The 11th Hour of the 11th Day of the 11th Month...
marked the end of World War I with the signing of the Armistice in 1918. Made a legal holiday in 1938 to honor all veterans, living and deceased, Armistice Day was officially renamed Veterans Day in 1954.
Most of us have a connection to someone who has served in the military--you may just not be aware of this or don't know how to find the information.
My search of the Ancestry database --which you can access here in the library--yielded some surprising results. I was interested in learning about my great great grandfather, Peter Huntoon. I knew he lived in Maine before moving the family to Massachusetts. As a result of searching Ancestry, I discovered Peter was a 'wagoner' in the Civil War for the state of Maine. He enlisted in October of 1861 at the age of 35 and was discharged with a Distinguished Service mention. He then collected a Civil War Pension which he received in Maine, then Connecticut and then Massachusetts where he lived until his death. All of this information was news to my family members. Now we have another veteran to remember and honor on Veterans Day.