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Who Will Your Research Impact or Heal?

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When we embark on genealogical or military research or simply share family stories around the Sunday dinner table, we open a space to impact the lives of those around us and heal. Have you ever considered how your one “small” act of research may help someone in countless ways? How that one document you discover or story you share can heal a broken heart?

Recently as I’ve been helping someone research their family history because I simply wanted to know where in Belgium his family came from and had I visited there…..I have been thinking about the ripple effect of this research on his family.

Whether we know it or not, and many of you reading this will know because you are the family healer, the breaker of cycles…..the questions we ask family members or stories we tell has an impact. It may trigger old wounds or memories to surface for the listener to confront.

Think of it like a spiderweb or drop in the water that ripples out. Our story, a document, some military research, or question that begins with us, once shared can impact and change or even heal multiple lives. Lives we may never even know it has affected.

I’m seeing this with my friend and his research as we connect more with his family to discuss the findings. Old stories and memories are being triggered. Ancestors are stepping forward toward me to ask for help or communicate something. I’m realizing the impact I’m already having and I know this information is being shared. I’m also aware of some of the healing taking place through conversations I’m having with family members. It’s humbling to be a facilitator of this helping and healing. It’s also healing for me to witness our shared family patterns and traumas.

Never underestimate how much your research and stories can help someone or heal. You are here to change the world.

Are you ready to step into this space? If so, you are invited to register for my upcoming Patterns Study Group. This 5-week study group will help you identify through genealogical and military records, family beliefs, behaviors, patterns, and traumas that exist and help you think about ways you are living these energies. Current sessions begin 27 March 2023 and 22 April 2023. Summer sessions will be added soon.

Are you ready to explore your family’s WWI or WWII history? Book a free phone consult today or email me at info@wwiirwc.com.

© 2023 WWII Research & Writing Center

Roots, War & the Soul: Healing Through Story

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On 6 January 2021, I presented a program for the Virginia War Memorial Foundation on Healing Through Story. If you missed the live presentation, you can watch the program on my YouTube Channel. Download the handout.

Would you like to join a writing group and start telling your stories? Learn more about my Roots & War Writing Groups.

© 2021 World War II Research and Writing Center

Grief In Military & Genealogy Research

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Grief is a topic we tend to avoid in life and especially in genealogy and military research. Why? Because it is messy and you can’t document it with a paper trail.

However, grief can sneak up on us as we do this work and dive deeper into our ancestors’ experiences and compare them with our own. Family patterns and traumas emerge and if we do not bring these things to the light and allow them to heal, they can get stuck inside us and create blocks and dis-ease.

Grief is a topic we explore in my master class, Your Family’s War Journey. Would you like to explore this and other topics? Learn more on the registration page which has two informational videos and a lot of extra details.

Class starts 25 January 2021. Are you ready to journey with me?

© 2021 World War II Research and Writing Center

Does Historical Context Matter Anymore?

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This year has been a roller coaster of emotions and events. With a lot of incorrect information pushed to the masses to keep them asleep, in fear, and not questioning. In some ways, the world has reverted back to the atmosphere of WWII where they ratted on their neighbors and lived in fear because the propaganda at the time was pushed on them to have one point of view. If that point of view was questioned, then the consequences could have been deadly.

On the flip side of this coin we are also seeing a lot of hidden information about people, the past, and events, come to light. As this happens, we are each being called to process it, witness what took place, acknowledge the unintegrated trauma that is contained in our bodies and energy systems, and heal. I have been doing a lot of this since March and honestly, it has changed some of my feelings about the World Wars, the sacrifices made, especially by my those who were killed who have called out to me, and this work I do. It has taken months to integrate some of what I’ve learned and come to a place of personal peace. I thought I understood the historical context of it all, but I discovered there was more to the story that had been kept from the world.

Historical Context & Trauma

As I dive deeper into healing work and trauma work with my military research clients and writing groups, I am aware of the unintegrated trauma that lives within each of them. I also see how they are willing to explore the historical context of the past. In fact, this month I spent the Office Hours for my writing groups doing facilitation on energy and trauma healing. Individually, and as a group, they had reached a point in research and writing that was pushing them beyond the boundaries of where they had been and were being pushed to go deeper. To allow the emotions to surface. To start questioning even more than they had prior. To do the deeper healing work.

I have also observed how many 20-somethings and kids still in school are viewing the world and history. In speaking with one of my kids and observing posts by younger people on social media – it is clear that the concept of historical context has not been taught in school. If it has, then it was a 5 minute discussion. The majority of young people today are offended by anything that doesn’t fit within the narrow view of life they’ve been programmed to believe is real. They believe books and movies and music should be banned because it’s deemed racist – even if it was written decades ago. And they view history through their eyes today – if an event or concept doesn’t fit into what they’ve been programmed and manipulated into believing then it must be a lie or couldn’t have happened or shouldn’t exist. I have to ask, Does Historical Context Matter Anymore?

Ignoring the context of the past does not help heal the past or heal each of us individually. It only prolongs the suffering and pain and slows the change that could take place on the planet and in our lives.

Do We Need Historical Context?

I feel strongly we need to be teaching historical context to every person on the planet. We need to understand why it is important to witness the past through the eyes, rules, laws, culture, society, religion, and education of those times. The world functioned differently then. Values were different. Events took place that had dramatic impact on creating mass trauma for the collective, especially through the two World Wars. And after the war, people were encouraged to forget, shove it away, don’t talk about it. Definitely do not question anything that took place.

We need to be able to drop in and observe what took place in the past without attaching to it. Sometimes that is easier said than done. I spent many years crying, moving through deep emotions and personal trauma that surfaced from my life and from my ancestral lineage, and healing what was there. It was not an easy or fast process and as healing is a spiral, we are never done.

Trauma and healing are also an embodied process, meaning we need to be in our bodies and paying attention to what is happening inside. Through witnessing and observing where in our bodies we feel the pain or numbness or hyperarousal, we can begin to work with it and heal the trauma that resides within. Are we responding or reacting to what is happening outside us in the world or this new information we receive? The answer to that question shows us where we are functioning from in that moment – pain or healing.

We also need to teach historical context in the present and encourage people to look at what truly IS in this moment. Ask….

  • Why do we have this pain or suffering or trauma being created right now?
  • How have I as an individual contributed to the creation of this trauma?
  • How can I as an individual help heal this trauma?

Healing with Historical Context

It has been a blessing for me the last several years, to be of service to clients who requested trauma and grief healing through the military research projects we have done together. One of the biggest factors to start the healing process or identify why a client was feeling a certain way, was to first look at the historical context of what took place that is creating the reaction in the client.

As an example, I had a client who became angry and upset when he read the research report and files because his father was given rights to his oldest brother’s remains and personal effects during World War II.

My first step was to explain the historical context. As the father/male head of the family, he had legal right as next of kin to make those decisions and receive the effects. This explanation opened space for the client to better understand why this took place.

My next step was to learn more about the client’s family and early life during and after the war to identify any other issues that may have created such a strong reaction. I learned quite a lot that gave me context.

Then we were able to do some facilitation and began to clear away old beliefs and feelings that were keeping the client stuck in a pattern of anger over the past. One of the gifts I have is to help clear out old energetic patterns and trauma, to help people heal. One step at a time. However, it began with historical context.

So what do you think? Do we need historical context any more? Should we be teaching this in schools? Should parents step up and take a more active role in planting seeds with their kids about context?

If you would like to work with me to explore and heal your family’s ancestral trauma, grief, and loss, please check out my facilitation packages and details. You can also email me to ask questions.

© 2020 WWII Research & Writing Center

A Phoenix Rising

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What a year 2020 has been! No matter who you are, or in what stage of your awakening and soul growth, everyone has been impacted by the games being played on planet Earth. For those who are awake, many of us have been going through deep transformation that has come in waves. Rising and falling like the tides as the planet and its people receive constant upgrades of light in our DNA and souls.

I love this graphic, don’t you? It merges the past, where I spent a huge amount of time, with the present. The burning up of the old to allow the new to rise and flourish. To HEAL.

At the start of the year, I had plans to transform my business in one way. Little did I know what was coming by mid-March, or how the world games would completely shift my entire reality. I have moved in and out of the depths of darkness, some would call the Dark Night of the Soul. That Dark Night is not scary as I have traveled through it many times since 2012. What it unearths is not always fun and does not always feel good. In fact, there have been moments I wondered if I could go on as the world burns around us. In the end when the dust settles, or I have burned up completely, I rise again like a phoenix. More powerful and authentic than my prior self.

Along the journey this year I picked up new guides and angels. Said goodbye to others. Sent many soldiers from various wars to the light. Have done intense study into several different areas outside of military research or family history, to prepare for what is coming next. Some of those certification programs are ongoing and continue to shift me daily.

For several months I closed this website to take space, as the way I was working with the military and clients had to change. I couldn’t continue the way things were as it did not bring me joy as it once did. My path and purpose were elsewhere. However, my guides told me at the end of April that I would remain in the military world but in a much different capacity. That new road has shown itself this week and I couldn’t be more excited. Details will be coming soon about what this is.

The content on this website, of educational resources from the last five years will remain on this site but I am only teaching “how-to” research to select organizations. I am doing research for select clients and the way I work has also shifted. I am also now speaking through webinars and live-in-person to select organizations in 2021.

Additionally, as our world shifts into a higher vibration and the dark and secrets emerge, the collective needs to heal. This is where my focus will be. Providing resources, classes, webinars, masterclasses, membership circles, and private facilitation/healing sessions to clients who are ready to break family patterns and stop living their ancestors’ lives.

To help clients create a more loving and joyful future. To help those souls stuck here to move on. To help clients remove energetic blocks that keep them stuck. To do the deeper, more honest work required in this decade for military, family, and personal history. I accomplish this through research and writing projects, private facilitation and coaching, and many other avenues. I have also chosen to leave my online course and webinar site open for military research education. Visit the WWII Education site today to sign up for classes today.

Would you like to join me on this journey? You can check out all the resources I currently offer on my many websites/social media sites, and sign up for the Ancestral Souls mailing list. You may also contact me to ask questions.

© 2020 WWII Research & Writing Center

Now Offering Upgraded Research Services

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Many of the clients who work with me over the last few years have sought deeper answers. They come to the research consultation with family stories, secrets, perhaps lies they discovered. They come with questions wondering who really was my father or mother? Sometimes the research itself provides secrets that were hidden for decades, or answers that change the perception a client has on their family member or even, themselves. This can cause grief, a sense of loss, sense of abandonment, trigger PTSD, and many other things.

Research Services

We offer many research and writing services. Each project is customized for the client because each client has different needs.

  • Locate, analyze, and interpret World War I, World War II, Korean War, and Vietnam records across all branches for military personnel, including individual soldier records, company records, and unit records.
  • Reconstruct service history, placing pieces of your service member’s puzzle together, even when the records burned! We find the answers where other firms do not.
  • Help you locate information you didn’t realize you had and sort out your family stories.
  • Help you process the emotions that rise through your family stories, the research, and final results.
  • Help you plan a trip to Europe to walk in your soldier’s footsteps.
    • Connect you with researchers and tour guides in Europe to learn more about your soldier’s story or visit the battlefields.
    • Can’t visit Europe? We can go where you soldier was to document the journey.
  • Write and publish a book about your family or soldier or assist you with the project.

So What is Upgraded?

Many of our clients discover things through the research they did not know or that changes what they knew. We now offer resources to clients from the start of the project, to help them process what they learn.

First, not every client receives news from the research that changes their world or shatters the image of their family member. I am seeing a rise in what clients require for support over the last two years and feel resources are necessary. To learn more about this, you can read two articles I recently wrote. More details from the Zoom professionals calls will be coming as new resources are developed within the group.

Each new client will receive an intake type of worksheet asking them to write notes about their project, their family member and themselves. I encourage this at the start of the project. Some clients will learn things they were not expecting, so having a baseline to refer to later is helpful in processing their emotions and the new information.

Additionally, each client will receive an exit worksheet asking similar and different questions to help them to continue processing the information learned. Where necessary, additional resources will be provided.

For clients who would like a more personalized approach to understanding and working through the research, I offer one-one facilitation sessions where we focus on your research, the results, your stories, what it brought up for you, and we move through this in various ways. Explore our Facilitation Services to learn more.

Disclaimer: I am not a therapist and that is not my role in the facilitation. I can provide resources but they should not be taken as medical advice. Some clients with disturbing and life altering results may need to seek professional help to work through things.

Can I help you with your research?

Are you ready to learn the bigger picture of your family member’s military service? Email us at info@wwiirwc.com to set up your free phone consultation today to discuss project options, fees, and time. You can also sign-up for our free newsletter and receive the Start Writing Your Military Story Today free!

© 2019 World War II Research and Writing Center

Are You Visiting Museums, Memorials, and Places that Evoke Strong Emotion & Thinking?

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Since I began traveling in Europe in 2015, I have visited many WWI and WWII museums, concentration camps, memorials, battlefields, cemeteries, destroyed villages, bomb craters, and other places in which sad/bad/negative/evil things took place. Being an empath I tend to feel much of the energy in these spaces, whether than is positive or negative. I know many of my readers experience similar things. How often do you consider the emotions these places create in you that can be used for change and healing? Or do you experience them for a moment and brush them off and move on?

Dachau ovens. Photo by author.

I read an article recently called, Why We Should Visit Museums That Make Us Think and Cry. I tend to feel, think, and cry in many places I visit so this article really called to my soul. The article focuses more on human and civil rights museums rather than military, but the concept is still the same.

“It’s really important to consider historic and contemporary issues from multiple perspectives so we can combat bias and prejudice – which we might not even realize we have until presented with an alternative view. This is fundamental to understanding and promoting human rights.” Throughout history, and even today, we can see patterns of denial and minimization of human-rights atrocities, along with efforts to silence the survivors and witnesses. These issues are not easy or comfortable, but it’s our role and responsibility to provoke thought and conversation that leads to education – which is the most powerful force for human rights in the world.”

Dr. Jodi Giesbrecht, CMHR director of research and head curator

Why Are These Spaces Important?

These spaces are important because for many of us, not all, they create conversation. Often we will visit places like this with someone. As we wander through an exhibit, a cemetery, a concentration camp, or other place, things call to us that we must comment on. Through conversation we hear someone else’s point of view about what is being expressed in the exhibit, etc. Conversation may create questions or points of view for us to sit with, meditate on, journal on, that we had not considered.

These spaces through conversation, meditation, thinking, push us to feel something more than we might have just reading an article or seeing someone’s vacation photos on Facebook. This may then create the need in us to do something about the issues we now know more about. This includes things from history like the Holocaust or combat in World War II.

How can we do something about those issues since they are in the past? Many people are still dealing with the trauma and effects of these events, among many others that have happened in our collective history. Inherited trauma creates in the descendants of those who participated or lived through these events, issues that create chaos, depression, sadness, anxiety or panic and many other things in their lives. Unresolved grief can devastate a family for generations. Yet by visiting these places that evoke emotions and thought, we can best determine how we personally should move forward to help heal the collective.

Doing something could be that we start talking with our own families about their experiences in the war, civil rights, genocide, Holocaust, or other collective trauma events. Writing those stories, learning the lessons, and sharing with others – even within our family – will help.

My belief and what I have experienced throughout my career as a family and military researcher is that if I can impact ONE person, it will ripple out beyond anything I can imagine. Some people do not believe this. They believe you have to stand and speak in front of thousands to have any effect on change or healing. That isn’t my belief. I have seen that if I help one person – teach one person – facilitate some healing in one person – they will go on to do more and tell others what their experience was and how the learned/changed/healed – and that may inspire someone else to look at their life and beliefs and make changes.

What is Your Experience in These Places?

What have you experienced in these places? Where did you go? What happened while you were there? What thoughts and changes did you make? What conversations did you have? How did it impact your life, living, and reality? I’d love to hear from you in the comments.

Learn how I can help you

Are you ready to learn the bigger picture of your family member’s military service? There are many ways we can help you with research – we offer full service history research, we can help with evaluating what you have to prepare a research plan for you to do some of it yourself, we help you process what you learn through the research, and we can help you write the stories. Just email us at the address below to schedule a free phone consult to discuss options.

Want to travel in your service member’s footsteps? We are a firm with not only hands-on document experience but also travel experience and can connect you with a guide or suggest places to stay and visit. We are taking new clients and can help you find the answers and tell a deeper story about your family member. Email us at info@wwiirwc.com to set up your free phone consultation today to discuss project options, fees, and time.

Are you following Jennifer and all her work on all her social media sites? Click the link to learn more and find different content.

© 2019 World War II Research and Writing Center

Online Course Review – Healing Conversations

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Angels and guides in the Amsterdamse Bos, June 2019. Photo taken by author.

Recently I began investigating the concept of Ancestral Trauma and Healing Ancestral Trauma in greater depth. I have spent almost eight years focused on healing my past issues from this life and others and healing my ancestral lineage. This focus on myself has allowed me to help military and family history clients with their journey as they discover things through research that were secrets or unspoken.

Family secrets, shame, guilt, negativity, abuse, trauma, fear, and other negative-based energies create a lot of blockages in our lives. They also create grief of which we may not always be aware until someone dies or we lose a job or have some other loss.

Healing Ancestral Trauma is also a topic most family and military history researchers avoid. It’s kind of a taboo subject like admitting you can hear/see/smell/touch the spirits of our ancestors or other dead. However, when we do not address our family’s trauma and baggage – we continue to carry it forward in our life and pass it to future generations.

Online Course – Healing Conversations

I discovered a healer/facilitator named Shauna Janz through the Ancestral Medicine practitioner listing. Her website discusses all of her services but what drew me in were her three classes on grief. She has a Teachable website for Sacred Grief where she teaches these courses.

Having been living in anticipated grief and other things since I met my now husband, especially the last two years if you have followed this website and my YouTube videos, I noticed many of my clients had similar issues as I did.

Shauna teaches a short course called Healing Conversations. I signed up for this yesterday and spent all morning reading the material, taking notes, exploring websites she recommended and now am ready to sit with the material and let it simmer.

This course talks about how we as a friend, therapist, facilitator, researcher, etc. can hold space for those journeying through grief. Shauna explains that in our modern world, most societies do not teach you how to grieve or even give you permission to grieve. It is more about “get over it,” or “men don’t cry” or “this will pass and time heals all wounds.”

When we hold our grief in because we have not been taught or given permission to express it – it can create more issues in our lives including disease. Isn’t it about time we learn some tools to move through grief for ourselves or to help our loved ones.

What does it mean to hold space for someone? It means we listen without judgment, we validate someone’s stories or feelings, we are a safe container for them to share their feelings and thoughts. Sometimes holding space just requires us to give a hug or be silent and hold someone’s hand. Other times it is us speaking up to validate what we heard and ask questions to which the griever may have no answers.

This class gave me exactly what I required today to learn some new tools in a quick way with easy to understand examples and narrative. Several handouts were provided and a resource guide was given at the end of the course. Now I’m all set to journal on what I read and consider how I can use these tools with my clients or friends and even myself.

Visit Sacred Grief to learn more about Shauna’s classes. I did register for Roots and Resiliency which begins soon and is only offered in the fall. I anticipate this will help me on more levels than I can even imagine.

Can I help you?

Are you ready to learn the bigger picture of your family member’s military service? Would you like support moving through the emotional and spiritual side of family and military research? We are a firm with not only hands-on document experience but also travel experience and can connect you with a guide or suggest places to stay and visit. I also facilitate clients and course participants through the mental and emotional parts of their family history.

We are taking new clients and can help you find the answers and tell a deeper story about your family member. Email us at info@wwiirwc.com to set up your free phone consultation today to discuss project options, fees, and time.

© 2019 Finding the Answers Journey & the WWII Research & Writing Center

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

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

© 2018 World War II Research & Writing Center