Wrap up the Second Lives series with reflections on tracing veterans’ lives after war. Learn why postwar stories matter in family history research.
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Rekindling a Forty-Year Quest for Family Origins
“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...
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...
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...
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...
From Soldier to Civilian: Rebuilding Life After the Revolution
When we think about Revolutionary War ancestors, we usually picture them in uniform—standing guard at a winter camp, marching along a dusty road, or writing letters home with inky quills and weary...