"Known Unto God" - The Names We Don't Know

On Saturday we ventured to the area of Anzio and Nettuno to visit the American and British military cemeteries of World War II soldiers. It was a quiet and poignant day. Anzio and Nettuno are coastal towns and were a strategic point in the allied invasion of Italy that eventually liberated Rome and even more eventually Nazi occupied northern Italy.

The American cemetery was the easiest to find so we started there. It is a beautiful tribute to those fallen soldiers with gravestones either as crosses or Stars of David marking each soldier there. The markers contain the name and the state each of the soldier and there is a very nice large monument overseeing the cemetery which has information about the campaign as well as a bronze statue of two soldiers standing side by side. I was also impressed by the carvings on the front of the monument (you can see one here).

What surprised me about these carvings the most is the angel was depicted without wings. Mormons believe angels don't have wings. (But that's a subject for another time.)

As a Canadian, however, I wanted the opportunity to pay my respects to the Canadian soldiers who died in that area. We guessed that they were probably at the British cemetery which is less well known and in a location about a 5 minute drive from the American cemetery. It took some instructions from a couple of people to find it.

The British cemetery was in fact labeled as "The British Commonwealth" cemetery so there were Canadians there with the maple leaf on their markers.

I was also happy to see a Hindu marker for a soldier from India as well as a Punjabi marker:

The British Commonwealth cemetery is a smaller, more humble cemetery but still very beautiful and well tended. I was surprised that the markers weren't like the American cemetery; they were like normal grave stones, but what made me both sad and glad at the same time were the personal messages from family inscribed on these markers. Take a look at some of them:

Doesn't this one just break your heart? He left behind three little girls. Did they manage? What happened to them?

He was only 22 leaving behind a wife and son.

I was regretful I had no flower to lay on this grave. I hope others have many times over the years.

I think many of us can identify with this statement when it comes to our loved ones.

A sorrowing mother. Her caption says it all.

The caption is obscured a little. It says "Of this bad world, the loveliest and the best has smiled, said goodnight and gone to rest." 

I hope Gwen eventually found the comfort she pleaded for. She was looking to the right source for that peace.

And this is an interesting one:





And among the sorrowing messages, there were also some messages of hope:

These were the graves that had names and a place for the family to express their sorrow in a few simple words. But there were many many graves that were like this:

The remains of soldiers they could not identify. There were so many in that cemetery. And the only thing they could put on the marker is "Known Unto God." Yes, they are. And I'm sure their families at home treasured their names even if they don't know where their remains were buried. But as I gazed at the monument at the head of the British cemetery, I thought about the importance of names:

Our names are symbols of us, our lives, what we accomplish and what we do in this life. None of us want to be forgotten. These families who provided inscriptions for these markers did not want their loved ones names forgotten because of who they were and what they meant to them.

It made me think about all of us who do Family History research; we search out names of our ancestors but why? It's not just a name we want. We want to help and honour the people who possessed those names. We may not know much of what they were like or what they did, but they were people who contributed to this world in their capacity. They were people who had joys and sorrows, loved and lost just like us. We want their names recorded and preserved. In fact, we are commanded to do so.


I am grateful to all those soldiers who endured the horrors of war - both those who died and those who lived for they went just trying to make a difference. They probably couldn't conceive how difficult it would be to go to war just as I can't conceive now what it's like to live through a war. But they mattered. Their names matter. All names matter. That's what our day at the cemeteries taught me.