Diary of Recorded Historical Lies
Author Tammy Tipler-Priolo BASc, PLCGS
The Ancestor Investigator
© 5 February 2022
World War II kept my Grandfather busy. No he never enlisted but his younger brother did. This younger brother was a Gunner and Platoon
Leader who grievously watched his whole platoon perish before his eyes. My Grandmother swore that her brother-in-law
showed up at that very moment, in the old homestead where she was ironing clothes
on the other side of the world and disappeared as quickly as he had
arrived. Grandma took this spiritual
appearance in stride. Shortly after, her
brother-in-law, returned home, like many lucky soldiers, with war medals he
would later throw out, along with stories he buried deep inside him. Upon enlistment many soldiers took up smoking
cigarettes and engaged in drinking to numb the terrible experiences they were
exposed to overseas. This younger
brother was not immune to this and later passed away from a heart attack while
shoveling snow, at the age of 75 years old; possible contributing factors of
stress, cigarettes and alcohol. Noting
he is fondly remembered as kind, loving and gracious with always a pleasant
smile on his face when greeting others.
During this time my Great Uncle was overseas fighting
the good fight, my Grandfather stayed back to work as a Pharmacist and raise
four boys with my Grandmother. Grandpa
was truly interested in current events, as well as history. Books satisfied the latter and radio news
broadcasting seemed to fulfill the former.
Grandpa got it into his head that it would be a grand idea to keep a
diary of all the news broadcast reports he heard on the radio regarding the
progress of the war effort. Each day he
would listen to the radio news broadcast on what the allies and enemy were up
to, then he would diligently record these news reports in a diary he had
purchased for this task; he was proudly recording history as it was happening
or so he thought.
Once the war was over, Grandpa tucked away his diary,
turned history book, amongst his other history book collection on his office
shelves. He was quite proud of himself
and thought how clever he had been to record history as it was happening. It would not be until many years later that
he would discover that everything that he had recorded from those radio news
broadcasts were all lies. Not one report
was true. Their excuse was to keep the
enemy from knowing what was truly going only.
Needless to say Grandpa was so upset and disgusted by this revelation
that he admitted to the desire to throw the book of lies, his diary, in the
garbage. Somehow he held onto his book
of historical lies and when I found out I offered to take the book of lies off
his hands for posterity; I never thought beyond the idea of just preserving my Grandfather’s
dream of recording history that turned out to be lies.
After spending years in the genealogical field scouring
through various record groups, I learned to keep the book of lies, Grandpa’s diary
of WWII, in the forefront of my mind when I am examining documents for their
truth value. We are taught as Professional
Genealogists to analyze our findings, look for correlations and discrepancies and
to come to a sound flexible conclusion. How
plausible is the information relative to the truth? That is a whole other article that could be
written on this research methodology that can be saved for another time. Suffice it to say, we must always be skeptical
of what we are presented with, be that various family history documents, oral
history or news broadcasts. We must
instinctively dig deeper for the whole truth, the two sides of a story and all
the details in between. If we do not
strive to be so discerning, we are risking the real truth of events to be
buried, which could lead us to conclusions that could have unexpected and
unwanted consequences. Take care to seek
the truth and nothing but the truth in those documents and stories so as not to
be bitten by it; remember the truth is supposed to set you free!