In a time when older folks are feeling more and more socially isolated and lonely, we need to find more ways to integrate them back into the communities that many of them helped build in the first place. One of the most accessible ways I’ve learned how to do this is by simply asking questions, and some of the best, most revealing and interesting questions we can ask revolve around their family history. After all, how better to bond with someone than to ask them to talk about themselves, and by sharing something so personal as to their familial roots of origin, we learn what helped to shape them and their generation? Autumn is a senior English Secondary Education student at Endicott College. She hails from Reading, Massachusetts, and for the last three and a half years, has been researching the many men and women from Reading and North Reading that served in World War II. Her project, titled “Reading’s Boys” has carried her as far as St. Louis, MO to the National Archives Personnel Records Center to do hands-on archival research, and has also allowed her to connect and build relationships with individuals from all over the globe. These relationships have helped Autumn learn about the ways in which understanding the stories of people from the past can actually bring together people today who may share very little in common with each other. By doing so, Autumn makes the “past” stay in the “present”, for all to benefit. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx