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Letters Home: Voices From the Edge of War
In summer and fall 1941, two Slovak-American brothers wrote letters home before Pearl Harbor changed everything. Steve Marcisak, stationed at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii, penned cheerful descriptions in…
4 min read
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Family Cooking Memories That Last a Lifetime
Family cooking memories last a lifetime—the good ones, the disasters, and everything in between. As we just celebrated Thanksgiving, I was reminded how gathering around shared meals connects…
4 min read
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Same Name Genealogy Challenge: Four Generations Deep
The same name genealogy challenge becomes exponentially harder when four generations carry identical names. Four William Dowlings span my family tree, each reflecting vastly different American experiences. The…
4 min read
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Three Men at War, One Family Keeping Hope Alive
During World War II, one Brooklyn family’s mailbox became an unexpected archive of wartime experience. Anna and Vasil Marcisak didn’t receive letters from just one soldier—they received three.…
4 min read
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Four Sets of Twins: Two Families, Remarkable Stories, and Missing Records
Four sets of twins across two family lines—maternal great-grandmother Anna Hurkala Marcisak and paternal 2x great-grandmother Julia Clarke Smith. I can prove three sets: Bernard and James Plunkett…
4 min read
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Life Before America: Farming, Famine, and the Roots of Emigration
Before my ancestors became Americans, they were farmers in three very different European worlds. Life before emigration meant surviving conditions most of us can’t imagine. My Swedish great-grandfather…
4 min read
