My mom had told us that she had been a member of the Nurse Cadet Corps during World War II, and I even have a picture that she signed to our dad, that I think is a picture of her in her "uniform". The other day, I was listening to Genealogy Gems Podcast with Lisa Louise Cooke from May 19th of this year, and she mentioned that Ancestry.com had recently put records on line from the Nurse Cadet Corps from WWII. I listened to the podcast on my ipod at work, so as soon as I got home, I went on the internet on Ancestry.com and found the database. I put my mother's name in and oila! There was a document: Form 300A Federal Security Agency, U.S. Public Health Service, Division of Nurse Education Serial No. 60020, for a Cadet Nurse named Claire Alice Bergen (we just called her Mom). It has the school that she attended: Medical Centre, Jersey City, NJ, the date of admission to School 26 Jun 1944, date of admission to the Corps 26 June 1944, the date that her registration card was issued 1 July 1944. The card had two signatures: the Director of School of Nursing and the Cadet Nurse (Mom).
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| Mom's registration with US Cadet Nurse Corps |
My understanding is that the United States Cadet Nurse Corps was initiated in 1943, because of a shortage of nurses during World War II. The purpose of the Corps was to ensure that the US had sufficient numbers of trained nurses to care for the needs of its citizens, both at home and on the war front. Nursing Schools were offered grants to train nurses for duty abroad and at home. I am not quite certain, but I think you applied to the school and were trained, and in exchange you owed an amount of years of service as a repayment for the training.
The more I think about it, the more it makes sense for my mom to sign up for this training and join the "war effort". Her parents were both deceased by this time, and both of her brothers were in the service. Uncle Bill was a second Lieutenant in the Army and Uncle Ed was serving in the Pacific in the US Navy. I don't really know that much about Uncle Bill's service, but I do know that Ed was on the USS Monssen, which was a Destroyer sunk at the Battle of Guadalcanal. He survived the sinking and the war. My Dad and two of his brothers were also serving overseas, but mom and dad did not meet until after the war. Turns out that they had lived only blocks away from each other in Jersey City, but they had never met. Matter of fact, my dad's brother and my mom's brother knew each other from school. I was thinking that World War II should be a blog unto itself, but the more I think about it, it could be a book.
Finding this document on ancestry.com got me thinking more about my parents, both of them passed away
a few years ago, and how many questions I would love to ask them now. I have my mom's cousin Florence who has already helped me more that Ancestry.com could ever help. That's not to say that Ancestry.com's data bases aren't helpful, but Florence knows my mom's family and their history. She can tell you personal things that you cannot find in a database anywhere else. I can find names of neighbors in census records or church records, but Florence can tell me who these people are, and how they are related, which leads me to more family that I would never have known that I had. I have actually found info that confirms what she has told me, so not only do I enjoy talking to her, but she is right on the money. I don't have a Florence on my Dad's side, so there is really no one to ask any questions about his family. When they passed away, all of that family information went with them and I will probably never find out most of it. My point is that you should talk to your older family members while you still can, you may get some information that could lead to an unknown cousin who may know even more about the family. Hey it could happen.
