"What is on the flip side?"

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As time passes by, I realize more & more why I often have "brick walls" in my genealogy research! I run into these barriers that keep me from learning more... mostly because I am careless and fail to look where I need to check. I am reminded of the saying: "leave no stone unturned." How often do we forget to look on the "flip-side" (back side) of such things as old photographs, documents or stone markers!

Yesterday, for "Monument Monday" I posted a photo of a Viet Nam Memorial Plaque that I had stumbled upon on the Downtown Walkway while I was taking pictures of the new arena being constructed. From the photo I had noticed that there was not a dedication date or date of erecting the marker. Several bloggers noted that the dedication date was on the back side of the monument! Don Counts sent me a photo! I have posted that today. As the commentator Paul Harvey used to say, "Now for the Rest of the Story!" the monument was dedicated on 29 Jan 1973 and the back side lists a dozen more Viet Nam War soldiers killed in that war.
Don also sent us the picture of him kneeling in front of the new memorial for Viet Nam soldiers. I wonder if anything is on the back of this marker! [Click on photos to get larger images.]Note the new memorial is located near the Ohio River Plaza, not far from the museum. The building in the background is a pump station for the Evansville/Vanderburgh Levee Authority District (EVLAD).
- Photos taken & submitted by Donald R. Counts

RACING DOWN the RIVER -Brief Genealogical Notes

Interactive Vietnam Memorial

Footnote.com is a website that provides access to numerous historical documents. The site includes social networking features to allow for input from users in order to enhance the materials available on the site. While free material is available on the site, most of the documents require a subscription to view (or, can be purchased individually). One of the free collections available on the site is their interactive Vietnam Memorial, created digitally by stitching together more than 6,000 images. (http://go.footnote.com/thewall/)


Each person listed on the wall has an individual record where further details about their service and the conditions on their death can be viewed. One of the pieces of information available for each person is also their hometown of record. A search on "Evansville" reveals 57 men. Of course, there may be other Evansville soldiers who may have been living elsewhere at the time of enlistment and thus not have Evansville as their hometown of record.


Leveraging the social networking aspect of the site, I went through this list of 57 men and put links from their Footnote Pages to their FindAGrave listings when I could find them. In some cases, I even added obituaries as I found them in online newspaper collections, such as that of Private First Class, Douglas R. Harp (1943-1968) . Harp graduated from Reitz High School in 1961 and was a US Marine.


Take a moment to explore The Wall. If you know any one who died in the Vietnam War, contribute a story or comment to that person's page on Footnote. If we leverage the social networking capabilities of resources such as Footnote, we make them all the more valuable for all of us.

- Submitted by Taneya Koonce.