All the Nadolny family ever had was a photo – a portrait of Jerome Nadolny, an Army National Guardsman from Milwaukee killed in action during World War II.

Shaun Nadolny, 50, of Cudahy, grew up familiar with the image. Jerome was his father’s namesake, a tribute by Shaun’s grandfather and Jerome’s brother, Leo, after Jerome was killed in Normandy on Aug. 12, 1944. But the details of Jerome’s life were lost over time, and when Leo died in 1967 at age 44, the family’s connection to its past faded.

In 2001, Shaun, a self-described history buff, began digging into his family’s story. He started with Leo’s military file, which turned out to be filled with letters and records.

As Shaun pieced together Leo’s story, he realized how little he knew about Jerome. Aside from a date and a photo of a

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