Since early childhood Major General “Bob” Scales had always wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps to be a soldier. His story is an Army story. It tells of three generations of service by a family that, beginning with two World War II officers, spawned six decades of service to the Nation. General Scales and his wife, Diana, have lived through twenty nine military moves, a near death experience in Vietnam, seven year’s separation and eleven overseas assignments, to forge a partnership of service very rare in America today. These pages tell in vignette style a piece of military history from early days in the Philippines, through post war Germany, Vietnam and Cold War Europe. Scales’ career from West Point cadet to general officer offers a view of military life unique to a culture increasingly forgotten today.

Elwin Hall Schmidt/Smith, son of Frederick Schmidt and Lillian Mabel Hall, married Magdalena Josephine Wertsch, daughter of Charles Albert Wertsch and Sarah Isabelle Fields, in 1923 in Brooklyn, New York. Ancestors, descendants and relatives lived mainly in England, Ireland, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Minnesota, Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1869.

A compelling and evocative history of an ordinary 21st century American family detailing its varied and diverse historical and cultural elements through out history. An enthralling journey through time and culture giving a strong narrative account of the similar Celtic roots of many American families. Using records and tools as varied as archeology, anthropology, ethnology, etymology, geology, mythology, legends and historical documentation, Scales embarks on a fascinating quest to link together the pieces of a vast jigsaw of the forgotten Celtic heritage of many American families while developing a chronological framework to historical events and family bloodlines. With an astonishing insight into the cultural effects of the travels and historical events of our founding fathers, more than a dozen separate family lines are identified with their earliest American ancestors and which part of the ancient Celtic world those families came from. Reaching as far back into the origin of the Celtic people as the Sumerian Culture of 4000bc to their arrival in Ireland, Germany and Scotland sets a framework for the detailed history of the Picts and Scots who's blood still runs in many American veins.