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Jennifer’s European Adventures 19 – 21 May 2017

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Johan and Jennifer in Amsterdam.

It’s so great to be back in Europe for the second time this year. Johan and I are going back and forth regularly now and having all kinds of adventures.

I flew to Amsterdam and arrived Friday 19 May. Spent a very quiet day at home while Johan went to the office. I did what everyone says not to do…..sleep! Life in Chicago has been so busy with work, my boys, sports, school, you name it, that I have been a bit run down. After I had lunch after my arrival, my body said SLEEP! I had the most fabulous nap with our furry cat Memphis for almost three hours. After that I felt human and the jet lag was much less than it would have been. Listening to your body is so important regardless of what anyone else says.

Saturday was a quiet day and I did a bit of shopping and had lunch in an outdoor café. I love the cafés here because so many have outdoor seating, often with a great view. In most, you can sit for hours, which we often do. Saturday evening we had dinner with a couple of friends, one of whom is the historian for the 94th Infantry Division Historical Society. We shared a lot of soldier stories over the course of the evening. It was fantastic.

Sunday we went to Amsterdam for a bit of shopping, lunch, and wandering. I wanted to stop in the P.W. Akkerman Fountain Pen shop in Amsterdam since we were unable to go to the P.W. Akkerman we prefer in The Hague. Our routine is to go to The Hague the day after I fly in and I always buy a new fountain pen and inks. Patricia is one woman who works at the store in The Hague and knows our love story. She is always so happy, friendly, and helpful in picking out pens, helping fix older pens, choosing inks, and catching up on life. We really enjoy visiting the store (which is old and has a fantastic atmosphere,) and speaking with her. Sadly, our experience at the Amsterdam store was nothing like The Hague. The staff seemed uninterested in helping us, was unfriendly, and rude. I will not return to the Amsterdam store and instead, wait until I can visit Patricia in The Hague store.

We did have a lovely walk around some of the centre and had a nice lunch in a shop across from a church that is now part of the University of Amsterdam. From our table we watched a group of people dance, chant, bow, and sing, in a circle outside the church. They were doing a peace ceremony with flags from countries around the world. It was cool to watch.

Before we drove home we stopped at the Begijnhof to take a short walk. It was very crowded and noisy there as lots of tour groups had come out since it was a beautiful day. Johan took me there last year over the winter when it was very quiet. Usually it is a place of peace and quiet and you don’t hear the city noise once you are in the courtyard.

To leave the noise, we entered the chapel, which I had not yet been in. I love churches and cathedrals in Europe and visit as many as possible. I prefer Catholic Churches because they are often more lavish, contain more stained glass windows which play with the light that shines through, Mother Mary is there and I always light and candle and have a talk with her. They are also places to just stop, BE, release things that don’t serve me, and receive healing and awareness.

After our visit to the chapel we headed home. It was a great start to my time in Europe. I wonder what else will show up that I am not expecting!

© 2017 World War II Research and Writing Center

The Path and Impact of your Research

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Exploring our lives and those of our family members is an activity many people engage in today, often as genealogical or military research. Some explore their lives through various energetic and healing modalities. Most people tend to stay on one path – that of collecting facts (names, dates, and places.) These are entered in a family tree or notes for a project or book. Usually only information which is easy to obtain, or on the surface, is explored. Changing paths or going deeper into our life and those of our family members is often avoided. The path is often seen as a dangerous, dark, painful detour in life, that many choose to avoid.

Why is it most people do not go deeper in their research? Are they unaware of the infinite possibilities of understanding and healing available? Are they afraid to walk the other path, which will lead to greater understanding of themselves and their family members? Are they afraid to walk into the possibility of darkness emerging even when healing can occur?

Have you ever considered the true impact of researching the lives of your family members? Did you ever notice you may begin with one individual and move through the process or down the rabbit hole and end up in a place you never expected to be?

My family and military research has always started with the idea of researching one individual. It usually turns out that others will show up to guide the research and take me down the other path which contains the real story of what happened to them and the family. It is on that path the darkness often reveals itself and if I move through it, light and peace emerge at the end of the road. As I move through that darkness, the darkness long hidden in me often emerges and demands resolution. This has not been an easy process the last several years. I’ve gone through a lot of pain, tears, darkness, and loss of people in my life. I continue to come out of each dark period stronger, more confident, more understanding of the people in my life and myself. Healing takes place in ways it couldn’t otherwise.

I have had many clients who start a project focusing on one person – a father, brother, mother – who either died in World War II or returned home. They begin asking for the general service history of the individual. Maybe they have worked on their family history or they reached a point in their lives they want to know what really happened.

Through the course of research, I discuss findings with the client and ask questions. Often, the questions are more personal to help the client open up to a level of understanding of the individual in question, himself, the research, and how it affected the family, that otherwise may not occur. Through this process, he walks down a path of discovery and healing he never expected.

What happens when we follow the other path and the energy of a project? Who else shows up on our journey? Often it is someone we never expected and long deceased. Sometimes pain emerges from issues long put to rest, or so we think. Time has a way of healing, and also releasing the pain, exactly when we are ready to heal it.

Are you ready to walk the other path? Ask the more difficult questions? Move into the darkness so you can emerge again in the light? This fall I will be releasing new books and programs to help you do this. You may also experience the process by working with me on a client project. Contact me to find out what’s possible.

© 2017 World War II Research and Writing Center

New Service Available for Clients

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The World War II Research and Writing Center is now providing speech writing and speaking services for funerals, memorial programs, commemorations, and other military events. We have presented at the Ninth Infantry Division Association Reunion Memorial Service; 104th Infantry Division Pups Reunion Program; the Tilburg, Netherlands Liberation Ceremony in 2015; and in the Netherlands at Liberation Commemorations.

Contact us for information and fees for research, speaking, and writing services.

© 2017 World War II Research and Writing Center

Journaling to Heal the Past

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Journaling has been something I have been doing since I was a little girl. Not consistently though until the last few years. My early journals were typical of a girl moving into puberty, Jr. High and High School, with talk of which boy was the cutest, drama with friends and siblings, and my dreams for the future. In High School they became much more. An outlet to describe frustrations in my family life (typical teenager complaints), a safe place to explore the larger world and my gigantic dreams which were too large and out there for most people in my life. I’m sure most people who knew me then, thought I was crazy for having such big dreams and growing up in such a small town.

After I became an adult, the journals changed again as an even more safe place to talk about my fears, sadness, guilt, shame, mistakes, anger, and dreams. When I had my first child, miscarriages, and later twins, the journals became a place to express all I had before, adding marriage troubles, and my hopes and dreams for my children.

When I moved out in June 2012 to get divorced and start a new life, I had a relatively new and thriving business. The journals became a place to work through all the changes in my life, express my fears in being a single mother and business owner, channeling my relatives and guides as I transitioned into a more authentic version of who I was. They also became a place to create many things for my business, which shifted from genealogy to WWI and WWII research, speaking, and writing.

My journaling has been so intense the last several years, so vulnerable and open, that I have personally changed a great deal, as have those around me. As we heal ourselves, others heal too, even if we are unaware it is happening. I channel the soldiers when they show up asking for help. The research and writing, and even the programs I teach, heal the living and the dead.

The journals that have shown up and gifted to me since December are also full of magic. I ask them before I write in them, what do you want from me? The last journal I filled told me I had to be more open, honest, and vulnerable about everything and share the journal with my fiancé! That was a scary concept because I don’t share my journals. Yet I knew if I could be vulnerable and authentic, and share my writing with him, I would be able to share more of myself with the world when the time was right.

Do you know what happened when he read the journal? We both healed. I didn’t die of fright or shame or guilt over anything I wrote. He didn’t head for the hills and never speak to me again. The entire process allowed me to move into a place I had never been. A very good place.

We are all works in progress. As I shift more each day into a more authentic, aware version of myself, a healer, mother, soon to be wife, daughter, friend, business owner, the people entering my reality is shifting and changing. Clients are showing up asking for military research but also so much more. I’m hearing words and phrases:

I’m looking for answers, closure, peace, healing.

Words they put into their stories when we talk include: answers, closure, peace, healing, shame, guilt, fear, anger, love, trauma, PTSD, inherited trauma, resolution, secrets, pain, and many more.

I’m trying to understand WHO my father really was. Why our relationship was as it was. WHO I am after learning all this.

These secrets were kept for so long. What do I do with them? How do I resolve the past and understand?

Would you please write a summary of my dad’s service to be read at his military funeral?

At least a few of my new clients are journaling about their lives, families, trauma (both their own and inherited), and research on their family members. Some of them use journaling to understand the past to heal it and themselves. Others use it to also record their journey through the research, the questions and answers, and healing, in preparation to write a book or walk in Europe where their soldier walked (and often died.)

When we think of genealogical or military research, we often focus only on the research and adding information to our family tree. Too often we choose not to write anything. It becomes a single short fact in a tree or database.

What would happen if we had a journal dedicated to our research? A safe place to document our progress, questions, answers, hidden family secrets, and all the shame, guilt, anger, hate, and even LOVE that arises throughout the process?

Are you using journaling for your research? How has it helped you? What tips do you have for others who are ready to start this process of research and healing?

© 2017 World War II Research and Writing Center

Now Available! World War II Writing Prompts on Kindle

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The World War II Research and Writing Center is pleased to announce that both of our writing books now available on the Kindle.

Stories from the World War II Battlefield: World War II Writing Prompts

Product Description

Stories can save us. Stories have the power to heal. Stories help us preserve the past and provide hope that history will not repeat itself. For some cultures, storytelling is the primary method for transmitting a family or group’s collective history. For others, writing the stories to share with family or the world, is the method.

When we write, we must ask ourselves, what writing really matters? Consider the words you write as your legacy. Find ways to share your writing to document your life, to remember those who are no longer here, and to honor those who survived a time when the world was collapsing in chaos.

This important reference guide contains more than 500 writing prompts covering multiple themes for writers in the U.S. and overseas. Explore these prompts as you write your stories of war.

Stories from the World War II Battlefield: Volume 3 Writing the Stories of War

Product Description

Stories can save us. Stories have the power to heal. Stories help us preserve the past and provide hope that history will not repeat itself. For some cultures, storytelling is the primary method for transmitting a family or group’s collective history. For others, writing the stories to share with family or the world, is the method.

When we write, we must ask ourselves, what writing really matters? Consider the words you write as your legacy. Find ways to share your writing to document your life, to remember those who are no longer here, and to honor those who survived a time when the world was collapsing in chaos.

All the tools researchers need to start writing the stories of World War II from a U.S. perspective or overseas theater of war perspective, to honor those who lived in those chaotic years, are included in this volume.

The tools include:

  • Reasons to write the stories of war.
  • Tips to help you organize your thoughts and sources before you write.
  • Writing formulas to help you organize your stories.
  • More than 500 writing prompts covering multiple themes for writers in the U.S. and overseas.
  • Suggestions on how to share your stories on memorial websites and through books.
  • Additional resources for writing the stories of war.

This is the most important reference guide researchers need to begin writing the stories of World War II.

These books are also available in paperback along with our other World War II Research and Writing books.

© 2017 World War II Research and Writing Center

WWI Education – WWI Burial Files

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Michael Kokoska

It has been 100 years since the U.S. entered World War I. As we move through this 100th year, many people are beginning to investigate their World War I soldier’s history. A lot of people think all the records burned, as was the case with many World War II personnel files. While the fire did destroy some World War I files, there are still so many other records you can obtain.

Last week I wrote an article about U.S. Army Transports. These USAT transported both living soldiers and the dead. My great grand uncle, Michael Kokoska was one such soldier. Did you know that all soldiers, sailors, and Marines who died in World War I have a Burial File? This is the World War I equivalent of the World War II Individual Deceased Personnel File (IDPF).

The Burial File contains information on a soldier’s death, temporary burial overseas, correspondence from the family, and final burial details. Michael Kokoska’s contains a lot of handwritten letters from his parents begging for word on his burial location and return of his remains. The letters are heart breaking. There is also a document, written a year after Michael died, about the cause of his death. Is this really what happened? Perhaps. For now it is all I have to go on about the cause of his death. While Michael’s file was difficult and sad to read, it provided a lot of information on his service. This is one file you want if your soldier, sailor, or Marine died during the war.

View the Burial File for Michael Kokoska. Watch a short video about Michael.

Would you like to know more about Michael and his life? In my book, Stories of the Lost, you can read Michael’s full story.

The Burial Files, Morning Reports, Payroll Reports, and more are held at the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in St. Louis. Would you like help obtaining these and other records available for World War I? Please contact us for details on how we can help you.

©  2017 World War II Research and Writing Center

WWI Army Transport Funeral Ships

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Michael Kokoska
Military research, like genealogical research, is never finished. There is always one more source that turns up when you least expect it. Sometimes a soldier who is long passed even shows up to say, ‘Hey what about my memory and service?’ When I researched the service of my great grand uncle, Michael Kokoska several years ago, for my book Stories of the Lost, I had not located the ship manifest for the USAT Wheaton, the Army Transport Funeral Ship, on which Michael’s remains sailed home from France in 1921. Michael died in 1918 and was buried overseas until remains were repatriated after the war.

After both World Wars, remains were not repatriated, or brought back to the U.S. from overseas until 1920 after WWI and 1947 after WWII. Soldiers were buried near where they fell in one of the many temporary cemeteries (if they were recovered.) Those discovered after the war ended were often temporarily buried until the government gave the family the option to choose to either repatriate the remains or leave them overseas to be buried in an American Military Cemetery. There were a few other options but those two were the primary.

War dead being placed on USAT Funeral Ships

Ancestry.com has a database online called the U.S., Army Transport Service, Passenger Lists, 1910-1939. If you do a search for Michael Kokoska, you will find three entries (one is a duplicate). Michael departs from Hoboken, NJ in 1918 on ship No. 39, with the 32nd Division to head overseas. They disembarked in Brest, France.

Michael returns in 1921 on the USAT Wheaton from Cherbourg, France to Hoboken, NJ. He is listed on this passenger manifest with a name, unit, serial number, and the address of his next of kin. His father, Joseph Kokoska in Chicago.

Michael is dead. His remains which are being returned to the U.S. after the war.

Soldiers whose remains were repatriated, were listed by their name on a ship manifest to retain their dignity. The men who gave their lives were not just put on a ship unnamed with no honor or respect. Their caskets were placed in shipping cases, covered with the American flag, and carefully placed in the ship’s hold for transport from the theater of war to the U.S.

How do you know if a soldier is living or deceased?

It appears in this database that deceased soldiers are listed by name, rank, ASN, unit , cable reference number and a code after. But there is nothing that specifically says deceased soldiers from what I could see. In tiny print at the top of the manifest under #2 it talks about a code for the sick or wounded or deceased, etc. but the code is not specifically listed on each manifest page. Michael’s manifest looks different from his brother Albert’s. Keep reading to see both examples.

Michael Kokoska’s return (DECEASED) manifest.
Albert Kokoska’s return (LIVING) manifest
It is extremely important that researchers understand what they are looking at. It is so easy to find a record, click and add it to your family tree without really looking at it. Just because your soldier’s name appears on a ship manifest, does not mean he is still alive.

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! © 2017 World War II Research and Writing Center

Program 8 April 2017 – The Day That Lived In Infamy

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On Saturday, April 8, 1:00 p.m., Jennifer Holik will be presenting the program, The Day That Lived in Infamy. Navigating World War II Military Records. 

All the records burned! A fire at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, in 1973, destroyed approximately 80% of the Army, Air Corps, and National Guard records. This is not the end of the research possibilities for these soldiers. Many alternative record sources exist to reconstruct service history for these branches. Regardless of service branch, many records exist to tell your soldier, sailor, or Marine’s story. Learn how to research the records of World War II for any branch of the military in this informative program.

This program will be held at the Glenview Public Library as part of the North Suburban Genealogical Society meeting.

© 2017 World War II Research and Writing Center

Changing the Discussion – Researching WWII Online

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World War II research is a combination of online and offline research, which allows us to tell a more complete story about a soldier, sailor, or Marine’s service. The most common thought from most people we encounter at the World War II Research and Writing Center, is that all the records and resources you need are all free and online.

We observe conversations on social media that insist all the records are available online and if they aren’t, you don’t need them. The same handful of websites are referred to again and again. People get stuck because the information isn’t online, they get frustrated, and often quit. Instead, why not consider working with a researcher (yes you will pay for this service) and using a variety of sources?

Why don’t we also change the discussion? What would it take for those die hard folks who insist it is all free and online to step back and see there are many ways to conduct research? And for the research community as a whole, why not recognize there are many more resources available than the ones commonly suggested, which are:

  • Ancestry.com
  • Fold3.com
  • FindAGrave
  • Any online newspaper website

Changing the Discussion

Did you know there are many more websites available where people can locate pieces of their soldier, sailor, or Marine’s service history? Each website you visit, each book you pick up, each record you analyze, each story you hear or photo you view that belongs to your family, adds a piece to the entire puzzle. Each piece allows you to view that soldier’s history in historical context. Only exploring the limited information online does not allow for the fuller picture to emerge. So where can we find more information that no one is talking about? Here are a few resources you may not have considered. Please note this is not an end-all-be-all list. Just some ideas to help you think outside the box of where to locate information. Please spend some time in the Research section of this website to find even more resources.

  • U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center
  • Pritzker Military Museum & Library.
  • Internet Archive
  • Library of Congress
  • FamilySearch. FamilySearch is a free genealogy website with a few military records. Most of the same ones you will find for free on Ancestry.com and Fold3.com. If you are looking for family information to attempt to locate living family members, FamilySearch is another resource to help your search.
  • WWII reunion groups. Are you Googling to see if there is a reunion group or association for your soldier, sailor, or Marine’s unit? These groups often have collections of records. Sometimes online but most often, offline with their historian.
  • University Library Special Collections. Search special collections in the cities and states where your soldier lived after the war.
  • Research libraries. There are research libraries around the country. Newberry Library in Chicago is one example. Are you searching within the collections of these institutions? Many have finding aids to help researchers locate information.
  • Genealogical and historical societies. Most towns, counties, and states have societies that hold some information. If not, the members of the organizations know where to refer researchers to for more information.
  • Local libraries. There are many small libraries around the country that do not have the staff or money to digitize their collections. Are you communicating with this resource? A visit to the Knightstown, Indiana library in December yielded a large collection of newspaper images for a project we have been working on. None of the Knightstown papers are online. They only exist in paper format, which is crumbling within bound volumes from the early 1900s to 1960s. The information contained in these newspapers is amazing. Contact the local libraries or a researcher nearby to do the legwork for you.
  • European and PTO researchers. Did you know there are many hobbyist researchers in Europe and the Pacific Theater who have amassed a large amount of information? Have interviewed countless veterans? Are writing books on specific units, battles, divisions, or theaters of war? Know the battlefields? Are you working with any of these people? If not, search Facebook and LinkedIn for them. We have found by collaborating with these researchers a lot can be shared back and forth, which expands the story of WWII.

Additional Resources

The above resources will hopefully start you thinking along a new path for research. Need more suggestions? Here are a few to keep pushing you forward with your research.

Books to help you learn how to research online and offline. Stories from the WWII Battlefield series.

Tips for Starting Your WWII Research

Educational articles for WWII research

WWII Research Guide

Do you have favorite websites or groups you contact for WWII research? Our readers would love to know about them. Please share in the comments.

© 2017 World War II Research and Writing Center

Passing Family Values to Our Children & Grandchildren

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This week we’ve explored stories, healing, wounds of war, and writing. Today we’d like to explore the values we have learned from our family and how those have shaped who we are and how we raise our children and grandchildren.

A value is defined as a noun in two ways.

  1. The regard that something is held to deserve; the importance, worth, or usefulness of something.
  2. A person’s principles or standards of behavior; one’s judgment of what is important in life.

Whether we are raising children or teaching them in any capacity, what values are we passing along to them? Are we even discussing values anymore in this world that seems to have gone crazy? How can we use family stories or stories of war to educate and pass along values we feel are important, to our children or students? Are we keeping in mind that our judgment of how important a value is may not be as important to others? Are we free to pass along our experiences and values without forcing others to take them as their truth?

Tell a Story

Tell a story of war. Name some values within the story if possible. Most children are familiar with D-Day. Tell a story about D-Day and discuss the value COURAGE. How do they interpret this value in that story and how can they apply it to their lives? Where have they been courageous?

Tell a family story. Perhaps it is about how a family rebuilt their lives after losing everything in the Depression. Possible values are resilience, strength, and dedication. How do they interpret these values in that story and how can they apply it to their lives? Are there times when they have seen themselves as strong? Dedicated to something (learning a new sport or working hard at school, etc.)? There are so many ways stories can take us to pass along values.

Now switch it around. Tell a story and ask the children to identify values. Or have the children tell you a story a you identify the values.

Help Children Think & Use their Imagination

Rather than telling them what they should take away from the story, ask them to look at a list of values (or discuss specific values), that arose in the story. How do the children interpret the story and values? What do they feel is the most important part of the story? How can they apply it to their lives?

Consider having the children draw or paint a story. How can they apply the values they heard in your story in what they create?

A Story and Value Example

Joseph and Majdalena immigrated to the U.S. in October 1880, unmarried with a baby on the way. Like many other immigrants from Eastern Europe during that time period, Joseph and Majdalena chose to leave to give their family a better life. One filled with peace and opportunity rather than unending war and poverty. They settled in Chicago after their arrival and their first son Joseph was born in March 1881. Joseph and Majdalena had 11 children with 10 surviving into adulthood. They created a life in Chicago in which they bought a house, raised children, saw them all complete school through grade school. Sent four sons to the military in WWI, one, Michael fighting and dying overseas. They left a legacy of strength, resilience, courage, opportunity to grow and change, and many other things to their descendants.

Joseph and Majdalena were my great great grandparents. Having researched their large family and descendants for many years and exploring Michael’s military service, I learned a lot about not only the family but myself. Isn’t it amazing the values and the pain that are transferred through our DNA through the generations? How we can take on both the positive and negative aspects of our families? How we can use the values they transferred to create better lives for ourselves and our children?

Do my boys know these stories? Yes. Have they learned from them? Yes. Will they take the best of what all of us have created and create their own amazing futures? I hope so.

Want to Know More?

Are you interested in learning more about values? Here are a few lists we’ve found helpful and inspiring.

Core Value List by James Clear

Inspirational Values

Over 400 Values listed by Steve Pavlina

Are you writing stories about your family that dig deeper and include values? We’d love to hear about it. Please share with our readers in the comments.

© 2017 World War II Research and Writing Center