BY KEVIN DUGGAN
They want you to help identify
veterans!
History buffs at Green-Wood
Cemetery launched an effort
Thursday to identify the possibly
thousands of World War
II veterans buried at the graveyard
and researchers are looking
for help from the public to
fi nd late Brooklynites of the
Greatest Generation.
“Our dedicated team will
spend countless hours on this
important project. But you can
become an important partner
in this effort just by letting us
know if you had a relative or
friend who served in WWII and
is interred at Green-Wood,” said
cemetery historian Jeff Richman,
who is leading the project.
“It’s a simple way to preserve
and honor their history.”
Richman and his team of
researchers plan to dive into
cemetery archives and public
records to fi nd people buried
at Green-Wood who fought
the Axis powers in the European
and the Pacifi c theaters,
as well as those who supported
the troops at home, as the 80th
anniversary approaches of the
United States joining the war in
December of 1941.
They will create an online
database listing each vet along
with a short biography using
records like military pension
applications and old newspaper
clippings.
Some 326,000 Brooklynites
— or almost one-in-eight of
the borough’s population —
served in the war and Richman
said that even if only 10
percent of those are interred at
Kings County’s biggest burial
ground, it would still account
for 32,600 people.
Brooklyn’s largest cemetery
has some 575,000 permanent residents
COURIER LIFE, F 10 EBRUARY 19-25, 2021
across its 478 hilly acres,
which could make singling out
decedents who joined the war
effort in uniform or as civilians
diffi cult without leads.
“I’m hoping to hear from
certainly children or grandchildren
of World War II veterans,
perhaps even veterans
who survived, spouses, or
neighbors,” Richman said. “A
lot of what we need is this introduction.”
Starting in the early 2000s,
the researchers were able to
identify some 5,000 Civil War
veterans buried at the 19th
century graveyard, followed
by 200 World War I vets they
ID’d in 2017.
Richman and his fellow researchers
will likely be able
to fi nd out more information
about less famous soldiers,
including lower-rank members
of the armed forces like
privates and corporals, due to
better documentation.
It also helps that people
who lived through that confl
ict are still alive, but the historian
said it’s important to
get the effort going soon.
“It’s time-sensitive,” he
The grave of WWII veteran Raymond Francis Campion at Green-Wood
Cemetery. Jeff Richman
said. “Today is a better day
than tomorrow.”
He plans to incorporate
the new information into a
walking tour this Memorial
Day weekend and hopes the
project will help honor the
brave men and women who
fought fascism abroad.
“These are people who
were great patriots and left
the easier life they were living
to serve their country
and I think we should recognize
that and honor their service,
and this is a small way
of doing that,” he said.
Anyone with information
about relatives or friends who
served in WWII and are interred
at Green-Wood should email history@
green-wood.com or call
(718) 210—3045 with as much information
as possible.
FOR HISTORY
Green-Wood seeks help identifying WWII vets
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