https://thompson4found.org/blog/ Notes from the Foundation's archival work: how records are requested, how artifacts are conserved, and what the documents turn up. en-us Thu, 15 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMT https://thompson4found.org/blog/the-paper-he-carried-home/ https://thompson4found.org/blog/the-paper-he-carried-home/ Thu, 15 Oct 2026 12:00:00 GMT Findings The family has produced William Thompson Hanes's own discharge from 1919 and the enlistment record that goes with it. They give the date he was inducted, the day he reached Europe, the day he came home, his character, his signature, and the place he was born. https://thompson4found.org/blog/sophronia/ https://thompson4found.org/blog/sophronia/ Fri, 18 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT Findings In November 1914, four years before Thompson Hanes sailed for the war, his mother was shot at Dry Prong by the husband she had left. The newspapers called her Mrs. James Milstead. This is what the records say about Sophronia Hanes Milstead, in her own name. https://thompson4found.org/blog/two-sergeants-in-tyler/ https://thompson4found.org/blog/two-sergeants-in-tyler/ Fri, 18 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT Findings A 1944 wedding notice, an Army enlistment record, and four editions of the National Guard Register show how the two eldest Hanes brothers went to war: Homer as a Guardsman called up a year before Pearl Harbor, Aubrey Lee as an enlisted soldier who became an officer only after the war. https://thompson4found.org/blog/thompson-and-the-persic/ https://thompson4found.org/blog/thompson-and-the-persic/ Thu, 17 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT Findings A 1918 Army passenger list puts Thompson Hanes aboard the transport Persic out of New York. Twelve days later a German submarine torpedoed her off the Isles of Scilly. This is what the record proves, and the one thing it does not prove yet. https://thompson4found.org/blog/why-this-site-says-pending/ https://thompson4found.org/blog/why-this-site-says-pending/ Thu, 10 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT How we work A memorial website is the most common place a family story quietly hardens into a fact. This one is built not to do that. https://thompson4found.org/blog/restoring-the-family-board/ https://thompson4found.org/blog/restoring-the-family-board/ Wed, 09 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT Conservation The sheet carrying the only known portraits of all four had faded to a heavy magenta and was shot at an angle. Correcting both without inventing anything took some care about where the damage actually was. https://thompson4found.org/blog/requesting-a-service-record/ https://thompson4found.org/blog/requesting-a-service-record/ Tue, 08 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT Guide The Official Military Personnel File is the authoritative account of a veteran's service. Here is how to get one, what it costs, and what to do when the request comes back thin.