Hi, I live in middle Tennessee and enjoy strolling throughout cemeteries (especially old cemeteries) and wondering what kind of person is lying beneath my feet. What did they have to endure? How did they die? I could think of dozens of questions that go through my mind while walking through cemeteries....too many to list here. I am a retired United States Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer with almost 28 years of service (including 4 years in the US Navy) to America. Most of my family are/were veterans as well. My paternal ancestors arrival to America happened around the mid 1700s from Ulster, Northern Ireland. These peoples were originally from Scotland (hence the name Ulster-Scots) and they emmigrated from Scotland to Ireland, and then from Ireland to the United States. They arrived in Pennsylvania and found themselves in the middle of the French and Indian Wars; they headed to North Carolina to escape the violence. In due time, they migrated to South Carolina, and eventually ended up in the Middle-South Georgia area around Wilcox, Pulaski, and several other counties in the vicinity. During the Civil War, all the young men fought for the Confederacy during that tumultuous time in America's history. To the best of my research, I've discovered that some of my paternal ancestors fought in just about every war America has been involved in from the American Revolution to Vietnam. My mother was from present day Opatija, Croatia. This city used to be Abbazia, Italy, but because Italy was on the losing side of WW2, all of the Istrian Peninsula, which included Abbazia, was ceded to Josef Broz Tito and his Jugoslavian Communist partizans. My mother lived under the German occupation of Italy after Italy capitulated in 1943. My mother was forced to work for the Germans clearing brush to prevent Jugoslavian partisans from sniping at the German soldiers. The fact that my mother spoke fluent German probably saved her and her mom and sister from worse treatment. To her credit, Mom stated that not all the German soldiers were bad; many were young and just as scared as she was. Mom also endured bombing runs by American and British bombers, probably heading to and from German-held areas north of Abbazia, Italy and beyond. Due to inclement weather or German resistance, the bombers sometimes had to return to southern Italy where they were based still loaded with bombs, and for this reason, they sometimes bombed German occupied territories were my mom and her family lived in Abbazia, Italy. One of mom's best fiend was killed during one of these bombing runs. Mom's father was abducted by the Germans one night and didn't return until after the war. He was never the same. My mother didn't even know how he died in 1963. Mom became a refugee after the war and given the choice to stay in Abbazia and live under communism or leave for the port city of Trieste, Italy. She and her family chose Italy, while many of her cousins remained in Abbazia and became Jugoslavian citizens living under a communist government. She met my dad in 1951 and after my dad got back from fighting the Chinese in Korea, he was sent back to Trieste, Italy and they married in 1955. OK, I've bored you enough with my History. If I have one of your family on my FG memorials, and you wish me to transfer it to you, simply ask and it shall be done. If you have one of my family members, and I request it, I expect the same response please, and I thank you in advance. God bless us all and God Bless America!