#37. The Stories We Choose to Share

Episode 37 -- BTS: Stories We Choose to Share – Episode Transcript

[Narrator] Hey everyone! Anastasia here.
Today, I’m going to share with you how I choose people to feature on the Left Behind podcast. It’s one of the questions I’m most frequently asked, usually followed by “How to do you find the stories about them?” So I’ll share that as well. As we jump in, because most of the people I research were POWs at some point, I’m going to refer to the people I highlight on the podcast as “POWs.”

I find POWs to highlight in a few different ways.
First is my great-grandfather Alma Salm’s memoir. He mentions more than 150 men who he was imprisoned with at Cabanatuan POW camp. Over the past 15 years, I’ve done initial research on most of them. (There are a few who I haven’t been able to identify in the records.) And I put all that information is a long and elaborate spreadsheet. The initial research has given me an idea about what a POW did during the war and some of the interesting stories about his life.
I am telling the story of the war in The Philippines from start to end by using specific POW’s experiences to tell about certain parts of the war.
The initial research on all those men allows me to place each man chronologically in an appropriate episode. With a few exceptions, the first 14 episodes of the podcast are men my great-grandfather mentioned in his memoir.

I found the woman I highlighted in Episode 10 – Francis Long – differently. I call it “Stumbling into a Story.” My great-grandfather mentioned her fiancé in the memoir. While researching his life, I discovered Francis and her experience as a civilian in Manila when the war started. Since her story was so fascinating, I decided to do an episode about her.
Whenever I stumble into a good story, I add the person to my chronological episode schedule.

When I want to get into parts of the war that my great-grandfather’s memoir doesn’t cover, I “Search for a Story” to tell.
I usually find POWs to highlight in various books. Sometimes I’ll figure out which units fought in certain battles or were at certain locations. Then I’ll see if there are specific books about that unit, battle, location. If I can find the book, I’ll search the index to see which servicemen have the most mentions, which often equals the book having enough details about that person’s experience.
For example, while I was researching another POW, I came across a mention of an Army nurse on Bataan. I discovered that she had written a memoir. So I found that memoir, in which she mentioned several nurses she served with, such as Eunice Hatchitt (episode 15) and Clara Bickford (episode 25) and a nurse whose story I’ll publish in a few weeks.
Sometimes I’ll email contacts I’ve made in the Philippine War community asking if they know of a serviceman who [blank]? Sometimes I’m able to find servicemen this way.
Recently I’ve come across a new method – and that’s people reaching out to me about their family member who served in The Philippines. Next week’s episode is about a serviceman who I learned about when his son reached out to me. (He literally tracked me down through Ancestry.com after listening to a podcast episode, because his father was best friends with the POW I highlighted. Can’t wait to tell you all about it next week!)
Here’s a secret – if someone reaches out to me regarding a family member who in The Philippines during WW2, chances are extremely high I’ll feature that person’s story in a Left Behind episode. The information family members add about an individual is invaluable and adds so much to the episode.

Which brings me to my research method. We live in a remarkable time for research – there is SO much available to us online, especially if we can learn how to dig for information. So, when I start researching an POW, his or her story could go literally anywhere, depending on what I find along the way. But I’ve had to streamline the research as best I can.
I start researching every POW on Ancestry.com. There’s so much information I can obtain from historical records on that site. I create a small family tree for the POW, then exhaust what’s available on Ancestry.com, especially military records. I like using Ancestry for this process because their tree-building tools help me find records quickly and I can attach them all to the tree – thus making organization simple. (BTW – I’m not affiliated with Ancestry.com, other than as a website user.)

Once I’ve exhausted Ancestry’s sources, I turn to newspapers. There are an astonishing number of digitized historic newspapers online I’ve highlighted around 48 POWs in the podcast so far. There are maybe 4-5 men who I have NOT found newspaper articles for. Local newspapers often printed stories about their hometown heroes during the war.
Newspaper articles can add personal quotes, personal recollections/experiences, and all sorts of details that typically aren’t recorded in historic records. I love it when I come across gossip columns – there’s good stuff in those. I’m working on an episode right now where the POW is mentioned in so many newspaper articles, I’m a little overwhelmed. But that’s a good problem.
I always start with Newspapers.com because I find the most success there. If I can’t find many articles about a POW there, I go to Genealogy Bank or Newspaper Archive.
At this point, if I haven’t found out much about the POW, I’ll then go to Family Search and other genealogy sites to see what might be there. Sometimes I’ll just type the person’s name into Google and see what comes up. I’ve been surprised by the results. If I get clues that a POW wrote a memoir, I’ll try to find it. Between Amazon and my local university’s library, I can find most published POW memoirs I learn about.
I’ll also dig into contextual details that can further tell the story. So, this could include details about the unit someone served in and what that unit did, details about a battle I know the person fought in, even information about the POW’s hometown.
I try to let what I find direct my research. If something seems interesting or unusual or stands out, I’ll try to find more details about it. For me, that’s the key to telling the best story – following my instinct.
Lastly, when possible, I try to find and speak with family members. My favorite people to speak with are the children of the POWs. But any family member who knows something about the individual can add that personal side that historic records can’t.
Usually, by the time I get through this research process, I have enough information for a 35–45-minute episode. Some people, though, are really difficult to find information about. In those cases, I’ll combine two or three individuals into the same episode.

So that’s my process for finding POWs and researching their lives. And, seriously, if you know of someone who was involved with WW2 in The Philippines, please let me know. There’s a story submission form on my website – leftbehindpodcast.com. And I’ll add a link to the show description.

So, that’s Left Behind the Scenes for today. I’ll be back next week with a POW who was severely wounded in a field hospital when the Japanese forces captured Bataan.
Please remember to like and subscribe to Left Behind so you’ll know when new episodes drop. And tell a friend about the podcast.
Have a fantastic week.