A genuine, textured portrait of a family on the front lines and home fronts of WWII.
Searching for Harold: One Family’s World War II Story in Letters is Stephen Watts’s second venture into epistolary family history. Watts’s comfort with genealogy is evident in his treatment of the sizable correspondence of the Watts and Carleton families, and the result is a fascinating account of an American family before, during, and after World War II.
Searching for Harold bears some resemblance to a genealogical project, given its emphasis on reproduction rather than investigation. Happily, Watts takes great pains to loop the average reader in through brief biographies, photographs, and commentary.
“We see the world through our own eyes. Most of these letters were written by men who served in the US Army during World War II, but each experienced the war in his own way and understood it in his own terms.”
The letters Watts includes are plentiful and broad ranging, from a son’s request for camera film to an older brother’s complaint that he doesn’t hear from a younger brother too often. Watts notes in his introduction that most of the letters are written by the servicemen in the Watts and Carleton families, but he is generous in including letters from other family members too. It makes for a lot people to keep track of, so the anchor-point imposed by Watts on his eponymous great-uncle, Harold Carelton, serves as a welcome focus point.
It’s tempting to approach Searching for Harold as a biography or a personal history, but to do so would be to miss the full breadth of project. This is not so much the story of Harold Carleton but of the Watts and Carleton families. Watts leans into the time capsule of the letters, allowing an unrelated reader or history buff to enjoy them as an “everyman’s” account of the period.
The voluminous correspondence, which spans 1934 to 1948 and beyond, is contextually interesting but lacking the intimacy of a more curated approach. At times, seemingly unrelated letters follow each other without comment from the author. Amid so much material, Harold—ostensibly, the book’s subject—becomes just one voice among many.
Because of this, it can be easy to lose track of Harold Carleton amid the everyday concerns of so many people. One gets a bit swamped as the book itself makes the reader “search” for him. As a result, the book flounders for direction once his letters home end. Watts appears to have included every letter in his family’s cache, a valid approach for a genealogical project but one that hobbles the story’s broader interest.
One of the most enjoyable things about reading Searching for Harold is getting to hear the voices of the servicemen as they address their loved ones at home. “Dear Mama, I wish you hadn’t sent the pajamas,” writes Harold’s nephew, Wayland, from his base in Biloxi. “Would like to write more details but we are told it’s too dangerous (In fact, you might be spy!)” writes Harold’s brother Ray, in reference to governmental censoring. These moments paint authentic portraits of the men and their relationships and do an admirable job of illustrating daily life during WWII. This alone is a historical gift.
Stephen Watts is a competent historian and writer with an obvious reverence and respect for the past, both his family’s and in general. Although Searching for Harold may land a bit too firmly in the realm of family history project rather than captivating product for external readers, I greatly enjoyed meeting Harold and his brothers, and I appreciated learning about their experiences abroad, particularly Ray’s time in Japan.
Searching for Harold is a rich offering, well worth reading for genealogists, fans of WWII history, and casual readers interested in hearing authentic voices from the past.
Madeleine James, July 3, 2026