Grandpa was a Bugler

I pulled out mother's Certificate of Birth which I had sent to Connecticut for and studied it.  I was definitely intrigued by Grandpa Canty being from the South; however, I was also excited to see while in the U.S. Army and stationed at Fort H. G. Wright, he was a bugler.  I was a clarinetist myself.  Right off the bat, we had something in common, even if it was just that we had a lot of hot air to blow.

I thought it quite romantic that Grandma Fannie and Grandpa Canty met while he was away from home and stationed near New London as that was exactly how my father met my mother.  Being from California and stationed in New London for submarine school during WWII. 

Fort H.G. Wright where Grandpa Canty was playing his bugle was located between 1879 and 1948 on Fishers Island which is off the tip of Long Island.  When I visit Connecticut in the future, it is on my list of places to visit.  [The picture attached here is of a U.S. Army Bugler in 1910, around the same time my Grandpa Canty was in the Army.  This picture is not of him, however.]

Beginning Steps

Nellie Frances Canty was born in New London, Connecticut in 1912.  The first step I took to find out more about my mother was actually the old fashioned way.  I wrote a letter to the clerk in New London and paid for my mother's birth certificate.  When it finally arrived, I not only learned where she was born, I learned for the first time about her parents.   This birth certificate was actually established not when she was born but 30 years later in 1942 by her mother via a sworn affidavit.  Because of this, the information about my grandfather was really based on grandma's memory and not on actual records. 

On this affidavit, my grandmother listed her name as Fannie Billings Enos Canty Saunders.  Fannie was born in 1890 in New London, Connecticut.  Grandfather's name was listed as Thomas Walter Canty.  His occupation was Bugler-U.S. Army - Fort H.G. Wright.  His birthplace was listed as Augusta, Georgia; however, later I found out that he was really born in Barnwell, South Carolina.

This was an exciting experience.  That first rush of adrenaline that comes with finding a new piece of information that previously was unknown.  Since I really didn't know my mother, this was the beginning of making her a real person in my mind.