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This project started in 1990. Originally, its purpose was to learn more about the history of the Catholic Religious Emblems program. Naively I thought that others would have already published
some material at least on the history of Catholic youth in the USA, if not on Catholic Scouting. To my dismay, I found that there was a complete absence of research in these areas, as well as relatively few
published works on US Scouting in general, especially when one compares it with academic research on European Scouting.
Since my initial research into the religious emblems program was also
turning up material of a larger scope, I decided to expand my research goals. However, other matters intervened that caused me to set the project aside in the mid-90s.
Just before the birth
of our first son in February 2002, I decided to return to the project. Parenthood had other plans; however, I prevailed and sat down to add to the chapters I had previously completed.
I had
two filing cabinets full of primary source material and a bookcase full of books, so I thought I was prepared. But as soon as I turned my attention to a prominent figure in Catholic Scouting's past, I ran
into problems.
With the exception of a very few individuals in my study, biographies, or even autobiographies, have been rare. With this particular individual there is no published account of
his life where I could turn. Fortunately, there were numerous articles in the New York Times, but that is where I ran into some problems.
I knew this person had some serious
allegations lodged against him; the crux of these allegations was that he worked for the German government during both World Wars. However, in my initial research phase, I had assumed that these were
unfounded allegations. When I began to compose my thoughts and reviewed my notes, I realized that I did not have enough evidence on hand to dismiss the allegations out of hand.
In September
2003 I started a more in-depth research of this individual. This entailed requesting his file from the FBI, contacting historians who specialize in German-American history, reading books on the
German-American Bund, German espionage, Hitler, reviewing civil and criminal case files, and trying to recall my college German to read dissertations on Nazi activities in the US.
After
several years, I was finally able to track down court records of a known associate of this individual. Par for the course in my research, I got the run around from the FBI and the Department of Justice, only
to be informed by the DOJ (after a lapse of some time) that the files had been transferred to the National Archives (NARA). Through the use of the FOIA Act, I was able to have the NARA release almost 13,000
pages of the case for research. In February 2008 I'm planning on traveling to College Park (MD) to review the material at the NARA. I hope my research trip will provide enough information that I can complete
the chapter on this individual.
For those who have visited this site before, you will notice I have deleted the previous updates. As it had been several years since I've provided an update on
my progress, I decided those previous entries were not relevant.
To date, I have completed a total of 11 chapters and have an additional 6 chapters in various stages of completion. I've
started to send out completed chapters to individuals with many years of involvement in Catholic Scouting for their review and comments. I hope to get their comments on all of the completed chapters within
the next couple of months.
My oldest son started Kindergarten in August 2007, which means he is not only home on holidays, but has in-service and vacation days; something that he did not have
at the 360-day day care facility he was in for the last few years. Additionally, our second son was born in September, so I've not had as much free time to devote to this project in the past 6-8 months as I
had planned, since I've been a stay-at-home Dad since he was born. I plan to continue being a stay-at-home Dad until he is about 12 or so months old, but hope to be able to write during his naps!
Now that my oldest has gone back to school today (1/7/2008) after the Christmas holidays, I hope to be able to return to the book, in between changing diapers, feedings and bathing my
4-month-old.
2/21/2008
My visit to the NARA in College Park last week was not as fruitful as I would have wanted, but it did give me some additional new information that will allow me to finally finish that chapter. I'm
glad I'd made plans to be in the area for several days, as I ran into some problems at the archives. For some reason, although my FOIA request had been approved and processed months ago, when they went to
pull the boxes they noticed that some of the file folders did not have a stamp that marked them as being screened and declassified.
After two attempts at retrieving the records, I had to
leave the secured research room and get the FOIA correspondence I had with the NARA. That material had to be screened and stamped BEFORE I could take it with me into the research room to attempt to solve the
problem. Finally, after 3 1/2 hours since I'd submitted my initial pull request, I was able to sit down with the material.
Later during the day, one of the archivists came over and stated he
did not know why the material was classified, being 60+ years old. He offered to review their Military Intelligence records, but did not find any material relevant to my research.
I was able
to do some more writing on this chapter while in Baltimore, but have not been able to do any work on the book this week as our 5-month old came down with a cold Sunday - just as a I returned! He is feeling
better today, so unless I come down with a cold (as is usually the case with the kids), I'll get back to writing next week.
I hope to finish this chapter within the next 3-4 weeks. I've been
in contact with a German-American historian from the University of Munich, but is at Rutgers at the moment, who had the same problem with this individual in the research she did for her book. She has
graciously offered to review the chapter to make sure my research, not to mention my German translations, is correct.
I am also about 30-40% completed with the chapter on religious
activities. I had been working on that chapter before I left for Baltimore, but will put that aside until I finish the other chapter.
5/3/2008
Since my last update, I spent the rest of February and all of March designing a web site, as well as compiling bibliographies and guides to archives, for academic historians interested in
Guiding/Scouting. The web site (www.Paxtu.org) went live the first week of April. Its purpose is to provide resources to historians who might be interested in researching
the various aspects of the history of Guiding/Scouting. A bulletin board is also a feature of the web site and its purpose is to offer a forum for historians to discuss their research and ask questions. So
far this feature has not had much traffic. I plan to update several guides to archives this weekend, as well as some bibliographies throughout this month.
With the publication of the web
site, I was finally able to return to the book in April. I've been working fairly steady throughout the month on what I have termed the "German chapter." At the beginning of the month it was around 36 pages
in length. Today, it's around 86 pages and I still have 10 years of in-depth review to cover. I hope that I will be able to finish this chapter by the end of May, at the latest. At its current rate, I can
easily see this chapter with 120 pages, however, I think it will need some serious editing before publication. If nothing else, I could probably not only get a chapter out of this work, but two articles as
well.
I seriously hope to be able to complete the German chapter this month, as I do not think the completion of the remaining chapters will require as much documentation. At least, that is
what I am hoping!
Until next time. . . . YIS!
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