als voorbeeld mijn e-mail van 19 september 2004 naar de Erie County Library, Pennsylvania :
Subject: seeking info about 1st Lieutenant Kenneth R. Robinson
Date: Fri, 17 Sep 2004 23:38:58 +0200
From: Bert en Rosie
To:
reference@erielibrary.org
Dear Madam, Sir,
My name is Bert Caris and I live in the southern part of the province of
Limburg, the Netherlands.
I recently adopted the gravesite of first Lieutenant Kenneth R. Robinson
at the Netherlands American War Cemetery at Margraten, the Netherlands.
Adopting such a gravesite means visiting the grave frequently, putting
flowers at the grave on special days like e.g. Memorial Day, Christmas
or september 17th; this week it is 60 years ago that the southern part
of Limburg was liberated by American units, and finally it means
maintaining contact with relatives or friends of Lieutenant Robinson in
the United States, but only when those relatives or friends wish to do so.
From the records I gathered, Lieutenant Robinson apparantly came from
Erie County, Pennsylvania and the unit he served in was 8th armored
Division, 36th Tank Battalion, D-Company. He died in the night of March
5th 1945 in the vicinity of Rheinberg, Germany.
The way I and my family are looking at it, he gave his life for us to
live our lives like we do momentarily in a free and peaceful western
Europe. Although I am of a post WW II generation (born in 1959),
adopting Lieutenant Robinson's gravesite is the least we can do to show
our gratitude and respect for what so many soldiers from far over the
Atlantic did for us in Europe 60 years ago.
To keep the memories alive, I dug up a lot of information about the 8th
Armored Division's, 36th Tank Battalion and other units
history. But there is very little I know about Lieutenant Robinson's life.
Is it possible for you, within the boundaries of U.S. privacy
legislation, to provide me with some information about Kenneth R. Robinson ?
I hope you'll find this e-mail not too intrusive and leave it up to your
judgement if you want to respond.
sincerely,
Bert Caris