how she used to roll up the carpet in their living room and make dad dance with her to big band music. I can imagine the two of them swinging around the room. From the stories I have heard from family she was an independent woman.



Leroy Kuhn and Lois Burnett
on their wedding day



If I met her I think I would tell her how much I have missed her. How much everyone has missed her. I would also tell her about my father and myself and what we have accomplished, although perhaps that is a waste as she probably already knows. No, maybe I would just focus on asking her about herself. Things she loved and hated, how she liked to spend her time. And before she left I would tell her how I believe I learned my independence, in part, from her.

It is a sad thing to me that I was never able to meet my grandmother. I'm not sure how I know, but I am positive we would have been peas in a pod. But even though she isn't here, she has been a big influence on my life. I have always thought of her watching and supporting me from wherever she is. We never met, but she has always been here.