“Many thanks, Will. You have rekindled my 40-year quest to find my family origins. Your weekly letters are greatly appreciated.” – Bryan When Bryan wrote those words to me, they carried more than...
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Morgantown’s Futuristic Ride | Postcards from the Past
Some postcards capture landscapes or landmarks; others capture a moment of pride. This one from Morgantown, West Virginia, does both. On the front, a yellow Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) car glides...
10 Perfect Genealogy Projects for September
Discover 10 genealogy projects perfect for September. Refresh your family tree, explore records, and share discoveries with loved ones.
Lost to History: Veterans Who Vanished After Service
You find them in a draft card, a pension file, or a service roster—and then nothing. No census record. No marriage. No obituary. No trace. Every family historian has run into a veteran ancestor who...
Labor Day: A Legacy of Work, Rest, and Family
Labor Day arrives each September, signaling the close of summer and the approach of autumn. Many people see it as a three-day weekend for rest, cookouts, or back-to-school shopping. Yet beneath the...
Post-War Professions: Careers That Came from Military Skills
Some families have stories that begin with war but continue through decades of work that followed. A man who served in a supply battalion later owned a hardware store. A woman who drove an ambulance...
Marrying After the War: Tracing Families That Began in Peace
War has a way of pausing life. Plans are put on hold. Relationships are delayed. Young people grow older quickly. And when the fighting ends, the urge to settle down often comes fast — sometimes with...
WWI Doughboys and the 1920s: What Happened Next
The guns fell silent on November 11, 1918. But for millions of American “Doughboys” — the nickname given to U.S. infantrymen in World War I — the story didn’t end there. They returned home changed...
The Aftermath You Didn’t Expect: PTSD and Its Early Signs
For generations, families quietly wondered why a veteran ancestor drank too much, kept to themselves, startled at loud noises, or refused to talk about the war. Some were labeled “nervous,” “moody,”...
A Life Rewritten: When WWII Veterans Changed Everything
When the Second World War ended in 1945, it didn’t just bring a global conflict to a close — it launched millions of lives into motion. Soldiers, sailors, nurses, airmen, and civilians who had served...