Research a Veteran

The World War II Research & Writing Center is the only firm which has dedicated more than a decade to the study of all military branches and their records.

Jennifer Holik developed a 2-part research strategy to accurately reconstruct military service for any branch from World War I, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. Even if the files burned! Email Jennifer to schedule a free consultation to discuss your project or book her to speak for your organization. Learn more about military research through one of her more than 20 published books.

Jennifer provides expert, custom, and confidential military, historical and genealogical research, analysis, travel, and writing services for authors, genealogists, historians, organizations, and many others.

We also offer research on all available civilian federal employee and military records at the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC). This includes Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) service, or Works Progress Administration (WPA), which may have impacted your family member’s World War II service.

Read Research Testimonials.

We have the rare expertise to:

• 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. We locate records both online and offline from the National Personnel Records Center, NARA, Library of Congress, Presidential Libraries, State Archives, Historical and Genealogical Societies, and more.
• 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.
• Unlike other firms, we provide you with non-watermarked photocopies or digital images so you can read all parts of a document.
• Help you locate information you didn’t realize you had and sort out your family stories.
• Help you process the emotions and questions that surface through your family stories, the research, and final results. 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. You can also explore how to heal family patterns, inherited trauma, handle family secrets and trauma, and more. Also explore our Ancestral Souls Wisdom School website to learn more about inherited trauma, family patterns, and war trauma.
• 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.
• Write and publish a book about your family or service member or assist you with the project. Learn more about Jennifer’s writing, publishing, and coaching services at the Ancestral Souls Wisdom School.

Research Clients Receive

We provide every client with a customized written analysis, fully sourced report of the service history of their soldier with all documentation located. This document is typically 20+ pages in length based on client’s research goals. We do not give you sterile cut and paste unit histories or battle summaries you may receive from other firms.

Each research project scope and cost is different, based on the depth of information a client wishes to receive. Each client, regardless of depth and length of project, receives the following.

• An evaluation of information a client has, what their roadblocks are, and help prepare a list of questions to have answered.
• Time and cost estimates for each phase of the research based on the client’s specific research and/or writing goals.
• Customized research reports which contain a timeline of military service, answers to your questions, detailed written analysis of the soldier’s service, historical context of their service, complete source citations, bibliography of sources used, and additional resources.
• Copies of all records obtained in each phase of research. This often ends up being hundreds of pages of material about your service member’s service.
• Further research suggestions to dig deeper into the soldier’s story.
• The option to have our firm write a book about the soldier or help you write and publish a book.
• Confidentiality.

Read Research Testimonials.

Contact  Jennifer  for information.

Let Us Help You With Your Writing Projects

Jennifer has been writing and publishing since 2010, more than 20 of her own books and countless private client books.

Ancestor family history books from the present to the 1600s. These books feature information on the direct ancestors and their children, of an individual. They included genealogical and military information, photos, stories, and recipes.

Developmental editor on several World War II books including an Amazon best seller: Letters from Uncle Dave: The 73-year Journey to Find a Missing-In-Action World War II Paratrooper. I was also an editor on several private client books that were not published for public purchase.

Descendant family history books from the 1600s to the present for all family lines. These books feature all information gathered on a client’s family moving from past to present.

From 2011 – 2021, I created numerous volumes of family history books each year for an Italian-American client whose family came from Ricigliano, Italy. Books ranged from one volume of 100+ pages, to a multi-volume set of 800+ pages per volume. The final set I created was three volumes moving from past to present (descendant books) with two of those being almost 800 pages each. I also completed volumes on his late wife’s family from Italy and Sicily each year.

Customized family history books for a client to give specific family members. These were typically ancestor family history books with the start person being the specific family member as requested by the client.

Biography books. Jennifer writes biographies on individuals for clients and compiles them into a family book.

Photo books. For my Italian-American client, I completed annual photo books. This required scanning thousands of photos and documents over 11 years and organizing the photos into archival boxes before creating photo books. Each volume was specific to one side of the family and contained not only photos but family history I had researched, stories, and recipes.

Cookbooks. I completed a family cookbook incorporating recipes from family members whose ancestors were from Italy and Sicily. The cookbook also contained family stories and memories of meals, family photos and food photos,.

Memoirs. I help clients write their memoirs to preserve as part of their family’s history.  For one client I was a developmental editor and content creator for part of his memoir and biography series of books. The volumes covered his life, his late wife, their son, and assorted family stories.

Military History family book. After completing genealogical & military research, I have written military biographies which have then been compiled in a book for a client. This is not limited to World War II research and writing. One such book contained a client’s veteran’s stories and photographs from the Civil War, World War I, and World War II.