Erwin:

I am not sure what routes you have taken already besides contacting NARA for their personnel records, but have you tried contacting his states' Veteran's Admin? That is how I finally received my father's discharge papers. NARA didn't have them, but his local VA did. However you will probably still run into a stumbling block there because you are NOT a relative.

Another avenue is to write to the local newspapers where he was from and ask them for anything on him from the time he enlisted through the end of the war. Most people forget they have that avenue at their disposal. Most papers have archives and they may be a source of info.

You may also try posting an ad in their local papers and see if any living relatives are still around town. Of course, someone may find this post or similar posts that you've inquired about on other forums.

Don't give up hope yet. I've had stuff posted on my site for years, and then all of a sudden one day I get an email and... You never know.

Hi,

Thank you very much for the tips.

I have been on these several roads, but so far no results yet.

Funny thing, right after I put this post here I received an e-mail from the director of the Veterans Museum of Mid Ohio Valley in Parkersburg WV.

He is going to check the records and try and find out Eyth's unit.

BUT .... and now it comes ....

Would you consider donating or selling the uniform to the Veterans Museum?

Since I had a bad experience before with those things, I am not really eager to do this.

Once some guy said he was a curator of some museum and my friend (Kerman A Sheckler - 506th PIR - 101st AB) gave him his jump uniform and Ike jacket.

To my disgust I found it listed in a book about uniforms as being in a private museum!

I wonder how many more of these Veterans get ripped off by those .... (trying to keep polite).

Erwin

Ah the uniform thing. Yup, you have to be VERY, VERY careful about that. Items wind up in private collections, or worse yet, being auctioned off on EBAY. Pays to do some background checking IF you really want to do that. Hard lesson to learn, huh?

Sent to me by Al Kincer, 48th Combat Engineer. This was copied straight from the site as sent in his email to me.

=====================

Display Full Records

File Unit: Electronic Army Serial Number Merged File, ca. 1938 - 1946 (Enlistment Records)

in the Series: World War II Army Enlistment Records, created 6/1/2002 - 9/30/2002, documenting the period ca. 1938 - 1946. - Record Group 64 (info)

Brief Scope: This series contains records of approximately nine million men and women who enlisted in the United States Army, including the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps.

You may wish to View the FAQs for this series.

< Previous Record | Next Record >

Field Title Value Meaning

ARMY SERIAL NUMBER 35446603 35446603

NAME EYTH#CONRAD#W########### EYTH#CONRAD#W###########

RESIDENCE: STATE 54 WEST VIRGINIA

RESIDENCE: COUNTY 107 WOOD

PLACE OF ENLISTMENT 5442 HUNTINGTON WEST VIRGINIA

DATE OF ENLISTMENT DAY 24 24

DATE OF ENLISTMENT MONTH 09 09

DATE OF ENLISTMENT YEAR 42 42

GRADE: ALPHA DESIGNATION P0T# Undefined Code

GRADE: CODE 8 Private

BRANCH: ALPHA DESIGNATION BI# Branch Immaterial - Warrant Officers, USA

BRANCH: CODE 00 Branch Immaterial - Warrant Officers, USA

FIELD USE AS DESIRED # #

TERM OF ENLISTMENT 5 Enlistment for the duration of the War or other emergency, plus six months, subject to the discretion of the President or otherwise according to law

LONGEVITY ### ###

SOURCE OF ARMY PERSONNEL 0 Civil Life

NATIVITY 54 WEST VIRGINIA

YEAR OF BIRTH 06 06

RACE AND CITIZENSHIP 1 White, citizen

EDUCATION 4 4 years of high school

CIVILIAN OCCUPATION 993 Undefined Code

MARITAL STATUS 6 Single, without dependents

COMPONENT OF THE ARMY 7 Selectees (Enlisted Men)

CARD NUMBER # #

BOX NUMBER 0942 0942

FILM REEL NUMBER 5.4## 5.4##

< Previous Record | Next Record

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Unfortunately it still does not list his unit. Al would they have further info in the file?

Marion and Al,

Thanks for the trouble, I have that file too and sent a form 180 to St-Louis.

They replied but the document didn't show his unit.

I have the roster of the 704th TD Bn and he isn't listed there.

Too bad as it would have been great if he was.

Erwin

We won't give up. We will keep plugging away and hope that someone will see his name and...

Eyth's parents both were Germans.

Reinhard Eyth (°23 March 1872 Binsdorf, Germany - died 3 February 1940, Parkersburg, WV)

Cecelia Goetz-Eyth (°29 October 1862 Diessen, Germany - died 26 April 1946, Parkersburg, WV)

He also had a brother - Joseph Henry Eyth - who passed away in June 1985.

Erwin.

Ow btw, if it was the family asking the shirt and tie back, I wouldn't hesitate to give it back.

But since it is an unknown director of a museum, I am having second thoughts about it.

He might be sincere about it.

On the other hand; I am putting a lot of effort in it to identify this item and I was so happy to find a shirt of a TD guy with name and ASN in it.

What do you think?

Erwin

Hey Erwin,

It's always interesting to research id'ed items, i hope you will find out more about this veteran!

About donating to museum's, well i heard stories...

For instance, a private collector who is telling veterans he owns a museum, via that way he is trying to get the items from veterans for free!

In my opinion it's just not done to ask a veteran if you can have his items, not even when you are from a museum. Those items have a lot of emotional value to them, and they deside what they are going to do with those items. I do find it interesting to find out more about their items, such as the Engineers helmet i noticed on photos that Marion posted! That helmet got a cricket on one of it's straps, then it's just interesting to ask for more information about that, i haven't seen it yet on period photographs.

Be carefull with donating items, good luck with your research

Regards Daan

Hey Daan,

Thanks for the input.

I decided to keep the shirt, it took me too much effort to get an id-ed one and to gather the info about this GI.

I heard similar stories.

In fact, one Veteran I knew personally got ripped off like that.

It's shocking hearing things happening like that and it gives the more honest people a bad name as well.

Take care,

Erwin

Hey there,

I am in WV but no where near Parkersburg. You could try to contact the local VFW or American Legion post. He may have been a member.

The county court house keeps the DD214s. It will be located in the county where he lived when he was discharged. You will run into trouble because you're not a relative, though. BUT!! You could always tell them it is for geneology and just don't divulge any more than that. If pressed further, I'm sure you could come up with something.... my wife's grand uncle, I think I'm his illlegitimate child, etc...

Best of luck to you and keep us posted.

Brooke

Thanks, I'll give it a try.

You never know.

If pressed further, I'll reply "well, that Jerry keeps denying my grandfather was his, so it must be the American as there were no Englishmen present that day. ".

Can't use "my wife's grand uncle" as my hopefully-soon-to-be wife is not American nor Belgian.

Hopefully, that guy from the museum can find out Eyth's unit.

Thanks again for the tip.

Erwin

Struck another blank.

The VA Regional Office of Buffalo replied stating that Mr. Eyth never filed for VA benefits.

Still waiting for a reply from that museum curator.

Erwin

Well, I guess that "curator" was bogus after all.

He didn't even bothered to reply when I said I was not going to donate nor sell the shirt and tie to anyone.

Ah well, the search continues ......

Erwin