My paternal grandfather served in Europe in WWII. He was the company clerk because he knew how to type. A few years ago, going through my grandmother's things, I found some letters and photos he sent during that time. Some of the photos are of beautiful countryside but the notes on the back of the photos always have the location blacked out.

My maternal grandfather was in the army but I'm not sure if he was in WWII or Korea. He emphatically never wanted to talk about it. I suspect his experience was considerably more grim.

ION I have a car question. Yesterday I was informed that my timing chain is loose or stretched but was advised not to do anything about it. What might be the repercussions of that? Will I be okay to make a 9 hour drive in a couple of days?

Sumi, I know that's true in a lot of the Seattle area cases.

A close friend's stepfather was born in a camp, and the local Japanese community would make sure it was spoken of in schools here, so it's something I think about a lot. (Especially over the last 5-6 years, unfortunately.)

I don't know if my MiL's Aunt was affected, because I keep thinking Aunt Toki was in Hawaii, but I've never actually asked.

One grandfather tried to serve in WWII, but wound up, due to his status as married (and pushing 40) with five children, being stuck in Victoria for the duration. The not-a-grandfather (it's... complicated, and I still don't fully understand, but my unhappily married grandmother wound up living with and having to answer to not one, but two whiny men) had served in WWI. My common law stepgrandfather served in WWII, and the shrapnel in his knee is what killed him, in a round about way. (Surgery for the knee in '98, took more pain pills than he should have, wound up with a bleeding ulcer and died.)

One of Gram's sisters went and did something in England during WWII, and wound up coming home carrying my Dad's cousin Liz. (Speaking of yesterday's topics, when Liz's mother married and had her younger brother Phil, I don't think Phil was told until he was an adult that Liz was his half sister by another man.)

Paul's grandfather was in WWII, which is how he met Paul's grandmother. He was one of the soldiers on the ground right after the bombings in Japan, which they think might be one of the reasons he developed an aggressive cancer later in life. (Though the cancer lost the race to kill him to the lung damage from working in cement.)

All this family talk has me wanting to do some research. Anyone have a geneology site or sites that they like?

How much do you know, GC?

Not much at all. I know my father's parents and my mother's parents, but that's pretty much it.

www.familysearch.org

They're the genealogy portion of the Mormon Church, and they've got millions of things online.

I usually start at familysearch.org.

The non-American aspects of my family make it slightly harder to track down the ones I know little about, but it's a good place to start.

ION I have a car question. Yesterday I was informed that my timing chain is loose or stretched but was advised not to do anything about it. What might be the repercussions of that? Will I be okay to make a 9 hour drive in a couple of days?

My boss says that diagnosis is really suspect. A loose or stretched timing belt or chain is a very serious thing. He thinks if someone is dumb enough to tell you not to worry about it they might not know what they're talking about. You might want to consider taking the car someplace else.

If you get farther into this and want to dig into more detailed information, genealogy is one of the other things the internet is for other than porn and pictures of cats.

My owner's manual makes no mention of a timing belt, so I'm guessing that means it's a timing chain, right?

The SERVICE ENGINE SOON light has been going off and the diagnostic computer said the timing chain was bumping something to set it off.