Celebrating Fourth of July in Family History

Three special events took place on the Fourth of July in my and my husband's combined family tree:

• Samuel Schwartz (1883-1954), my maternal great uncle, was born on July 4th in what was Ungvar, Hungary (now Uzhhorod, Ukraine). He came to America in 1904, became a naturalized US citizen in 1909, and got married in Bridgeport, Connecticut, less than a week later. I've been in touch with his grandchildren, my 2d cousins.
• Thomas Jefferson Isaiah Haskell Wood (1848-1861), in my husband's Wood family tree, was born on July 4th in Plaquemine, Louisiana, the second of 17 children. Sadly, this young man drowned at the age of 12. 
• George Ainsworth Larimer (1873-1922), my husband's 1c2r, served in the 157th Indiana Infantry during the Spanish-American War, 1898. On July 4, 1899, George boarded a Chicago-bound train near his home in Indiana. "Coincidentally" on the same train was Cora May Lutz, also from Indiana. The two left the train at St. Joseph, Michigan (a Gretna Green), were married by a justice of the peace, then returned home later that day. I blogged about the news coverage of this elopement here.

Thinking of these three ancestors on July 4th weekend.