Help finding information about my GI grandfather

Hi. I am from the United Kingdom and my maternal granfather was according to my mums birth certificate an American called Joseph Gornstein. He met my English nan during WW2 but went off somewhere with the forces, that was it. Maybe his religious background or military polcy meant the relationship had to end. Apparently the letters back to my nan stopped and that was the end of it. Maybe he got killed in battle as he would have been there to invade Europe in 1944. But my mums sister did say back years ago that he survived the war, maybe the letters stopped after 1945. My nan has now passed on to the next level so we can research this without any trouble to the family.

What we do know is Joseph was from Cincinnatti, Ohio. He played the claranet (I think or something similar) and liked Jazz music. He was Orthodox Jewish. He was based in Lichfield, Staffordshire, United Kingdom at a place called Whittington Barracks in 1943. That's all we know.

Can anybody help in the USA to find some information on this person. My mum just wants anything that will help her understand where she is from. Thanks.

Hello,

I do understand your situation, and it's a difficult one.
Your best bet is to go to the places you mentioned in your post.
If he was stationed in Lichfield, Staffordshire, United Kingdom at a place called Whittington Barracks, there has to be some information at a registrar in the Military base. If you would know what Battalion he was in, that would make things a lot easier....
Talk to 'local people' and try to find out where he was born.

Sorry, have to go....on call atm

a reply to: [post=19632125]TheJudge2009[/post

Thankyou sir. Yes I must try to find out what he was over at the Whittington Barracks.

I would first start with the Social Security Death Index, and find out if he is still alive.

familysearch.org...

Then I would search the census records familysearch.org... to give you a place to search.
Then I would search his Military records www.archives.gov... I havent used this site so I dont know if there are fees.
Family Search has a lot of free data bases to explore. Ancestry has a lot of records and once you exhaust the free sites, you might find it worth a month or two subscription to find him.

My friend was abducted when she was 3 by her father. She had only the name of her mom. I found the mom a few years ago. It was a huge blessing for everyone. Good Luck. I dont have Ancestry right now, or I would track him down.

a reply to: misskat1

Thankyou Misskat1 for your help. It is very confusing as a Brit to know how to trace your USA ancestors

a reply to: ufoorbhunter

Are you sure he was born in the US?
Do you have any idea when he might have been born or how old might have been in WWII (like 20s or 40s)?
She was born in England? What year?
What was her father's name, and where was he from/born?

I should add that it isnt uncommon to find the records have misspelled names. So, try a few random misspellings while searching. Also, it was fairly common for an unusual name to become "americanized". So, he may have changed it to something like Greenstein. Finding his early census records will give you a birthdate, parents names etc.

The most complete collection of records are on ancestry.com, there's a 14 day free trial subscription, so that is where I would begin.

search.ancestry.com...

search.ancestry.com...

Good luck,

STM

ETA: I see that a lot of Gornsteins are from Russia.

a reply to: seentoomuch

they actually have a museum staffordshireregimentmuseum.com... I will browse there

a reply to: research100

That's great Research!

Here's another tidbit, I could've gotten more from this site but it wanted me to sign up albeit a free trial.

www.rootspoint.com...

Oops, wrong Gornstein. This was lived in New York.

STM

www.archives.gov...

That's your best bet. Not sure if you have enough of his information to submit a request, but in the event that you do the archives will have the most information I think.

a reply to: ufoorbhunter

Search for his Us Military registration record...place, his age and where and when he joined....search it like that....good luck....then search that cities birth, death, marriage records there

Wow that's cool.............Thanks, I'm new to this family search

originally posted by: Liquesence
a reply to: ufoorbhunter

Are you sure he was born in the US?
Do you have any idea when he might have been born or how old might have been in WWII (like 20s or 40s)?
She was born in England? What year?
What was her father's name, and where was he from/born?

Hi Liquesence, thanks for the recommendations. It's a good point you have there about being sure he was born in the US. I just always assumed that he would have been born there. I guess he would have been something like 20 in 1943, so if he was born in 1923, would that have been around when they stopped mass immigration from Europe?

Rumour has it he was from Cincinatti Ohio, but maybe he was born like in New York and the family moved to Ohio later. It's quite hard to make sense of things when I'm on the other side of the pond.

a reply to: seentoomuch

Thanks for the links, will check them this morning. Again thankyou

originally posted by: misskat1
I should add that it isnt uncommon to find the records have misspelled names. So, try a few random misspellings while searching. Also, it was fairly common for an unusual name to become "americanized". So, he may have changed it to something like Greenstein. Finding his early census records will give you a birthdate, parents names etc.

Good point on the name. It is spelt Gornstein on the birth certificate. It is a name that does exist within Ashkenaz communities worldwide, but I never thought of it being Americanized. Excellent point. Thanks.

originally posted by: research100
a reply to: seentoomuch

they actually have a museum staffordshireregimentmuseum.com... I will browse there

Sent the museum an email. They appear to specialise in The taffordshire Regiment but I have asked for help so see where that takes things. Thanks

Booked onto ancestry.com for the 14 day free trial. Can't find a Joseph Gornstein in Cincinnatti Ohio. Looks like this will be challenge. Maybe he gave a fake residence to cover his tracks or something, suppose it was a different time back then and may he been outed by the family for fathering non Jewish child or something like that.

Try geneology.com. They have a trial period too. Keep in mind, just because someone is "from" a state, doesn't necessarily mean they were born there, or died there. I would try with just the name, and you'll get about 2000+ results to check through. Do additional filters (such as only veterans, those who registered to vote in the state you think he's from) to whittle it down.