Welcome to Portals of Time. This is a site dedicated to historians, history buffs, genealogists and the strangely inquisitive. The things you will not find here are fiction or debate over current issues; if you are looking for those watch C-SPAN. All articles and material entered here are as close to scholarly research and standards as you will find outside a classroom filled with Graduate history students. All efforts are therefore made to include the necessary citations through endnotes and bibliographies. With all that said, we also try to keep it entertaining and fun for our guests. We want you to come back often and bring lots of friends.
Historians research and write. If the visitor wants to share their research and writings, feel free to contact us with your proposal.
Portals of Time does not display advertisements, require a sign-up or log-in, or charge a fee. It is strictly here to further historical research and to honor those who have gone before us.
History is travel, both across physical distance and time. As I explore new sites I attempt to research the history of the area and its people. I share those histories as often as possible with the visitor on this website.
While military history is the main theme here, it is not the totality of the site. Other areas of interest to the visitor are genealogy, world history, and other nonfiction areas.
If you like WWII Nose Art, check out World War II Nose Art and the Crews Who Loved to Create It. As more research is completed on crews and aircraft the content of this page is constantly changing. Check back frequently to see what has been added.
I often provide research assistance and write articles and books for historical organizations such as the award winning Clay County, Kentucky Historical Society. I recommend you check out their website if your roots go back to Kentucky. HERE is the link.
I also get involved with worthwhile organizations by helping them locate and recover missing military and civilians that were killed due to combat actions. Learn about the Nauru Missing Five Project HERE.
Other valuable sites are those of museums and National Archives research centers. Depending on where you live, you probably have a site close by. I encourage you to plan a day trip (or longer) to the nearest facility and practice your scholarly research. The National WWII Museum. The National Museum of the Pacific War. National Personnel Records Center. Only online: World War II First Person Accounts, Letters Home, Diaries, and Journals; Veterans History Project; Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1938 ~ to name only a few resources.
U.S. Veterans Memorial Museum, Huntsville, Alabama. I found this little hidden gemstone on my last trip to visit friends. This place is packed with military history. Just amazing: U.S. Veterans Memorial Museum
Lampooning Historians
Historian, “I see dead people and then I write about them.”
Historian, “Leave me alone, I’m supposed to live in the past.”
Historian, “You had me at its real old.”
Historian, “You made me angry. That is why no one will remember your name.”
“It seems to me a historian’s foremost duty to ensure that merit is recorded, and to confront evil words and deeds with the fear of posterity’s denunciations.”
― Tacitus
“My work is not a piece of writing designed to meet the needs of an immediate public, but was done to last for ever.”
― Thucydides,
“To philosopher and historian the madness and imbecile wickedness of mankind ought to appear ordinary events.”
― David Hume
“History is indeed little more than the register of crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.”
― Edward Gibbon