[ad_1]
As the organization does in all cases, a team of volunteers researched the name, traced the veteran’s service, and then delved into the family history, trying to find the next of kin. Often the group’s first calls, alerting descendants that they wish to return items of their loved one’s military service, are met with skepticism.
“They often think it’s a scam when they get a message from me,†Allen said with a laugh.
Cpt. Albert Richardson “Bert” Montague served with the 309th Engineers in World War I. He and his wife, Jennie, who lived in Evanston, Ill., Had two daughters, one of whom moved to Massachusetts, where Hall grew up. A medical sonographer, Hall moved to Richmond 28 years ago to work in the transplant program at what is now VCU Medical Center.
His grandfather was a civil engineer, but Hall knows nothing of his military service other than that he was a captain. Hall, 68, was 15 when he died in the late 1960s, a month after his grandmother died. Her heart, she is sure, was broken.
Despite living in the Midwest, Montague’s family had roots in southwestern Virginia.
Hall is happy to have the twins, who join a precious cane she has from a more distant grandfather, also named Albert Richardson Montague, who was an officer in the Union Army during the Civil War, because his grandfather was “a really nice man.” “
[ad_2]
