January 21, 2019 by Jennifer Holik Leave a Comment

Webinar: Finding the Answers: WWII Research Online

Saturday, February 9, 2019 at 10:00 a.m. CST (17:00 Amsterdam time)

Webinar: Finding the Answers: WWII Research Online

Registration fee $19.95 fee for this webinar. Click to register for the webinar. A replay will be available for three days after the webinar.

One place many people begin research for their World War II service member is online. While most of the records you need to reconstruct service history are not available online, you can find clues and unit or contextual information to add to your soldier’s story. Tools and strategies taught in this course will apply to WWI, WWII, Korea, and Vietnam military research.

In this program, Jennifer will:

Explain some myths and common questions about online research.
Explain how to research using the collections on Ancestry.com and Fold3.com.
Discuss other places you can find information online and how that can lead to offline resources.
Explain where and how to connect with other researchers or European grave adopters.
Discuss using social media to locate information.

The tips you learn in this program will help you with any digitized record set.

January 8, 2019 by Jennifer Holik Leave a Comment

Webinar Saturday January 12, 2019 – Finishing the Story

Webinar: Finishing the Story. Combining Genealogy and Military Research to Write the Story

Saturday, January 12, 2019

11:00 a.m. CST/12:00 p.m. EST

Registration fee $19.95. Click to register for the webinar.

Tracing the life of a World War I or II soldier can be challenging. Researchers have been conditioned to believe “All the Records Burned!” Some did, but an abundance of other resources exist to reconstruct service history. Many researchers are unaware of the numerous military records and resources available.

In this program, explore the lives, service, and deaths of Michael Kokoska, Frank Winkler, and Robert Brouk. Genealogical, historical, and military records will be shown and discussed. Jennifer will demonstrate how to write the stories of your soldier through a brief reading from her books Stories of the Lost and The Tiger’s Widow.

In this engaging and informative presentation, Jennifer shares:

A trip through time, exploring the lives of three men.

Moving stories about each man’s life and death.
Numerous resources search for military records to reconstruct service history.
Tips on weaving military, genealogical, and historical records together.
Examples of how a military story can be written.

January 7, 2019 by Jennifer Holik Leave a Comment

War Stories – An Educational Project in Vietnam

Last year I was approached by a teacher in Vietnam named Ngoc Diệu Nguyễn who was creating a program to share on Microsoft Education called War Stories. Nguyễn was planning to bring healing to students, veterans of both sides of the Vietnam war, and the world through her program. I was happy to participate because helping the world heal from war is one of my missions.

Program Description from the website:

This collaborative project aims at sparking understanding, empathy, compassion and spreading peace by giving students the chance to talk to veterans, their family members and then share the untold frontline and home front stories with the world.

It is widely accepted that ‘History is written by the victors’ (Winston Churchill). So how much do we really know about history? This collaboration will open students’ eyes and hearts to the connections historically and emotionally shared between the Vietnamese and Americans or among people directly and indirectly involved in any wars in the history. These connections can be felt regardless of war or time or place.

At the completion of the project, students will be able to develop their interviewing, writing, editing skills, their emotional skills and other 21st century skills including Collaboration, Communication, Creativity & Innovation, Self-Direction, Making Global Connections, Making Local Connections, Using Technology as a Tool for Learning. For those learning English as a foreign language or a second language, their four language skills are expected to be improved as well.

If you watch the video, you will see me and a little about my participation and meet many others who contributed to the project. I also gave permission for some of the writing prompts out of my book, Stories from the WWII Battlefield: Volume 3 Writing the Stories of War. This allowed students who do not have access or funds to purchase books, to have additional resources to use when interviewing family members or veterans. Be sure to scroll down the entire page she has set up to meet many other contributors and learn more about the project.

Ngoc asked for my expertise in military research and writing after having been referred to me by David Estes a Vietnam veteran, who runs the Livingston Country War Museum, in Pontiac, IL. David participates in Skype in the Classroom and connected with Ngoc that way. The war museum is an amazing place and worth a several hour visit if you are near Pontiac. You never know who will walk in the door (think veterans with beautiful smiles, lots of energy, laughter, and so many stories!) You can view interviews I conducted with some of the veterans at the museum and a tour of the museum, on my YouTube Channel.

To learn more about War Stories, you can explore the following links.

An overview and progress report.
Where some interactions between students and veterans take place https://flipgrid.com/du79l3w Use password: warstories2018
Facebook page

Would you like to contribute to the project or contact Ngoc to ask questions or participate in an interview? You can email Ngọc.

December 31, 2018 by Jennifer Holik Leave a Comment

Professional Researchers and Empathy

Happy almost New Year!

The end of 2018 has arrived, although I am not quite sure where this year went. While there were moments it felt as if it dragged on and I would never see the light at the end of the tunnel, most days seemed to fly by. As I sit here in these final hours of the year, I have been journaling a lot about my targets for the early part of 2019. I have been evaluating my business, what it has been, what it can no longer be, and what it must become. Who I must become to create in a new way.

I am writing my memoir and a couple of other books at the same time because the world requires hope and inspiration. I require an outlet for some of what I have experienced and felt. I was also put on this earth to help others discover new possibilities to cope with the unknown and difficult. This is requiring me to be very vulnerable and open. Something that is sometimes difficult.

The research we, as professionals, do for people can have serious repercussions in their lives and family. However, in general in the genealogy and military research communities, I don’t see people talking about this. Why is that?

Scrolling through Facebook today, a friend and genealogy colleague we will call “S” posted a meme shared by another colleague that LOL’d the pain a family was going to experience because DNA tests were purchased. There was a family secret the mom had not shared because of her intense grief. “S” stated as professionals or humans, we should not be LOLing or sharing hurtful things, or commenting in ways that cause people pain. We do not know the whole story. Some comments on the original poster’s thread were basically that ‘people need to get over the past and move on.’ Or other more hurtful comments I will not repeat here.

Really? It is THAT easy to forget what happened in the past that caused someone intense pain and grief and was passed down through the family, often unknowingly? Further, how would you feel if someone made comments like this to you about your family? Have we become so uncaring as a society or is it that social media allows people to behave like asses with no consequences to their words or behavior?

What I am seeing many professionals – in any business – lack these days is empathy and the ability to connect on a deeper level with clients to help them navigate the information discovered through genealogical or military research or even DNA.

Empathy is defined as: the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.

Isn’t this what we should be striving for? Not an attitude of ‘let me take your money, toss you some papers, and let you sort yourself out.’

What would it take for the people of the world to start showing more empathy? How could our world change if we did?

I am different……

The primary reason new clients have chosen to work with me is the fact I provide empathy and answers. I go deeper that anyone else in my field and help them sort out the past. I cannot stand by and let someone else suffer with the questions or uncertainty, when I can provide answers, hope, and often a message from their loved one. One client recently sent a testimonial,

“Incredible! Whether your looking for the smallest of detail, the answer to a question, or the entire story…Mrs. Holik is the researcher, the expert to work with. I was amazed as to the details, the actual written records, and pictures that she was able to find surrounding my father’s time overseas during WWII…so very much information/detail, even though I wasn’t able to give her much to go on, just my father’s name and that he was in the Army. Another unexpected, but very special characteristic of Mrs. Holik’s work was her sensitivity, her compassion, her love for the work she’s doing, and for the actual individuals (both alive and having passed) she was working on and for. She conveyed her sincere interest and care every time, whether on the phone, or in her written communications with me. Her work is very special, the product that she produces is very special, and she is one very special person.” ~~ Rich Williams

If you are interested in working with a researcher who digs deep, provides empathy, helps you sort out the family stories, secrets, shame, guilt, all in a confidential manner, and help you process the information we discover, I am taking new clients at this time. Feel free to contact me for a free phone consultation to discuss research options, costs, and timelines.

November 23, 2018 by Jennifer Holik Leave a Comment

Our Biggest Black Friday – Cyber Monday Online Course Sale!

The WWII Research & Writing Center is offering our biggest discount ever on our online courses. Take advantage of our Black Friday – Cyber Monday special and take

50% off all our courses!

If you have been considering the IDPF class which is regularly $295.00 – NOW is the time to register for the class with your 50% discount.

All of our courses teach you the research strategies and show you how to research WWII but the same records and strategies apply to WWI, Korean War and the Vietnam War. No other site gives you access to research all four wars.

Click the links below to take advantage of this sale before it ends Monday evening, November 26, 2018.

Finding the Answers in the IDPF
Starting WWII Research 3 Course Bundle
Finding the Answers Through WWII Writing
Finding the Answers: Starting WWII Research
Finding the Answers: WWII Online

October 26, 2018 by Jennifer Holik Leave a Comment

Releasing Our Family’s Choices & Experiences

If you have been following the articles and videos for the last week or so, I have been bringing up some strong questions. Questions which make people stop and react – positively or negatively. My point of view is that we should be looking at the other aspects of our family and military histories. What we discover can help us move forward and create a better, happier life. It also helps clear the past of negative energies.

I have spent a lot of time the last decade looking at the darker parts of my family’s history and the military history we have. I have helped many clients look at this as part of their research or writing projects. We all come out of the project changed and ready to create something greater for ourselves and our families. Are you ready to create something better?

Ask us how we can help you learn more about your family’s past – going deeper than the basic facts.

October 24, 2018 by Jennifer Holik Leave a Comment

Why Do We Keep Repeating History? A Look at WWII.

Last weekend Johan and I traveled to the Dutch/German border near Aachen and spent a few days exploring WWII history and contemplating family history. I did a lot of writing on this trip. Musings. Questions. Concerns. Joyful things. All of this was captured in my journal.

One thing that keeps showing up the longer I am in Europe on this trip is that history keeps repeating itself. We are not doing enough to stop this.

In September while at the unveiling of a new WWII memorial in the Netherlands, during a speech someone said something to the effect that the Dutch have lived in relative peace for almost 75 years. The current young generations have no idea what it is like to live in fear or hunger. They in many ways take their freedom for granted as if this is how it has always been and this is how it will always be.

Wrong attitude.

The Dutch seem to be the only European country (that I have witnessed) consistently educating their youth on the history and events of WWII. I can say that having kids in American schools, they are not being educated on any of this beyond 5 minutes here or there. My boys know about our family’s history and sacrifices because I take time to explain it. They know how things work in other countries because I explain it. Knowing American schools are not educating about the past in a way that we can stop the division, anger, hate, and war in the present or cause our kids to QUESTION everything, stirs a lot of emotion in me. Rather than question, students are being taught to follow the crowd like sheep and buy into everything the media, government, school, church, etc. tells them is “truth”.

In the Netherlands, the school children participate in commemorations and other events so the history is alive. In other countries in Europe it seems to be covered up, changed, ignored, slid under the carpet.

Case in point, we watched a National Geographic investigative program on Mussolini the other night after we visited the Nazi Training Facility at Vogelsang in the German Eifel. I have not studied Italian history beyond early family history for a client so was unaware that Mussolini was in power so long in the 1930s and Hitler modeled himself after Mussolini. Then the historians in the program made an important point – when rulers are losing power or the country is going to hell, they create a DISTRACTION. That distraction is war.

Mussolini took his country into war with Ethiopia and won yet lost. WWII began and eventually Italy, who originally sided with Hitler, lost that connection and became an Allie. From the program and what I’ve heard, Italy does not educate their youth the way the Dutch do. There is a rise in Fascism today because people want a new Mussolini. They seem to have no concept of what happened in the past to bring him to power, the destruction he caused, and his downfall and the state of Italy afterward.

Thinking about all we have seen in the last two months in Europe, the programs I have watched, the places we visited, the history I read, the clients I have been working with, I did a lot of writing on this topic before we visited Margraten, the Netherlands American Cemetery for WWII. In this sacred place I wandered the graves, visited some specific soldiers, was snagged to stop and talk to others, and contemplated all of this. Having family members who fought, were changed, or died, in WWI and WWII, I do not understand why we keep forgetting the past. Why we continue to carry the sins of the fathers around like they are ours. Why we are so afraid to bring our family darkness to the light and explore it. Forgive it. Release it. Find closure.

Some of my thoughts are contained in this video. Some invitations and questions for YOU are also here. Have you taken the time to consider these things? What roles have your family members played in the past – whether WWII, WWI, or even before that, to continue looping history? Do you think it is time to let these things go and stop carrying them in our families?

Additional reading: for background on this trip and where some of my questions came from, you are invited to read the other articles I wrote where I touch on these topics.

Are you ready to explore your family’s history or military history? Explore our services and educational materials to learn more.

October 23, 2018 by Jennifer Holik Leave a Comment

Valerie & Myrt’s Excellent Genealogy Adventures

Colorado Springs, CO, Oct 19, 2018 — In anticipation THE Genealogy Show in Birmingham, England, US-based professional researcher and presenter Valerie Elkins joins blogger and webinar host Pat Richley-Erickson, “Myrt” of DearMYRTLE.com, to announce a new partnership.

“Why not make this trip to the UK, a most excellent genealogy adventure? Every genealogist hopes to travel to ancestral homelands. Throw in a genealogy conference and that’s a family historian’s dream come true,” says Valerie.

Myrt suggests sharing travel adventures may assist others also taking their first trip to the UK. “It’s about sharing the process of getting passports, deciding what to pack, figuring out where to stay, dealing with foreign currency and such. Valerie and Myrt’s Excellent Genealogy Adventures will chronicle networking with colleagues gathering from throughout the world, sharing the latest in DNA research and ideas for improving family history research skills.”

THE Genealogy show will be held at the NEC (The National Exhibit Centre) in Birmingham, England, 7-8 June 2019. Valerie will be presenting two classes. Myrt is a conference board member and will be taping AmbushCAM interviews.

Valerie and Myrt are scheduling visits to ancestral homelands before and after the conference, including stops in elsewhere in England, Scotland, Ireland and Norway. “We want to scope out the places where our ancestors once lived – get the lay of the land, that sort of thing. Thanks to modern technology, we’ve got top quality recording equipment in our hands and plan to do a lot of short-subject YouTube videos,” says Valerie.

ABOUT

Valerie and Myrt’s Excellent Genealogy Adventures

The internet-based partnership features a blog Valerie and Myrt’s Excellent Genealogy Adventures https://valeriemyrt.wordpress.com; a YouTube Channel https://youtu.be/MBOLectJLsQ; a Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/valerie.myrt; and a collection of Pinterest boards at https://www.pinterest.com/valeriemyrt. On Twitter and Instagram, follow them using #valeriemyrt .

THE Genealogy Show
Featuring a lineup of internationally recognized genealogy speakers, DNA research specialists and an exhibit hall where attendees can tour genealogy websites and try out the latest family history software, the conference is the brainchild of Kirsty Gray, Managing Director at Family Wise Limited offering UK heir research. Find out more at www.THEgenealogyshow.uk .

October 22, 2018 by Jennifer Holik Leave a Comment

The Lessons of Vogelsang

Johan and I visited Vogelsang, a former Nazi Training Facility and Tourist hot spot/wedding venue during the 1930s and early 1940s. Standing in this place now, looking out over the beautiful fall Eifel National Park, and knowing the history of this place, was hard to wrap my head around.

The National Socialist Documentation Center, which we visited and saw the exhibit, “The Master Race”, offers these questions on their website:

What was the attraction of a place like Vogelsang during the National Socialist period?
What did the party leadership promise young men coming here regarding their future?
What motivated their hopes and their desire for social advancement?
Were they, through drill and formation, predestined to participate in crimes, or could they have also said no?
Did they see themselves as members of a supposed master race and act upon this?

After we viewed the exhibit and walked most of the complex, I had no answers to those questions. I only had more questions and uncertainty about the world and the humans who inhabit it.

One thing we have to remember, especially in this day and age is that We did not commit the sins of our fathers but we carry them in our DNA. What would it take for us to release this burden we carry that is not ours? What would it take to stop using energetic words that cause us to take on the energy of others like saying, “I’m embarrassed or I’m ashamed or I feel guilty” when we have no reason to take this on because we are not the ones doing whatever we are apologizing for. Maybe most importantly, what would it take for people to stop acting like sheep and following the pack and believing everything they are told? What would it take for more people to wake up and start questioning everything?

How might our world change? Could we stop the war, anger, hate, division, and all the other negativity in this reality?

My invitation to you is to start looking at the darker sides of your family and military history. Bring those things into the light and release the shame, guilt, sadness, negativity, darkness, horror, whatever it is that is stuck there. Let it go. Forgive. Move on to create a better future.

Would you like help researching your family or military history? Would you like to explore the darker sides of your history to clear and release the past?

October 19, 2018 by Jennifer Holik Leave a Comment

How Do You Accurately Reconstruct Military History?

I am often asked how to reconstruct a military service file. In this short video I talk about this. Be sure to scroll down to see the additional resources to help you accurately reconstruct military history. You might be surprised to discover reconstruction is not what a lot of people tell you it is.

Additional Resources

Pick up one of our research books on Kindle or Paperback from Amazon. We have the only books on the market that teach you how to research any 20th century war. The strategies, records, and tools that we teach you for WWII research apply to WWI, Korea, and Vietnam.

Take one of our online courses available at WWII Education.

Educational Articles on Research

Videos

October 16, 2018 by Jennifer Holik Leave a Comment

Are You Ready to Explore More of You & Your Family?

Learn more at Finding the Answers Journey after watching the video.

October 15, 2018 by Jennifer Holik 2 Comments

Remembering Bernie Tom & the 101st Airborne

Bernard Tom. Photo courtesy of the Tom family.

12 October 2018, Johan and I attended the annual Stichting Never Forget Them Airborne Commemoration in Heteren. This was my third year to attend. It is held at the 101st Monument close to the Crossroads, just behind where 506th PIR Bernard Tom was KIA on 9 October 1944.

I have been researching Bernie for more than a year and writing his book. His family gave Johan his letters and some from family & friends. I hope to release the book at the 75th Anniversary of Operation Market Garden in 2019. Bernie jumped into Holland and fought here for a few weeks before he was killed. Since much of my client work is not for airborne, but other units within the Army, Navy, Army Air Forces, Marines, and Coast Guard, researching Bernie’s records have been interesting.

The commemoration in Heteren was basically the same as the last three years. The founder, Martin Veggelers read a speech as he does each year. The mayor spoke. School children read poems. Sadly, doves were not released this year. I wonder if that was due to the fact that there was a firing party that fired a salute. I guess the noise would have scared the doves. The usual wreaths were laid by the foundation, the town, various groups, and school children laid poems and flowers by the monument. Last Post was played and of course the American and Dutch National Anthems as the flags were raised.

The commemoration was well attended as it is each year. You can read about the 2017 Commemoration here. Read about the 2016 Commemoration here.

This year, on The Island, near Crossroads and the monument, is an enormous WWII re-enactment camp. Johan and I visited Friday afternoon for a few hours. Men were still setting things up, re-enactors still arriving after a week of work, but for the most part, there was a lot to see. I took a short tour and then spent some time talking to a lot of people. Apparently word had gotten out I was going to be there and several people were waiting to speak with me. That is always nice. I met old friends and new ones and gave a lot of research advice. I wonder how many more stories will be told now.

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