Who has the 1st, 2nd and 3rd highest graded Pep 22?

[thedude]

hey Steve, why don't you post your Pep #22, it's been awhile since I've seen it.

[Kakapo]

The data as pasted is all I have found, it doesn't give dates of birth. I'm sure a real genealogist would know how to use their serial numbers to find that information. That's beyond me - I'm just a flightless parrot.

 

Mr Delaney makes a good point - Beerbohm wrote in the 2005 thread here, pretty much his first contribution to the boards, that it was only years later that he thought of trying to get recognition for the collection as a pedigree, as the concept wasn't well established in 1973. I'm sure he was just happy to have an amazing collection that sold with ease; there would have been no need for him to invent a backstory to hype it.

 

www.archives.gov has scans of documents listing WW2 casualties by state and county. I had no idea there were so many counties - this country is full of surprises. The 37 year old Thomas E Reilly was from Sacramento County, but as pointed out above he was in the Army and died in the wrong year. There are no other Thomas Reillys listed for the whole state of California. The records at that site are sorted by the address of the next-of-kin at the time of their relative's death; it does not take into account place of birth, residence, or enlistment. So for the Reilly family, if he had a room to seal up for 27 years, that should have been California. The foreword to each state's records states that deaths in the United States, or as a result of disease, homicide or suicide, are not recorded in those documents.

 

So even though I can't find any KIA record for him, that doesn't mean he was never in the service - but two government sources both say that there was no Thomas Reilly or (blank) T. Reilly from CA who died in WW2 other than Thomas E. of the Army. That would seem to discredit the kamikaze story and perhaps makes an altogether more tragic and perhaps avoidable death due to disease, murder or suicide more probable.

 

At the end of the day, there obviously was a Tom Reilly because his name is stamped on all those comics. But he's a hard man to find.

 

The plot thickens!

[The Black Hand ®]

Wow, this is getting interesting. That's some great work you've done there. I wonder if Matt Nelson would be interested in chiming in on this, since he's written a book on pedigrees and might have some more details. Maybe Ciorac can convince him to come on and talk about it, especially if he has something new to add.

[143ksk]

hey Steve, why don't you post your Pep #22, it's been awhile since I've seen it.

 

If you insist...

 

[thedude]

hey Steve, why don't you post your Pep #22, it's been awhile since I've seen it.

 

If you insist...

 

 

that is one nice book !

[nearmint]

I wonder if Matt Nelson would be interested in chiming in on this, since he's written a book on pedigrees and might have some more details.

 

I pointed Matt towards this thread. He's busy with Christmas stuff right now, but will look at the thread sometime this weekend.

[Kakapo]

I think this is as far as I can go with my research: Beerbohm says that the Reillys lived in Piedmont, which turns out to be in Alameda County, California. I think checking the 1940 and 1950 censuses (censi, surely?) would find our man. Piedmont's population in 2000 was a mere 10 900, so back in 1940 would presumably have been smaller still, meaning the Reilly family ought to be pretty easy to find.

 

If anyone has a membership at ancestry.com, they can start to solve the mystery by finding his birth record here: http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/record-search-birth.php?locIndex=10685 Only half a dozen Thomas (insert middle name) Reillys have been born in Alameda between 1905 and 1995, and unless his family moved to the county during his life, he'll be one of those. But it seems I have to pay to see that information, and I'm saving every penny I can so I can buy that 7.5 Pep 22. Just to compound the mystery, follow that link, type "Thomas Reilly" and then choose "California Death Index" and you'll see that no Thomas Reilly died there in 1945. So he's not buried in a military cemetary, he's not listed as missing on a memorial, and he didn't even die at home in California. So the disease/murder/suicide still stands as a possible explanation for there apparently being no military record of his death.

 

Beerbohm also says that a Mr Arnheim told him the story of the kamikaze attack and the room being sealed thereafter. It may just be a story that has become "true" simply by being repeated often enough - Stephen Colbert would be proud!

 

The snow outside is clearing, so I think I'll go for a walk.

[The Black Hand ®]

I wonder if Matt Nelson would be interested in chiming in on this, since he's written a book on pedigrees and might have some more details.

 

I pointed Matt towards this thread. He's busy with Christmas stuff right now, but will look at the thread sometime this weekend.

 

Thank's!

[The Black Hand ®]

I think this is as far as I can go with my research: Beerbohm says that the Reillys lived in Piedmont, which turns out to be in Alameda County, California. I think checking the 1940 and 1950 censuses (censi, surely?) would find our man. Piedmont's population in 2000 was a mere 10 900, so back in 1940 would presumably have been smaller still, meaning the Reilly family ought to be pretty easy to find.

 

If anyone has a membership at ancestry.com, they can start to solve the mystery by finding his birth record here: http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/record-search-birth.php?locIndex=10685 Only half a dozen Thomas (insert middle name) Reillys have been born in Alameda between 1905 and 1995, and unless his family moved to the county during his life, he'll be one of those. But it seems I have to pay to see that information, and I'm saving every penny I can so I can buy that 7.5 Pep 22. Just to compound the mystery, follow that link, type "Thomas Reilly" and then choose "California Death Index" and you'll see that no Thomas Reilly died there in 1945. So he's not buried in a military cemetary, he's not listed as missing on a memorial, and he didn't even die at home in California. So the disease/murder/suicide still stands as a possible explanation for there apparently being no military record of his death.

 

Beerbohm also says that a Mr Arnheim told him the story of the kamikaze attack and the room being sealed thereafter. It may just be a story that has become "true" simply by being repeated often enough - Stephen Colbert would be proud!

 

The snow outside is clearing, so I think I'll go for a walk.

 

 

Thank's for all your great work and enjoy your walk.

[The Black Hand ®]

hey Steve, why don't you post your Pep #22, it's been awhile since I've seen it.

 

If you insist...

 

 

One can never see that one enough, you lucky guy.

[143ksk]

I think this is as far as I can go with my research: Beerbohm says that the Reillys lived in Piedmont, which turns out to be in Alameda County, California. I think checking the 1940 and 1950 censuses (censi, surely?) would find our man. Piedmont's population in 2000 was a mere 10 900, so back in 1940 would presumably have been smaller still, meaning the Reilly family ought to be pretty easy to find.

 

If anyone has a membership at ancestry.com, they can start to solve the mystery by finding his birth record here: http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/record-search-birth.php?locIndex=10685 Only half a dozen Thomas (insert middle name) Reillys have been born in Alameda between 1905 and 1995, and unless his family moved to the county during his life, he'll be one of those. But it seems I have to pay to see that information, and I'm saving every penny I can so I can buy that 7.5 Pep 22. Just to compound the mystery, follow that link, type "Thomas Reilly" and then choose "California Death Index" and you'll see that no Thomas Reilly died there in 1945. So he's not buried in a military cemetary, he's not listed as missing on a memorial, and he didn't even die at home in California. So the disease/murder/suicide still stands as a possible explanation for there apparently being no military record of his death.

 

Beerbohm also says that a Mr Arnheim told him the story of the kamikaze attack and the room being sealed thereafter. It may just be a story that has become "true" simply by being repeated often enough - Stephen Colbert would be proud!

 

The snow outside is clearing, so I think I'll go for a walk.

 

 

Thank's for all your great work and enjoy your walk.

 

Yes, thanks Andy!

 

A friend of mine lives in Golden and she just sent me pictures of the snow that's up to the eaves of her house Here in Minnesota there was maybe 1/2 inch of snow on the ground today

[Kakapo]

Thank's for all your great work and enjoy your walk.

 

Yes, thanks Andy!

 

My pleasure! It was interesting in a really nerdy way.

 

A friend of mine lives in Golden and she just sent me pictures of the snow that's up to the eaves of her house Here in Minnesota there was maybe 1/2 inch of snow on the ground today

 

It's not quite that dramatic here, it's above knee-deep and there are some cars that are about 80% buried. I took some pics too but there's no way I can top the ones your friend sent you. I know when I'm beaten!

 

Mile High Chuck lies in his newsletter, the snow is not greasy - it was very powdery. Today it's melted and refrozen, and is altogether less delightful.

 

Oh and Steve, what a nice Pep 22 you have!

[tth2]

Curiouser and curiouser...I've searched military burials in the US and burials/memorials overseas, which should be everyone. This is easier for British casualties because there's only one website to search. There are over 1700 Reillys (first name and middle name fields left blank) buried in US military cemetaries from the Civil War all the way up to veterans who have died very recently. 56 were named Thomas and served in WW2. 22 had the middle initial T and served in WW2. Only a couple of Thomas Reillys who died between 1941 and 45 and were buried in the US served in WW2. None of them fit the "facts" as we suppose them to be. There are 48 Reillys buried overseas or MIA and listed on memorials overseas. 5 were named Thomas and none of the 48 have the middle initial T.

 

If we are 100% certain he was from California, the lone match is this chap:

Thomas E. Reilly

Private, U.S. Army

Service # 39080025

US Infantry

Entered the Service from: California

Died: 2-Jul-42

Missing in Action or Buried at Sea

Tablets of the Missing at Manila American Cemetery

Manila, Philippines

 

Wrong service, wrong date, right name, right home state, right ocean. But kamikaze attacks didn't begin until 1944, and as an infantryman he was more likely to be MIA on the Philippines themselves than killed at sea.

 

Here's the man mentioned in my previous post:

Thomas F. Reilly

Seaman, First Class, U.S. Navy

Service # 8111716

United States Naval Reserve

Entered the Service from: New York

Died: 11-May-45

Missing in Action or Buried at Sea

Tablets of the Missing at Honolulu Memorial

Honolulu, Hawaii

 

Joined up from completely the wrong side of the country, but everything else fits.

 

So there's something wrong with the original story, but I'm now out of ideas other than asking Bob Beerbohm, whose comic store supposedly bought the collection. It is a great story, it would be unfortunate if it turned out to be fictional. Most pedigree stories start with "well, there was this nerd, see..."

Wow, thanks for your hard work in digging into this. The only other thing I can think of is to do a broader search based on different spellings of "Reilly", such as "Riley" or "O'Reilly" or "O'Riley", or to do a search of all Reilly/Riley/O'Reilly's killed in WWII around 1945, without using a "T" identifier. Perhaps his name wasn't Tom or it was just a nickname and not part of his formal name.

 

We need to remember what we're talking about was primarily a bunch of stoner hippies coming into possession of these books, so they might not have been the most anal about spelling or accuracy of the name. I mean just think what would happen if our own Aman169 or Action1Kid were the transcriber for any discovery. All sorts of weird things could happen with the spelling of names, details, etc..

[adamstrange]

There's a "Reilly" stamp on the back cover of his comics. So we've kinda assumed that his name was spelled correctly for that. Not that a mistake couldn't have been made.

[tth2]

There's a "Reilly" stamp on the back cover of his comics. So we've kinda assumed that his name was spelled correctly for that. Not that a mistake couldn't have been made.

Oh well, so much for that theory.

 

So we're back to (i) looking at all Reilly's killed in 1945 or (ii) the whole story was the figment of someone's imagination.

[esquirecomics]

Here's the man mentioned in my previous post:

Thomas F. Reilly

Seaman, First Class, U.S. Navy

Service # 8111716

United States Naval Reserve

Entered the Service from: New York

Died: 11-May-45

Missing in Action or Buried at Sea

Tablets of the Missing at Honolulu Memorial

Honolulu, Hawaii

 

Joined up from completely the wrong side of the country, but everything else fits.

 

The New York reference may not mean what you think. It may be that this is where he was initially processed or based out of rather than the state where he either actually signed up or was from. I'll try to confirm either way.

[nearmint]

I'm wondering if the National Archive records are incomplete, at least those visible online. My great uncle died in WW2, and I can't find him listed there either.

[nearmint]

But it seems I have to pay to see that information,

 

I signed up for the free 14-day trial, but didn't find anything. There was a Thomas Reilly born in Santa Cruz(not far from Alameda) on 7/10/24. But, I couldn't find any death notices in 1945.

 

I've emailed the historical society in Alameda to see if they can be of any help.

 

Jeff

[The Black Hand ®]

But it seems I have to pay to see that information,

 

I signed up for the free 14-day trial, but didn't find anything. There was a Thomas Reilly born in Santa Cruz(not far from Alameda) on 7/10/24. But, I couldn't find any death notices in 1945.

 

I've emailed the historical society in Alameda to see if they can be of any help.

 

Jeff

 

Thank's Jeff.