Treasure hunting through attic trash.

• Position: You Life

From PBS's "Antiques Roadshow" to A&E's "Storage Wars," reality TV has capitalized on our fascination with discovering treasure in household junk. It happened to historian Michael Mendoza, whose patient culling through boxes of old papers was rewarded when he found a Civil War veteran's personal account of his experiences. The 17-page letter was so rich in detail, Mendoza used it as the basis of his first novel, Glorious Reality of War.

Mendoza owned an antiques store in 1997 when 95-year-old Alice Bowersock died in San Diego, Calif. He acquired her estate: furniture, knickknacks, and stacks of boxes full of photographs, insurance policies, and letters.

Most people, Mendoza notes, might hash the papers right off the bat. "Do not. Toss or sell the knickknacks, and keep the paper. It can be invaluable," he advises.

Collectors value ephemera because such paper records are unique and irreplaceable, he indicates, so he pored through the boxes page by page, finding birth and death records, paintings, prints, and old books. "Then I saw the letter--a documented firsthand experience of the Civil War. It was written in 1925, typed on 8 1/2 by 14-inch paper. Reading if, I got a real good sense of who [the writer] was."

Charles Wesley Rickard was 64 when he wrote the letter to his daughter, Alice, who had asked him to write about his war experience. He was a 15-year-old Iowa farm boy, when "a great desire came over me to go to the war. My parents were loathe to give their consent, and so I made life miserable for them until they finally gave in."

"Many things are invaluable on their own, like first editions of classic books, but don't forget the family records," Mendoza urges.

"Even if you're not into genealogy, you should...