Research - Vida Colorado

Helping Families Bring Stories to Life

I’m not a professional genealogist — I’m a storyteller with experience uncovering WWII records, family letters, and historic archives. My goal isn’t to guarantee results, but to partner with you in the search and help turn whatever we find into a narrative worth sharing.

Research Help

Dig into census records, immigration logs, and military files
Pull from free and paid archives (Fold3, Ancestry, Newspapers.com, etc.)
No guarantee of results — but a promise to search with care

Storytelling & Writing

Turn what we find into a narrative (letters, profiles, short articles)
Combine facts with context — what was happening in the world at the time
Create something worth sharing with family today

Collaboration

We work together: you provide names, documents, or family stories
I add research and writing support
End result is a clearer picture of your history

Work Samples

I work from primary sources—letters, morning reports, unit histories, maps, artifacts, and interviews—and cross-check them against reputable secondary research. The excerpts below show how raw evidence is organized, contextualized, and shaped into a clear narrative without embellishment. Proof first; then prose.

…He remembered the bells on September 8th when the Armistice was declared—“explosions of joy,” someone said. For a day they celebrated as if the long winter had finally broken.…

Then the Germans began fortifying the mountains. On October 16th two motorcycles and a Kübelwagen rolled into the square; the mayor was led away without a word. That night the trucks came—doors kicked in, men dragged out, animals taken, provisions heaped onto the beds. A woman’s scream, a rifle’s crack, and the road to the mountains filled with families running from former allies who now treated them as enemies.

From: Part VI: Acquafondata

It was an overcast day as typical of Rotterdam in the fall. Philip Jacob Bretz stood on the dock with dozens of other migrants, their belongings all scattered about them, ready to board the Solomon Saltus for the six week sail to New York City. They had work ahead. Hard work. Jacob looked down at their immigration papers he would show to the Americans: the new state on the American frontier of Indiana; this is where he and his family would go. They would commission a wagon, they had heard, and after crossing some mountains almost like the Alps, they would get on a boat and sail down the Ohio River to the Indiana.

There they would build their house, plant fields, begin their new lives. Jacob looked at the papers, his wife Charlotte holding their newborn Catherina, and his other 5 children aged 3 – 19, as well as his mother Catherine who at 68 felt too old for the journey but Jacob had convinced to come and help his wife raise their children in a foreign land.

From: A New Chapter

It all started with a simple entry in a US Army Morning Report, the daily reports filed by every company during the war detailing their strength, activity and situation. Acquafondata, it said. This place that I had never heard of that my grandfather spent the winter of early 1944 from January 19 to March 14.

The reports showed that he had seen action there on several occasions. And I remember him speaking of the hardship that he and his fellow soldiers endured during that hard winter. That some even considered self inflicted wounds as a ticket home despite almost certain court martial proceedings and a dishonorable discharge from the Army.

From: In Another Country

“Zig zag maneuver” he said, taking another draw on his cigarette. “No u-boats today.” He offered Stanley a cigarette. “We’ll be doing this all the way over every 8 minutes. About how long it takes one of those bastards to line up and fire.” He gestured to the sea down below. “Hope you didn’t think this trip would be as smooth as the Queen Mary…. If so you may want to ask for your money back”… he joked.

From: Part IV Cristobol

The 67th Coastal Artillery Division was formed in July 1940 at Fort Bragg where the boys learned how to be artillery men. How to dig into a position and defend an area from enemy air attacks. They’d already deployed to Paterson, NJ after basic training, defending the New York City area from possible (although unlikely) attacks from enemy aircraft or even the V-1 rockets that had been plaguing the United Kingdom for months.

In hindsight we now know the unlikelihood of any of this coming to be in mainland USA, but in 1940 the 67th CA was prepared for the possibility. At Fort AP Hill the unit began to train for a new mission: not just a fortified position, but field maneuvers and navigation in poor conditions with all of their heavy weapons and ordinance in tow. Stanley and the men knew they’d soon “go over” but did not know when or where… the training they were to take now he could not help but realize was likely the final step before they went. One last skill that would be useful before setting up on a beach in France, a cliffside in England, a farm in Poland or a hill in Africa.

From: Part III: Going to War

At 16 he was two years too young to join… but one evening in September he brought Laura and Gilbert a clipping from the Brookville Democrat he had found on Charlie’s kitchen table: that every month he could send home $25 and that everything that he had would be paid for: his housing, his food, his education. The prospect of one less mouth to feed and getting a well adjusted and educated son out of the deal who was himself begging to sign up was one which Laura could not pass up.

From: Part II – The CCCs

Stanley Grimes. Dishonorably Discharged. Desertion. Not present at time of discharge. Not once. But several times. Final pay remitted to Ft Douglas, Utah. No transport necessary from Arizona to Indiana as enrollee was not present. Enrollee advised of non-eligibility for re-enrollment….

If he were here now would I even ask him? I don’t know. Would I want to take the role of some sort of investigative reporter out to uncover some embarrassing or controversial portion of his life or decision he made? What would he think of this line of questioning? Would he be proud of it? Embarrassed by it? Entertained or amused by it? I’m not sure. And it’s with these unknowns that I now continue to tell his story. And despite the uncertainty I now believe it to be more real than the one I originally thought I wanted to tell.

From: A New Reckoning

As the convoy finally rolled into Soliman airfield, the sun rode high and the temperature soared past 90 degrees. A squadron of A-20 Havocs from the 47th bombardment group came in for landing. It was the 47th, along with the 325th fighter group of P-47 Thunderbolts, that Pop’s AA battalion would safeguard from Luftwaffe onslaughts at Soliman.

From: Part V: Africa

How Pricing Works

I don’t charge a fixed fee for research projects. Instead, this work is donation-based.
That means:

You set the value. After we work together, you choose what feels right based on the time, effort, and results.
Every project is unique. Some searches are straightforward, others take hours of digging. A donation model keeps things flexible and fair.
No guarantees, just care. Research doesn’t always uncover everything we hope for, but I promise to search thoughtfully and present what I do find in a way that honors your story.

Your donation goes directly toward supporting the hours I spend digging through archives, writing, and pulling threads together into something meaningful for you and your family.