My Trails into the Past

This past week I have attended the Texas Institute of Genealogy Research (TIGR), held virtually via Zoom. I'm taking the AI course coordinated by Nicole Dyer and her co-instructors Angela McGhie, Diana Elder, Mark Thompson, Steve Little, Jan Joyce, Alice Childs, Mark Humphries,   and Katherine Schober. It has been an action-packed class, with lots of hands-on practice using many pre-written prompts, as well as our own, in several different AI platforms: ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, AI Studio, and Gemini. I have practiced many different uses. I want to share one of those in this post. In the past, I wrote nine blog posts about my husband's father, George Joseph Gorrell, who was an Army Air Corps mechanic during WWII in England. In one exercise where we were to learn about our writing style and create a writing style guide, I used a project in ChatGPT, uploading the nine Word documents. The AI analyzed the writing and said:  "The style is ideal for a family history blog: war...

We are fortunate that family saved the letters that my father-in-law, George J. Gorrell, wrote during his service in England and Germany during World War II. These letters have been passed onto me and it’s time now to get them transcribed and shared to the rest of the family. I have written other posts about George’s service. George J Gorrell Served in the Army Air Corps During WWII US Army Air Corps Base in England Where George J Gorrell Served Letters Home, Using V-Mail George J Gorrell's WWII Service at Burtonwood Air Depot He served in the Army Air Forces at Burtonwood, a base northwest of Warrington in Cheshire, England. He was a landing gear repairman and served there from August 1943 until the war’s end, when he was shipped to Germany to do the same work there. In a letter to his oldest sister, Bertha, dated 17 September 1945, he described the trip to Germany from Montescourt, France aboard a train. It is ten pages but I will share only the parts where he descr...

My husband’s father, George J. Gorrell, served during World War II at the Army Air Force base, Burtonwood Air Depot, as a mechanic. Other posts about his adventures are here: George J Gorrell Served in the Army Air Corps During WWII US Army Air Corps Base in England Where George J Gorrell Served Letters Home, Using V-Mail George J Gorrell's WWII Service at Burtonwood Air Depot Today is the 75th anniversary of VE-Day (Victory in Europe).  On May 8, 1945, Nazi Germany surrendered to Allied Forces. George kept a diary of his adventures during the war. From April 28, 1945 to May 8, he  recorded the news of the war. April 28:    Mussolini reported executed. April 30:    Hitler reported by Germany to have died. May 2:       Italy’s German armies surrender, including South Austria. Heard news at Southport ARC. May 4:       North Germany, Holland, and Denmark Germans surrender. May 7: ...

This is my third year 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 have enjoyed writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways. This is a continuation of the story of George J. Gorrell’s service during World War II in the Army Air Forces. Previous posts: George J Gorrell Served in the Army Air Corps During WWII US Army Air Corps Base in England Where George J Gorrell Served Letters Home, Using V-Mail George J. Gorrell enlisted in the Army Air Forces on 27 July 1943 in San Francisco. [1] He was part of the group of men who were already working at air depots doing maintenance on airplanes. He was told he would be doing the same work. [2] In 1941, he had trained at Curtiss-Wright Technical Institute in Glendale, California and was awarded a diploma as Master Aviation Mechanic. [3] He also received training at the Sacramento ...

After my last post about the military career of George J. Gorrell during World War II, I worked at discovering where specifically he was stationed in England. He was a landing gear specialist and worked in maintenance of many types of planes.  George is on the right with his buddies It helped to re-read and type out his diary entries to see if I could gather any clues. On August 25, 1943, he wrote: Aug 25 (1943): Land sighted. Birds seen, convoy sighted. Land is rather mountainous....Ship now flying British flag. 5pm: Ship's first stop. Entering strait or bay. Beautiful country each side. Sub, also aircraft carrier and gunboats escorting. Passed through chain of mines opened for our ship. Gourock first, then to Greenock, Scotland, shipping center. [1] So the ship, Queen Elizabeth, sailed to Scotland. Checking maps online, I found Greenock in Scotland. The ship had to sail around the islands on the western side of Scotland and sail into the Firth of Clyde. Whe...

This is my third year 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 have enjoyed writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways. My husband’s father, George J. Gorrell, was twenty-eight years old when he was inducted into the Army Air Corps on 27 July 1943 in San Francisco, California. [1] He was single and had been living in Sacramento. Previously he had left his hometown of Webb City, Missouri to attend the Curtiss Wright Technical Institute in Glendale, California. [2] He completed the Master Aviation Mechanic Course of 1920 hours on 11 July 1941. He was living there as a student when he filled out the draft registration on 16 October 1940. [3] He later worked at the Sacramento Air Depot at the McClellan Field in Sacramento, California. He completed another course in Hydraulics on 25 May 1942. [4] His occupation there was a landi...