| How Susan Used the 5-Step Research Process |
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| Step 1: Write down what you know. |
Susan didn't know much about her father because he was killed during WWII, just three months after Susan was born, but she knew that he had died on April 12, 1945. In 1992, nearing her 50th birthday and the 50th anniversary of her father's death, she felt a compelling desire to know more about her father. |
| Step 2: Decide what you want to learn. |
Susan decided to search for the location and circumstances of her father's death. |
| Step 3: Choose a source of information. |
Because her father had served in the military, Susan decided to look at his military service records. |
| Step 4: Learn from the source. |
Susan called a veterans' organization which referred her to the American World War II Orphans Network which, in turn, coached her on obtaining her father's service records from the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis. She learned from those records the location and circumstances of her father's death. |
| Step 5: Use what you learned. |
Susan used the information in her father's file to locate and contact men who served with him. Through them and the military records, she was able to go to the spot where he was killed in Germany and to arrange for a ceremony and marker for him at Arlington National Cemetery. |
