This program was presented with the Virginia War Memorial Foundation on 6 January 2021. You can find it on their website also.

Researching and writing the stories of our military ancestors may provide awareness of family patterns, inherited trauma, our ancestors’ experiences, secrets, and can take us on a journey we never expected. Journey with Jennifer Holik into the past through story. Learn how researching and traveling in her ancestors’ footsteps facilitated her healing and healing for the world.

Be sure to download the handout.

There is an incredible book The Survivors. A Story of War, Inheritance, and Healing by Adam P. Frankel. I picked this book up to attempt to find another book I could use in my master class on war, inherited trauma, and healing. This book gave me a completely different view of healing than others I've read.

Whether you are from a family of Holocaust Survivors or not, the themes in this book speak to many of us. As Frankel tells his story we learn about identity, family secrets, family patterns, loyalty, grief & loss, survival, sexual secrets, mental illness, PTSD, shame, anger, familial behavior, and so many other themes associated with war, survival, the physical manifestations of keeping secrets, inherited trauma, and how we each have to choose our own path regardless of our family's choices. We also learn how his Jewish family, who survived the Holocaust, felt about loyalty and looking the other way on family secrets.

If you were to look at my copy of this book, you would...

Many of the clients who work with me over the last few years have sought deeper answers. They come to the research consultation with family stories, secrets, perhaps lies they discovered. They come with questions wondering who really was my father or mother? Sometimes the research itself provides secrets that were hidden for decades, or answers that change the perception a client has on their family member or even, themselves. This can cause grief, a sense of loss, sense of abandonment, trigger PTSD, and many other things.

Research Services

We offer many research and writing services. Each project is customized for the client because each client has different needs.

• 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.
• Reconstruct service history, placing pieces of your service member’s puzzle together, even when the records...

I am excited to announce the launch of the self-paced version of my wildly successful master class, Your Family‘s War Journey: A Transformational Master Class.

It is vital to understand that while this course uses a book based on a WWII combat veteran’s experience and his daughter’s escape and healing journey, the themes, lessons, questions, resources, and discussions apply to any war and every family.

What people are saying.....This class enriched and transformed my World War II family research quest in ways I could not have imagined. Jennifer Holik is a gifted facilitator who helped me to unearth memories, make unexpected connections between past and present, and clarify the direction of my WWII project. Her extensive knowledge and rare intuition, along with the well-organized curriculum, created a warm and productive virtual environment for learning and sharing insights with a wonderful group of participants. As I move forward, I plan to make frequent use of...

The energies are intense the last week and will continue to be throughout most of July. We have eclipses, full moons, and several planets in retrograde. It is a time to consider what is holding us back and where we are ready to commit to change.

I've had a lot of "itchy" words show up in my universe lately like DISCIPLINE and STRUCTURE and ROUTINE. Why these bother me so much I'm not sure - but I am aware if I play with them in a new way and get rid of some old points of view (POV) then my entire reality and joy will change to something greater.

As I prepare to head back to Chicago after visiting my husband in Europe, I am ready for whatever is coming. Ready to shed the old and create the new. Ready to be more of who I truly be.

My invitation to you this week: Look at what's holding you back in your life. What words or energies keep showing up that are prickly and feel yucky or you have great resistance to. Spend some time exploring WHY this is and let that go. I wonder then how...

Are you ready to take your genealogy and military research to a new depth?

This class will change how you research and write!

What class participants said……

The course and the book have really amplified my sensitivity to various memories from the past. Another coincidence from yesterday was a conversation with the woman sitting next to me at the courthouse while we were filling out our surveys. We connected because we both have daughters getting married in four weeks. She has her own counseling business. I asked her if they handle PTSD. She said yes and that K-9 therapy was one of the methods working for them. Interesting! Her comment to me about PTSD was that it affected more than just the victim and it could last for years….stuff we have been talking about.  ~~ Phil

Journey with Jennifer as your travel guide, through your family’s history, their WWII story, and your own story. On this journey you will read a life-changing book.

Together with a...

I received a new book this week called A Chorus of Stones. The Private Life of War, written by Susan Griffin.

This book is turning my world upside down - in a good way! There are so many layers, shapes, and colors to her narrative that it is a book to be savored. As much as one can savor a book about war, abuse, trauma, denial, lies, not only from ourselves but our communities, governments, the world.

If you are interested in looking at the even deeper levels of your life, your family's stories, your military stories, I encourage you to pick up a copy of this book.

Warning! It is a bit traumatic and overwhelming so consider at what time of day you read it. This is not a book I can read just before bed to unwind. I only read it first thing in the morning and during the day, leaving several hours before bed for other things. This is a book you will process consciously and unconsciously when you are awake and asleep.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on it if you read it. You can connect...

Jennifer Holik chose a new path in June 2012 when she moved out with her boys and filed for divorce. She did not expect that six months later, when she acknowledged her spiritual gifts, her entire life would transform. Several dead guys, primarily World War I and World War II service members, had already shown up in Jennifer’s world. Many others entered her life at the exact moment they were required. Listening to their whispers, Jennifer followed the energy and created a life and business no one she knew had dared to create.

Travel through time and space, across the ocean, and through Europe, where love knows no boundaries. On...

Receiving.

That is a difficult word for many people to grasp. You mean I do not have to give all the time? I am allowed to receive from others?

Yes. You are allowed to receive from others and the universe. In fact, the universe wants to gift to you so many things that would contribute to you creating your life, fulfilling your dreams and wishes, and helping you grow. IF you are willing to receive.

Yesterday I was supposed to release my memoir and do some FB Lives and other things. The universe and my body had something different in mind. I got sick overnight Monday. I received all sorts of feedback about my memoir over the last two weeks, participate in a webinar that provided some interesting awareness about the memoir and my work, and a healer friend died which shook my universe.

Listening to my intuition and the energy, I chose to wait a week to launch the book.

Honestly, a little feedback shook my world and caused me to question almost everything. Questioning is a good thing in...

This was also posted on our WWII Research & Writing Center Website and our WWII Education website.

Evaluating our business over the last decade, especially the last six years in which we have provided a tremendous amount of WWI and WWII educational materials, we have decided to change how and where we provide education for military research. Our focus has also shifted in how we help clients with research, processing what is discovered, and writing. While we still provide the highest quality military research available, your options for education now change. What does this mean for you?

WWII Research & Writing Center Website

On this website, the Educational Articles and Videos will remain. We will continue to add articles that help you dig deep into your family and military history. All of our research books will remain and we will continue to update them as records access changes.

Other resources have been moved or removed permanently.

WWII Education Website

This is our ...