Zoom Meeting – Unexpected Connections: A Church, A Prison & the War of 1812

Unexpected Connections: A Church, A Prison & the War of 1812
by George Mitchell, President Arkansas Chapter of the General Society of the War of 1812

Within the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery and Memorial in France, rest the largest number of our military dead in Europe. A total of 14,246 veterans are buried there. Most of those lost their lives during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive of World War I. George and his wife Sheila attended a Veteran’s Day Memorial Service on the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, November 11, 2018 at Meuse-Argonne. A few days later, they also visited a much lesser known cemetery, the Dartmoor Prison Cemetery, in Princetown, Devon, UK. There are 271 American Veterans of the War of 1812 are buried there and hardly anybody knows it even exist. George’s presentation shines a light on this forgotten cemetery and raises the question of why nobody knows about it.

George Mitchell is a native of Pine Bluff. He is retired from Southeast Arkansas College in Pine Bluff where he served as the Chair of the Technical Studies Division. George also served for thirteen years as a pastor in the United Methodist Church until he retired in 2014. He has been interested in genealogy for over 25 years. He and his wife Sheila are both active in their genealogical research and enjoy taking trips around the country to visit libraries, archives and cemeteries in order to learn more about their family history.

George is currently President of the Arkansas Genealogical Society; President of The General Society of Descendants of the War of 1812 in Arkansas; Past President of the Jefferson County Genealogical Society in Pine Bluff; a member of Sons of the American Revolution; Descendants of Washington’s Army at Valley Forge; Arkansas Pioneers; First Families of Tennessee; First Families of Maryland; and the Flagon and Trencher Society.

George and Sheila have three daughters and five grandchildren. George says, “We hope that someday at least some of them will show an interest in genealogy so we will have somebody to pass along all of our ‘genealogical stuff’”.