SILVAN BIOGRAPHIES CONTINUE ~

Today was a plus day ~ There is a website at www.findagrave.com that includes genealogical information and photos of gravestones across the land. Last year, I found it and was delighted to see where one of my Civil War ancestors was buried in Wisconsin, named Lucius Chubb. So excited, that I volunteered to photograph gravestones for others in my shoes, where they may be buried near where I live.

So, it was with great happiness that I received an email yesterday for the man whose biography I am working on now --- Melvin Andrew Medeiros.

Melvin was the grandson of Victorino Silvan and his wife, Ramona. Their daughter, Felisa (Alice) Silvan Medeiros had two sons, Melvin (1925) and Jerome (1926). In 1943, Melvin enlisted and by 1945 he was deeply entrenched in World War II where he lost his life when he was only twenty years old. His family, of course, was devastated. Without much information for this young man, I put on my "investigator's" hat and went to work.

Instead of just a small paragraph and a photos of Melvin as a child and another in his uniform standing next to his grandmother Ramona (thank you, Lynda!) I was able to prepare three pages for him!

I have biographies for Felisa and her husband Seraphim (Joe) Medeiros' family nearly finished and have begun work on her sister, Theodora (Dora) Silvan and her husband (John Souza) and their children. Then, moving to my own great grandfather, John Silvan and grandma Rita and all of us who came after.

It is so wonderful when so many share information and photographs. The man who helped me with Melvin Medeiros specializes in World War II Killed-In-Action veterans and he certainly made me smile by adding the ghost of Melvin to the pages of what will eventually be the genealogy history for the Silvans called SILVAN LEAVES.