ORLANDO, Fla. — A group of graduate student researchers from the University of Central Florida are working to honor the legacies of veterans buried in national cemeteries by uncovering their pasts and sharing their stories.

What You Need To Know

  • Some UCF students research and share veterans’ biographies for tens of thousands of people to read
  • These students uncover the unknown and also ensure veterans are not just a name in a footnote 
  • Remembering veterans and honoring their legacies is key, and the research that ends in veteran biographies shows that

To ensure that veterans are not just a name in a footnote, the students research their lives' histories to uncover the biographies of those who served and share for people to read.

Sarah Bousfield is one of the researchers at UCF’s Veterans Legacy program who helps in the research, digitization, preservation and education of veteran history.

“The one that I have a special attachment to is Clarence Elto Patterson, Jr., who was buried at St. Augustine National Cemetery. He was an African American veteran serving in World War II,” Bousfield said.

He died in mysterious circumstances, she said, and through her discovery, she’s found it’s rare to find a picture of an African American veteran.

“It really meant a lot to me to be able to put a face to a name," she said. "Someone that I spent so much time researching and was so frustrated at the lack of information that I could find. And so being able to see what could be his face, it was so humanizing, and it made him real.”

Luci Meier said her research starts with ancestry, in order to learn more about the individual persons before learning what they did in their military career.

“It feels like you’re going on a journey with the veteran,” said Meier, who is a student researcher.

Meier found a family member through Ancestry who shared personal photos of veteran Doris Lorraine Aanerud.

“We’re trying to honor the veterans," Meier said. "We’re continuing that work. We’re trying to tell their stories.”

John Lancaster is focusing his research on another veteran, Meredith Mills.

Lancaster said remembering veterans and honoring their legacies is key, and the research that ends in veteran biographies shows us that.

“It reminds us that these veterans had deep connections to not just their local communities, but also the places abroad that they served,” Lancaster said.

UCF professor Amelia Lyons said the National Cemetery Administration’s Veterans Legacy Program is a Veterans Administration-funded project. UCF’s History Department works with the NCA.

It puts these biographies in the hands of kindergarten through 12-grade teachers all over the state.

That way, students are also learning Florida history, international history and the history of our communities through veterans’ individual stories.

“We start with very little information, right? And the basic information that we have from the National Cemetery Administration. And we take that and we move from one document to the next, from the unknown to the known, until we can tell that person’s whole story,” said Lyons, who is a UCF professor of history and the principal investigator of the Veterans Legacy program.