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Family Tree History Made Easy
Genealogy Step By Step Step 11: Military Records If you were to pull out a photo album or a box of old family pictures and go through them one at a time, how long would it be before you encountered a snapshot of a family member in a military uniform? If you are one of the seventy-five percent of Americans who can claim at least one family member who has served in the United States military, it probably wouldn’t take long. Such pictures are a valuable resource for family historians and a tremendous aid in your search for genealogical information. In our own search through family pictures, we found pictures of both of our fathers, each of whom served in World War II, one in the navy and the other in the army. Consider the clues you can uncover from studying a military photograph in your family photo collection:
The information gleaned from a careful examination of an old military photo can be very helpful. But even if you don’t have old pictures, this information is critical to have in order to learn more. It goes without saying that various types of records were created for every individual who served in the United States military. The real concern is learning what and where these records are, and how to use them as a research aid. The basic steps of learning about your military ancestor are:
1. Identify the individual (full legal name).
Time Period and War It is entirely possible for an individual to have served in the military at any time during the nation’s history. But it is generally during war times that most people, usually young men between the ages of eighteen and thirty, enlisted or were drafted. Below is a list of wars and military actions that the United States has participated in since it became a country. The wars begin with the most recent, since that is how they should be researched when following the basic rules of genealogy—going backward in time, moving from the known to the unknown.
American War Dates Gulf War, 1991 Prior to the Revolution, military service was rendered to the state in which the individual was residing. Therefore, records of that service are kept in the state’s archives or historical society. Remember also that even after the United States became a country, it is possible that your ancestor served in a state’s militia (National Guard), and those records would also be located by state as long as the unit was not called to aid the federal government. This fact underscores the importance of identifying the branch of military in which your ancestor served. A useful general reference book is U.S. Military Records by James C. Neagles (1994, Ancestry). This book should be available in most major genealogical research libraries. Types of Records
Bounty land records, which can be considered pay or pension records, will be covered in a future article dealing with land records. Other types of military records also exist that will be covered in a later article. They include:
As a beginning genealogist, it is best to pursue one particular type of record. Service records and pension records tend to be the most accessible and are recommended for the beginner for that reason. As you learn more about your military ancestor, you can pursue other records to fill in the details of his or her service. Service Records The useful genealogical data you might learn from service records could include the individual’s full name, rank, age, physical description, marital status, occupation, city of birth, and place of residence at enlistment Pension Records Because there was no Social Security before the 1930s, many American families depended on the pension awarded to deserving veterans. The federal government awarded pensions to officers, disabled veterans, needy veterans, widows/ orphans of veterans, and veterans who served a certain length of time. But to get such a pension, the veteran had to go through a somewhat lengthy application process. The federal government kept a pension file on every applicant. Pension files contain all the paperwork associated with the application, including any supporting documentation. From these files you might learn some or all of the following: the applicant’s name, spouse’s name (possibly even a wife’s maiden name), rank, military unit, length of enlistment, and residence at time of application. In some cases, additional information is also included, such as documented proof of service (affidavits from officers or others who could attest to the individual’s service), discharge papers that had been given to the applicant at the time of separation, and even personal information like date and place of birth, marriage, or death. When a widow applied for a pension in the name of her husband, she was required to submit evidence to prove her marriage; this often included the names of any children living with her at the time. If you are not certain whether your military ancestor received a pension, the federal government has published lists of pensioners at different times in history. These lists give the soldier’s name, service information, age, death date, and even his or her heirs. Such lists are available for the years 1792-95, 1813, 1817, 1818, 1820, 1823, 1828, 1831, 1835, 1840, 1849, 1857, 1883, and 1899. These lists can be found in the U.S. Congressional Serial Set located in federal repository libraries or in the libraries of most major universities. Also, the federal censuses of 1840, 1890, and 1910 list veterans and pensioners. These records are available at most major research libraries. Service and Pension Files As a rule of thumb, military records from the twentieth century can be found at the NPRC, and military records dated before 1900 can be found in the National Archives in Washington, DC. The tables included below detail exactly which records are available and where they can be found.
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