Military Records as a Source for Genealogy Research

Military Records as a Source for Genealogy Research

One of the most difficult parts of genealogical research can be finding military records for family members within your circle. While hard to find, these records can prove invaluable to your search for more information about your family. They can help you track who a family member dealt with and where they might have been stationed. This can help you track your family members’ travel across the country or even the world.

Starting your search for military records begins by searching your brain and your families’ collective memories for information about the parties you are looking for. Information that can help you in this search includes the branch of service the member of you family served in, the conflict (if any) the member of your family was involved in, the dates your family member was involved in the service, the type of unit (volunteer, draft, etc) the member of your family served with, whether the member of your family drew a pension from the service, and whether the member of your family was an officer or an member of the enlisted personnel.

Once you’ve gathered your information, you’re ready to start searching databases. There are several you will need to look through, depending upon how much information you have. One valuable source is the National Archives and Records Administration. Over the course of the history of the United States, and extensive amount of paperwork has been produced by the federal government. The National Archives and Records Administration have worked to preserve what they could of documents containing important bits of national history. They have more than three thousand types of records archived on microfilm and on the internet that you can access and view. Some of these will cost you something, others are free. Their military service records catalog runs about three hundred and thirty pages and can be a very valuable resource in your search for family military records.

Another good source of information on all military personnel is the census. By eighteen forty, the census bureau listed the name, age, and residence of every single member of the American services. Even though much of the eighteen ninety census was destroyed by fire, it had essential facts about the person’s name, rank, company, regiment or vessel, length of service, and disabilities associated with the service. There is even a listing of the widows of Union veterans for some states. In addition to the above information, the nineteen ten census asked every man over the age of fifty about military service history. As the census progressed, more and more information was collected about veterans.

If your family member served in the regular Army, there are three possible publications that might help you with your search. First, take a look at a volume of the Regular Army Enlistment Papers. There are several volumes of this available from a variety of locations. Another possibility is to examine Francis B. Heitman’s Historical Register if you know the family member you are searching for was an officer. One final possibility is to look at the Dictionary of the United States Army, available from a number of different locations.

There are two major repositories of military information for your searching purposes. If you are looking for the military records for anyone who served in the Revolutionary War through nineteen twelve, the National Archives Building in Washington D.C. is the place you should go. You cannot leave with any of the information, but you are welcome to make an appointment to take notes from their paperwork. They also offer informational courses that you might find helpful to your search. If you are searching for information about a family member who served in the military from World War I to the present, the best place to go to examine information is the National Military Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri. In order to obtain a copy of the records you require, though, expect to have to fill out some paperwork, as privacy standards for more recent records are a bit more rigorous than those for records dating from the eighteen hundreds.

Finding the military records of your family members can really advance the search for your genealogical history in a number of different ways.

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