52 Ancestors Week #2 - King Research

This is week #2 of 52 Ancestors sponsored by Amy at No Story Too Small.  The theme this week is “king”.   My grandson comes from a long line of Kings.  Not royal, but his paternal surname is King.  That provided a whole new arena to investigate.  I haven’t done much, mostly because I am starting from almost nothing.  

My grandson’s great grandfather is John Gordon King, Sr.  I had to start at the end.  I knew he was buried in Lakeland, Florida.  I also knew his wife’s name was Eugenia.  so I found his headstone on FindAGrave Memorial #82215623.

And there was also a military stone.

I had to look look up what CY stood for - it’s the rank of Chief Yeoman.  Then on Ancestry.com I found a death index from Alabama. I was surprised to find it in Alabama but everything matched and it gave me his parents name.

Next I looked at military records on Ancestry.  And there he was on a muster roll for the Navy.

It was the right name and correct rank as on his headstone.  But it was the top of the page that really caught my attention,

He was traveling from San Diego to Pearl Harbor in October of 1941.  Was he one of the survivors of the attack on  Pearl Harbor?  Then I went to search about the U.S.S. Wright activity during World War II.

From Wikipedia I found out the ship was named after Orville Wright.  It left Pearl Harbor on November 20th bound for Wake Island, arriving there on the 28th.  They were delivering construction workers and  63,000 gallons of gasoline for their storage tanks and then set off for Midway. There they dropped off ammunition and Marine ground troops.  The USS Wright departed Midway on December 4 going back to Pearl Harbor. They were en route when the news of the attack arrived and they reached Pearl Harbor the day after the attack.  Was our John King on board the USS Wright that entire time.  I’m not really sure.  More research will have to be done.  A Chief Yeoman is a clerical position and the ship was responsible for transporting troops, supplies, ammunition, etc. so it’s possible .But the top of the page says “passengers”.  Does that mean he disembarked at Pearl Harbor or some where else.?

John and Eugenia are enumerated in the 1940 census in San Diego, California.  They are renting a house for $30 a month there but were in Long Beach in 1935.  John says his father was born in Georgia and his mother in Alabama. They have two small sons, age 3 and 11 months, and both were born in Virginia.  His occupation is Chief Yeoman for US Navy.   

I’ve just scratched the surface of the stories of this family.  There is a lot more research to be done.