Great coin/relic day with olddude HUGE silver!

[cjon455]

Got out with olddude today in a marathon of permission seeking, first spot was ok, dave got some wheats and I managed 1 wheat and this HUGE silver brush thing, I thought it was junk until I saw sterling on the back, i threw it at dave and said before you disregard it as junk look at the back!! Quite the strange find indeed

Nice how it cleaned up!! Plus this strange tag item, not sure what it is, perhaps military?

Next spot should've been better, nice old farm house, very minimal finds, it appeared to have alot of earth moved around, I managed a 1930 buff, the smaller bell and that huge skeleton key

The last spot of the day was the best by far, dave pulled some nice bells from there, I got one as well.
I started in the side yard and got some clad and a few wheats, moved along to the front and the goods practically started jumping out of the ground,

almost right away I got the 46 washington, then the harmonica reeds, then a few more wheats and got a merc, few more wheats and one indian later I got another merc, stepped 2 feet forward and got the 3rd merc!!! MY BEST SILVER DAY YET!! Managed 5 silvers today!so I moved toward the backyard and got bell #2 which is the bigger one in the pic, between dave and I we got 6 bells that all ring!
Almost forgot the tootsie car vw bug, love them tootsies, plus the roundball that has the x carved into it, I think it was for deer hunting so it made more of an impact

the take was the 46 Washington, 1936, 38, and 43 mercs, and that silver brush, 17 wheats, 1882 indian, 1930 buff, the bells, the key, and the other odds and ends you see in the pictures

today was all around great, the weather, the finds, and good old fashioned comradary with a pal, great hunt dave!, thanks for looking and hh!!

 

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[cjon455]

Very cool finds buddy!
Love the World War I Dog Tag, the crotal bell and the skeleton key!

Dave

thanks, that tag was a surprise, we thought we had a winner as for who it belonged to, but we were off on the last name a bit, the search continues!, id really like to get that to a family member if possible!

 

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[hbeaton]

With the new information on the name and after searching a fair amount there are indeed a few William Ames, William H. Ames etc. in various databases related to military draft registrations, death records, etc. but none seem to have that feel of this is definitely the guy. Had the name actually have been William Amos as we thought earlier and with the death record with his WW1 service number contained within the document, if they had matched, we would have our smoking gun.

With this search of William H. Ames, there were a few of them that had draft registration cards or otherwise registered at the time of WW1 but none of those proved fruitful in further documents later in their lives that would have had a service number on it. It begs the question whether this man died during WW1. If he did, there isn't a record of it even if his dog tag found its way back across the pond to where you found it. He may have served but didnt go overseas.

The easiest way is to use his service number which would net us the right guy but two things to consider...one you can request his service record but you may need to pay for it, etc. and second, sadly, there was a large fire in 1973 at the archive facility in Missouri that houses many of these records and 70 to 80% of the records within this time period and others were completed destroyed and obviously there was no back up made apparently.

It's possible to still find him but I think its gonna come down to matching up his service number with some other document I don't currently have access to to match up your tag to a person.

 

[cjon455]

With the new information on the name and after searching a fair amount there are indeed a few William Ames, William H. Ames etc. in various databases related to military draft registrations, death records, etc. but none seem to have that feel of this is definitely the guy. Had the name actually have been William Amos as we thought earlier and with the death record with his WW1 service number contained within the document, if they had matched, we would have our smoking gun.

With this search of William H. Ames, there were a few of them that had draft registration cards or otherwise registered at the time of WW1 but none of those proved fruitful in further documents later in their lives that would have had a service number on it. It begs the question whether this man died during WW1. If he did, there isn't a record of it even if his dog tag found its way back across the pond to where you found it. He may have served but didnt go overseas.

The easiest way is to use his service number which would net us the right guy but two things to consider...one you can request his service record but you may need to pay for it, etc. and second, sadly, there was a large fire in 1973 at the archive facility in Missouri that houses many of these records and 70 to 80% of the records within this time period and others were completed destroyed and obviously there was no back up made apparently.

It's possible to still find him but I think its gonna come down to matching up his service number with some other document I don't currently have access to to match up your tag to a person.

hey you put in a ton of effort, I appreciate everything you've already done! Like I said, trying to tie this to an actual person is really interesting, Im probly going to try to talk to the property owner and see if she knows anything about mr ames, ya never know!!

 

[jewelerguy]

nice chunk of silver, and cool WW1 dog tag. I've found 3 of them and they were getting corroded enough that they were difficult to read completely.

 

[coinman123]

Nice old big piece of silver!

 

[cjon455]

Nice old big piece of silver!

Thanks, I sure thought it was a crumpled up can, til I flipped it over and saw writing, I swiped over the writing with my thumb andsaw "sterling", I was like no way!, guess ya never know huh

 

[MichiganMan]

The dog tags are very cool. Ancestry has a small free-period window to look up military stuff around Veterans Day.

Edited to add-- I found a William H Ames in Westchester County, New York the closest to your PA location. His sister lives in Hoboken, NJ on his draft card. I found the 60th infantry but no reference or description of Company F yet.

So we have:

William H. Ames; Private; Company F; 60th Infantry--- Serial Number-1795639

no 2 is from Flint, Michigan born-- Arcade, New York
no 3 is from Los Angeles, California born-- Mississippi

These are the only William H Ames dudes on Ancestry.

 

[cjon455]

The dog tags are very cool. Ancestry has a small free-period window to look up military stuff around Veterans Day.

Edited to add-- I found a William H Ames in Westchester County, New York the closest to your PA location. His sister lives in Hoboken, NJ on his draft card. I found the 60th infantry but no reference or description of Company F yet.

So we have:

William H. Ames; Private; Company F; 60th Infantry--- Serial Number-1795639

no 2 is from Flint, Michigan born-- Arcade, New York
no 3 is from Los Angeles, California born-- Mississippi

These are the only William H Ames dudes on Ancestry.

Wow, thanks!

 

[joekidwell]

weird

Check out this link, boh_korea_7c

William H Ames PFC from Pennsylvania fought and died in the Korean war. Either he enlisted for WWI when he was 16 and signed up for Korea when he was 48 or he had a son.

 

[joekidwell]

Check out this link, boh_korea_7c

William H Ames PFC from Pennsylvania fought and died in the Korean war. Either he enlisted for WWI when he was 16 and signed up for Korea when he was 48 or he had a son.

I gives the date of death so would death records be a possibility?

 

[g-olden years]

Congrats! The owners of that property may know something about the dog tag? Worth asking. Have Fun! Andi

 

[hbeaton]

I came across the same folks MichiganMan was talking about when doing some research through Ancestry. I guess this free period might allow for other options I didn't have. My question would be how his serial number would be on the draft registration card? I didnt see any mention of the serial numbers on these cards, usually i'd come across them if the person died sometime later and military burial forms were filled out and his serial number was listed then. That was how I found the false name William Amos earlier.

 

[hbeaton]

Another to consider too is that William Hall Ames from Westerchester was already 45 by October 1918. Here's some history, the Selective Service Act of 1917 becomes effective in May 17 and the first draft selection which only pertained to males aged 21-31 took place on June 5, 1917, by June 8, 1918 a second draft took place just relating to those who turned 21 by a certain date. It was not until September 12, 1918 that the Act was expanded to require those men aged 18-45 was required. The draft card on Ancestry for William Hall Ames is dated September 12 (or 17), 1918. He was 45 at that time and did not turn 46 until October 7th, 1918. Bummer. The armistice was signed month later so I'm thinking that if this dog tag actually belonged to this particular Ames he probably did not see any action.

I'm not saying this could be the tag that Cjon455 found but I came across this same William Ames and that same draft registration card but did not see anything that linked his serial number to it. If there is a document with this William Ames and the serial number together then we've found our man. I'd like to see it.