How my mother came to change her name
Every family probably has stories like this. My father and I thought it was a hoot but my sainted mother had a different view! My mother was named Doris Agnes Ross. Agnes, her middle name, was chosen out of respect for her aunt, Agnes Ross Davey. How her parents came to choose her first name, Doris, was a mystery to me. And to her as well- no clue how it came to be chosen. But in about 1945 my mother learned Doris wasn't really her birth name. My parents married in the '30s and I arrived on the scene about 4 years later while we were residents of California. Then in 1942 (I think!) we Bowmans moved to Reno, Nevada. That was just after the start of WW-II and men were disappearing into the Army, Navy and Marine Corps both by volunteering and by being drafted. And yes, the Navy and Marine Corps received some of those draftees during WW-II (the Air Force didn't exist till after WW-II- during WW-II they were the Army Air Corps and were part of the Army). My father was drafted in...