While working with the students in HIST 391 who were creating content for this digital exhibit, University Archivist Ann Merryman and Senior Instructor Librarian Laura Karas asked themselves one simple, yet very big question:  Who *was* John R. Dolin?  Using online resources such as Ancestry.com and Fold3.com (both available for free at the Spartanburg County Public Library, but not at the University of South Carolina Upstate Library) to find the threads of his family and his childhood, the story of John R. Dolin was slowly pieced together and helps to provide further context to the Margaret Payne Letters Project and the Women & WWII Digital Exhibit.  To the best of our knowledge, the information and details provided in this timeline are accurate; any inferences or uncertainty are noted.