Raymond Sylvester Emmett Underwood Jr., NCO Academy, Fort Knox, Kentucky

I am a disabled veteran residing in Colorado Springs, Colorado. I served in the US Naval Submarine Force for about 8-years all tolled. I have been researching our family's history for going on some 15+ years or so.
The family branch, to which [I] belong, came to this hemisphere from the British Isles in the early 1600s looking for a better life. Principally, my paternal ancestors settled in the region of New England, eventually, settling in the states of Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont, and even in the wildernesses of New Brunswick, Canada. My maternal ancestry gradually immigrated from Canada to the United States—more specifically, from the “shores” of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island (PEI). These “hearty and stout” (i.e., stout both in heart and stature) peoples would eventually take-up residence in the New England states of Maine and Massachusetts. As time has marched-on, much like [t]hat with America, immigrants seeking a better way of life for themselves and their families, have found “a place to call home” within the arms of our family. For [we] all came from different lands with divergent backgrounds, cultures, and creeds to “call ourselves with one voice—‘American’ ”.