I’m just your un-average Joe. I am now retired and have a lot of time to do the things I love. This includes having more time to hang out with my girl, more time to travel, more time to research my family history, more time to work on this site, more time to trade stocks, more time to learn flamenco guitar, more time to brush up on my programming skills, and more sleeping in late.
When my great-grandmother, Jeanette Heintz Wolf, passed away in 1992, I found a treasure trove of old photos and family ephemera scattered throughout her house.
One of the best finds Great Grandma Wolf left was a suitcase full of documents and photos of my grandfather Lyle Daniel Van Volkenburg. I never knew him and only knew that his plane crashed a few days after WWII.
The family was told he got on his plane to pick up his comrades and bring them back to base. They never made it back to base and the bodies were never recovered. I will never know if he became a prisoner of war or if he truly died in the plane crash. The US government closed out the case and did a mock funeral for the family 4 years after he was reported missing. A memorial stone was placed in Alexandria National Cemetery Cemetery for the men.
This and the birth of my children paved the way for me to begin my genealogy addiction… oh, I meant journey.
