My Trails into the Past

My dad’s next oldest sister, Virginia, graduated from Napa Union High School in 1942 and went on to work at the Navy Yard at Mare Island in Vallejo. [1] I have no idea how she got to work, but perhaps there were buses from Napa to the base. This is something I wished I had asked, but I only learned about my aunts working there after they had passed. I ordered her civilian personnel file from the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, a branch of the National Archives, and the papers in the file tell a bit of her story. She applied on 8 June, just days after graduation. Her sister, Lorene, and her cousin, Margaret, were already working there. She started out as a junior messenger in the Planning Division of the Industrial Department, making $600 per year. Less than a month later, she resigned from the position in order to accept a new position. On 30 June, she accepted the position of junior typist in the same department, paying $1260 per annum. On 16 December 1942, she w...

I am working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow . I will write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or at My Trails Into the Past . I’m looking forward to writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways. I have written previously about my paternal aunt, Lorene Hork, who went to Japan to work for the U.S. Army. She left me a collection of the letters she wrote home from Japan and from her trip across Asia and Europe on her return home. See this post and this post . Because she worked for the federal government, I sent for her official personnel file from the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis. It was simple; just send a letter with the request. I received an envelope full of photocopies—a total of 110 pages! And at no charge. A surprise was in the packet. Lorene had also worked for the U.S. Navy at the Mare Island Naval Yard during World War II. The naval base was located in Vallejo, only about twen...