This is the beginning of a new and extensive research project!
As of today, I have been able to document my father's side of the family tree back through Dublin, Ireland and 1520 England through my 13th great grandfather. So far, I have been able to document my mother's side of the family tree back through 1790 Virginia and 1344 France through my 19th great grandfather.
This page is designed to discuss interesting facts I have discovered during the course of this family research project.
As of today, I have been able to document my father's side of the family tree back through Dublin, Ireland and 1520 England through my 13th great grandfather. So far, I have been able to document my mother's side of the family tree back through 1790 Virginia and 1344 France through my 19th great grandfather.
This page is designed to discuss interesting facts I have discovered during the course of this family research project.
When I returned home from the Marine Corps in the 60s, my first international job offer was for a “Project” in Vietnam. The first telegram I received read, “We have a possible opening in our Vietnam Project which may be of interest to you. Please call me collect.” Soon after that, I received a contract that read if some “incident” should develop, they were not obligated to return my body to the U.S. Shortly after that I received another telegram that read, “Please call collect as soon as possible concerning transportation.” In the mean time I had checked with a couple of sources and found that the “Project” used “Air America” as their in-country transportation. At that time, my new wife was not all that excited about me running off to Vietnam and running up a lot of frequent flyer miles with Air America. It wasn’t until 25 years later that I got a similar offer to work on another “Project” in the Middle East. By this time, I was single again so over the next 15 years I worked for a variety of civilian and government agencies.
It wasn’t until recently when I started this family history project that I discovered I had a cousin who had been working for the CIA in Asia around the same time I got my offer to work in Vietnam. Of course, I didn’t know him and I’m pretty sure he didn’t know me even though we grew up about 30 miles from each other. He would have been about 11 years older than me at that time. He had been a colonel in Army Intelligence and an officer in The CIA’s Directorate of Operations. He was a descendent of the Patrick Doyle side of the family and I am a descendent of the James Doyle side of the family. I have often thought how interesting it would have been if I had taken that job offer in Vietnam and had an opportunity to meet a cousin in-country during that period. I’m pretty sure there probably were not that many Doyles flying Air America around that time. One final piece of coincidence is that he is buried in Arlington National Cemetery and that is where my final resting place will be as well.
It wasn’t until recently when I started this family history project that I discovered the origin of my given name. I had assumed that I was probably named after my grandfather since his name was James or my great-great-grandfather who was also named James. It wasn’t until I spoke with my aunt Doyle that I heard the actual story of how I got my name. My father and his first cousin had just returned from WWII. My father had been in the Marine Corps and his cousin and best friend had been in the Army. Apparently, there was some incident involving a challenge to swim across the Missouri River. The Missouri River is a dangerous river even for small boats due to the strong fast moving current and debris in the river so for an individual to attempt this long and dangerous swim would have been difficult to imagine. My aunt Doyle said James Robert was drowned in his attempt to swim the river. I understood why I was not told about this event due to the senseless nature of this death of someone who had just returned from WWII and who had just gotten married. I found this story compelling and contacted the Missouri State Archives for a copy of James Roberts death certificate. And just as my aunt Doyle had said, it confirmed that James Robert died of an “accidental drowning” on 26 April 1944 and his body was not recovered from the river until 4 May 1944. Seven months later I was born James Robert Doyle.
It wasn’t until recently when I started this family history project that I discovered the origin of my given name. I had assumed that I was probably named after my grandfather since his name was James or my great-great-grandfather who was also named James. It wasn’t until I spoke with my aunt Doyle that I heard the actual story of how I got my name. My father and his first cousin had just returned from WWII. My father had been in the Marine Corps and his cousin and best friend had been in the Army. Apparently, there was some incident involving a challenge to swim across the Missouri River. The Missouri River is a dangerous river even for small boats due to the strong fast moving current and debris in the river so for an individual to attempt this long and dangerous swim would have been difficult to imagine. My aunt Doyle said James Robert was drowned in his attempt to swim the river. I understood why I was not told about this event due to the senseless nature of this death of someone who had just returned from WWII and who had just gotten married. I found this story compelling and contacted the Missouri State Archives for a copy of James Roberts death certificate. And just as my aunt Doyle had said, it confirmed that James Robert died of an “accidental drowning” on 26 April 1944 and his body was not recovered from the river until 4 May 1944. Seven months later I was born James Robert Doyle.
After hearing this story about the senseless death of a young man returning from war I could not help but recall a similar senseless death of my best friend on his return from Vietnam. John and I enlisted in the Marine Corps together on the “Buddy Plan” which guaranteed that you could go through boot camp together. After boot camp we went through infantry training and then on to our specialized schools for additional training. John had just returned from Vietnam where he had been a door gunner on a helicopter. The first thing he did when he got home was to buy a new Chevrolet convertible and he and another friend were going to a dance in a nearby town. I was standing in front of a club waiting for my date when they drove by. They had the top down and had already started drinking. They told me to have a cold one and jump the back seat. I explained that I had a date and didn’t want to stand her up. I said we could go out the next night and get up to speed on things since this was the first time me met since he got home. My date showed up, we went in the club and 30 minutes later John and my other friend were dead. John’s older brother knew how close we were and ask me to arrange a Marine Corps military funeral and be a pallbearer which I did.
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