I am watching the release of three young women from captivity. The first of the hostages released in the ceasefire deal between Israel and Gaza.
The newscaster comes on and says…the mothers of the three women will be there at the point of release. Suddenly I am overcome with emotion. I try to repeat what he said and I am so choked up I am unable to speak.
Who do they want the most when they are delivered from the hell after 471 days?
Only their mother, their mom, their mum, their Eema. If only for a moment, only she can bring them to a place of peace. Only she can reassure them, hold them so close that they can hear her heart beat. The first heart they heard while still in the womb. Her heart.
I am praying that at the sound of their Eema’s heart they will be overwhelmed with a sense of tranquility that takes them back to the place of security and protection. A time where they knew no horrors, terror or fear.
In their Eema’s heart they knew only love.
“Hebrew media reports that the IDF has asked the mothers of the three hostages to come to a meeting point at a base next to the Gaza border. From there they are to accompany their daughters as they are taken to the hospital.” The Times of Israel, January 19, 2025
Eema (pronounced EE-muh): Mother; mom; Website: My Jewish Learning
My ancestors in this country go back approximately 400 years depending on which way I go. I will start with the two major ones; my mother’s maternal line Wright, and my father’s paternal line Andrews.
My mother had done a lot of initial research in the family history. My grandmother was Mary Elizabeth Wright and the Wrights can trace their history to very prominent families in Bedford County Virginia going back to the 1600’s. There have been several books written about the Wright’s of Bedford County.
The farthest back I have verified on record is Thomas Wright who was born in Virginia in 1695 and died in 1763. He is my 7th great-grandfather. His son, Joseph, born in 1742, furnished supplies to revolutionists in the American Revolutionary War.
Through this line, I and my children are all eligible to join the Sons or Daughters of the American Revolution.
The Andrews side also hails from Virginia, near Petersburg, just south of Richmond in Chesterfield County. My Aunt helped me fill in some missing links and through Ancestry I have traced them back also to the 1600s.
Benjamin Andrews, 5th great-grandfather, was born in 1699 in Henrico Virginia. He died in Chesterfield County in 1778.
Benjamin’s father Thomas was born in Wiltshire England, and he died in Henrico, Virginia in 1731. He had three other sons, and in his will which can been seen online, he left two of his sons one hundred acres of land each. The other son, John, received the plantation and all it’s livestock and goods, but poor Benjamin only got one cow and one calf. However, he fared better than his three sisters that only received one shilling each.
Benjamin’s son, Bullard (4th GGF), would have been of the right age in the American Revolutionary War, but I cannot find any record that he served. Although there is a record that he served in the war of 1812.
After poor Benjamin left with his cow and calf, he must have moved south to Chesterfield County, VA. There the line continues to my grandfather, Aubrey, ancestry records reveal they were all poor country farmers.
The Wright’s were well off middle-class families. During the Civil War, some of the Virginia Wrights, who were abolitionist moved to Ohio. Today, there are tens of thousands of descendants of Thomas Wright (6th GGF) living in the US.
The other two direct lines include my father’s maternal line and my mother’s paternal line.
My Grandmother Alease was a Cole. I trace them as far back as 1775 in Chesterfield County, Virginia. They also were a family of country farmers.
My mother’s paternal line is Van Houten, the farthest I can verify records is the 1850’s in New Jersey. There was a large Dutch settlement there and I can only verify the direct information that my mother had assembled. James Marcus Van Houten (2nd GGF) was born in 1828. He married Lydia Wolf(e), also born in 1828.
I cannot verify any details of Lydia’s family before her marriage to James Marcus. However, there is a short family history written in the late 50’s early 60’s by my grandfather’s sister that states her family tore their clothing and declared her dead when she married him. Many census records show her born in New Jersey or New York but in 1880 it states she was born in Portugal.
After the Civil War the Van Houten’s and their sons moved south to Georgia where my grandfather Wallace Van Houten was born. James and Lydia’s son, William, (b.1855) was once the Mayor of Sycamore, GA. In searching the GA Archives, I found a picture of a cotton gin he designed that won a first prize at the state fair in 1901.
I have found so many stories in researching family history. I have tried to piece together little bits of information I’ve found to see what can tell me about their lives.
Like the history of any place or family there are courageous stories, sad stories, stories that make you proud and stories that leave you feeling remorseful. All in all, it reveals an amazing journey that combines your life with the lives of thousands of others who share these histories as well.
John Peter and Mineta Wright parents of Mary Elizabeth Wright (maternal great-grandparents)
Wallace Van Houten and Mary Elizabeth Wright – my maternal grandparents
Molly Stratton Brown Wright 1858-1930. Mother of John Peter Wright (maternal 2nd GGM)
Robert Ruffin Andrews (1862-1926), father of Aubrey Andrews here with his youngest son, Linwood. (Paternal Great Grandfather)
Aubrey and Alease Andrews (paternal grandparents) with their children Eugene, Marie, and Thelma.
Albert Thomas Cole, and Etta Virginia Butler on their wedding day (abt 1907) – Alease’s parents. (Great Grandparents)
Eliza Jane Crews (1849-1923) – mother of Albert Thomas Cole, wife of William C Cole (Paternal 2nd GGM)
William C Cole (1849-1920) father of Albert Thomas Cole and husband of Eliza Jane Crews (Paternal 2nd GGF)
Ida Florence Fountain Van Houten (1878-1968) taken in Sycamore, GA around 1960, great-grandmother, mother of Wallace Van Houten
William Van Houten (1855-1917) great-grandfather husband to Ida Florence Fountain Van Houten and father of Wallace Van Houten. Former Mayor Sycamore, GA
Lydia Wolf(e) Van Houten (1828 – around 1900) 2nd Great-grandmother born in New York died in Georgia, mother of William Van Houten.
In 1972, I was living in Tampa, Florida. PJ, the dad of my older sons, was stationed at McDill AFB. The Vietnam war was still ongoing; a war that began in 1955, the first US combat troops were deployed on March 8, 1965 by President Johnson and US involvement ended in 1973.
In 1970, two college students came up with the idea to remember American prisoners of war suffering in captivity. Through their California student group called Voices in Vital America they sold bracelets of plated nickel, or copper, each with a POW or MIA service member’s name stamped on it.
The bracelets sold for $2.50 and $3.00 respectively and over 5 million were sold. The hope was to bring awareness to the POW’s in Vietnam, so that they would not be forgotten. The promise of the purchaser was to wear the bracelet until the POW listed on it returned home or their remains were returned home.
PJ bought mine on the base in 1972 – Capt W. W. Hail. At the time, the only thing I knew about him was that he was missing, presumed captured August 2, 1965.
In 1973 when the US ended its involvement in Vietnam. As American’s returned, the newspapers would publish the names. I would check the names but he was not listed. After a time, the news about Vietnam POW/MIA waned and news stories dwindled, but I continued to wear my bracelet.
I wore it into the late 70’s when we lived in Anchorage, AK at Elmendorf AFB. By this time the finish had rubbed off on the inside and it began to irritate my skin, so I lined it with white fabric canvas-like medical tape. I wore my bracelet until early 1980 when it broke in half while putting it on.
Over the years, there were many investigations and committees formed to ascertain whether there were still US servicemen in Southeast Asia in captivity. It would make the news for a while and then fade.
In the late 90’s teams of US and Vietnam specialists would interview villagers at potential crash sites. Through these interviews with witnesses a crash site was located in July 1998 and human remains were recovered. They were later identified as Colonel Lester Holmes missing since May 1967. His remains were finally returned to his family in 2004. His son had a silver MIA bracelet with his dad’s name he placed in his coffin.
It was around this time I decided to search the internet for information on Capt Hail. I found the website for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund ( www.vvmf.org) and I searched. There I found him, with all the details of his birth, his hometown, the location of his name on the wall and a picture of him. He was still listed as MIA and he had been promoted to Lt Colonel. I made a comment on his page on April 9, 2005 along with about 15 others before me, some of whom also wore his bracelet.
I brought my bracelet into work as there was a man here that did some soldering to see if he could fix it but he said because of the shape and the tension to take it on and off the weld would not hold.
Fast forward to 2016. I received an email from a Dr. Thompson at the Palm Springs Air Museum in California. He had seen my comment on the VVMF site (along with many others) and was contacting people to see if they would be interested in donating their bracelet to the museum bracelet display. He said,”Palm Springs Air Museum is now accepting Vietnam POW/MIA Bracelets for the new General Ken Miles Vietnam Hangar. VIVA (Voices in Vital America) distributed some five million bracelets in the early 70s for people to wear to bring attention to the thousands of missing Americans in Vietnam. The Vietnam POW/MIA Bracelet Display consists of the following: Display Wall (8 feet by 24 feet) with 715 plaques honoring 715 POWs – Display Case displaying the MIA and POW bracelet donations . In addition to the 715 POWs, there were another 2646 MIAs. (We now have some 250 bracelets in our Display Case).”
I was immediately interested. I wanted my bracelet, that I had held onto for some 44 years, to be permanently held in someplace special. I went to my jewelry box to retrieve it and it was not there. I searched for days, I checked with the guy I had asked to repair it, thinking I never got it back, not there. I searched my office…nothing. One thing I knew for sure, I did not throw it away.
I finally gave up, but over the next several years I would occasionally search for spots that I would hide special things. Still nothing. Then a few months ago, I was completing information for renewing my passport. I opened a file that had old passports in it and there was my bracelet!
I wrote to Dr. Thompson and after apologizing for replying seven years later, I asked if they would still accept my bracelet even though it was broken. He wrote, “Yes we do, Trish! Glad you found it – that prayer to St. Anthony must have helped.I have someone who repairs our bracelets as well. By the way – we now have over 2,000 bracelets in our collection.”
So today, 51 years after first putting it on, I taped together my POW bracelet and took a picture of it. I placed it in a metal box and sent it to the Palm Springs Air Museum Bracelet Display.There it will be repaired and put on display with a brief history of LTC William Warren Hail and information about the bracelet’s history.
I told Dr. Thompson thank you and I appreciate the fact my bracelet will be kept where it will be honored as it was too precious to just let it go elsewhere, or forbid that someone would toss it after I am long gone.
Emyloom ~ Words Woven Within My Heart 