Gone for Soldiers: Josiah Haralson Freeman (1897 - 1950), Sailor

He was born in rural Morgan County, Georgia, which is nowhere near the ocean but Josiah chose to enlist in the U.S. Navy in 1917.

[Ancestry.com. Georgia, World War I Service Cards, 1917-1919 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013. Original data: Georgia Adjutant General’s Office. World War I Statements of Service Cards. Georgia State Archives, Morrow, Georgia.]

I found a photograph of his ship, the U.S.S. San Francisco, at the Library of Congress.

[U.S.S. San Francisco. Detroit Publishing Company photograph collection (Library of Congress)]

He must have found life at sea attractive because four months after his discharge from the Navy he applied for his Seaman's Protection Certificate in New Orleans.*

*You can see a picture of Josiah (who is my second cousin, twice removed) in this earlier post.

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: Josiah Haralson Freeman (1897 - 1950), Seaman

In 1919 Josiah H. Freeman (a second cousin, twice removed) was issued his seaman's protection certificate* in New Orleans. 

[Ancestry.com. U.S., Applications for Seaman's Protection Certificates, 1916-1940 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Original data: Application for Seaman's Protection Certificates, 1916-1940. 1151 Boxes. NAID: 2788575. Records of the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation, 1774-1982, Record Group 41. The National Archives at Washington, D.C.]

His application lists the birthplaces of his father Leroy W. Freeman and himself, both of whom were natives of Georgia. Josiah had enlisted in the U.S. Navy during World War I and apparently found the lure of the sea was stronger than his attachment to his Georgia home.

[Ancestry.com. U.S., Applications for Seaman's Protection Certificates, 1916-1940 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Original data: Application for Seaman's Protection Certificates, 1916-1940. 1151 Boxes. NAID: 2788575. Records of the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation, 1774-1982, Record Group 41. The National Archives at Washington, D.C.]

As far as I can tell he never lived in Georgia again, residing first in Baltimore, Maryland, and then in Washington D.C. In his 1942 draft registration card he listed his place of work as the U.S. Government Navy Yard and named his mother as his nearest relative.

[Draft Registration Cards for District of Columbia, 10/16/1940 - 03/31/1947, Fold3.com. Original source: The National Archive.]

Josiah died at the age of 53 and is buried in the National Cemetery in Baltimore.

He was named for his great great grandfather Josiah Freeman, the ancestor we both trace to.

[Ancestry.com]

*Christine shared a much earlier version of the same type of certificate for her paternal fourth great grandfather Solomon Joseph Hartley (1775-1815).


© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Memento Mori: Memorial Day

James Chappell Warren, Jr., my paternal grandfather, served in the U.S. Navy during World War I.
We don't have his portrait so this Draft Registration card has our only physical description of hiim.

[Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005. Original data: United States, Selective Service System. World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration.]

We found out the ships he served on through the headstone application filed by his sister Mary Ann in 1936, two years after their mother's death.

[Ancestry.com. U.S., Headstone Applications for Military Veterans, 1925-1963 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Original data: Applications for Headstones for U.S. Military Veterans, 1925-1941. Microfilm publication M1916, 134 rolls. ARC ID: 596118. Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, Record Group 92. National Archives at Washington, D.C.]

[U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.]

[New Hampshire in the Hudson River in December 1918]

© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.