Military Records available online

Antoinette

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On this Memorial Day, 2007, I thought you might enjoy reading this Discovery Channel website article.

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/05/25/memday_his.html

May 25, 2007 — The world's largest database of U.S. military records, spanning more than four centuries from the 1600's to the Vietnam War, is now available and searchable online, according to Ancestry.com.

Highlights from the collection include World War I and World War II draft registration cards; prisoner of war records from the War of 1812, the Civil War, World War II, and Korea; unit rosters for the Marine Corps and Navy; burial registers; service records from the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and the Civil War; and casualty listings from WWI, WWII, Korea and Vietnam.

The online collection will be available for free to Internet users from now until the anniversary of D-Day, June 6th, at www.ancestry.com/military.


In honor of our United States Armed Forces,

Antoinette
 
Great site. It took me 10 minutes to find my ggggggrandfather and ggggrandfather, Revolutionary War, gggrandfather, Yankee War of Agression, and grandfather, WWI. Dad, WWII, not in the data base. I am going to have to go confront him that he was a poseur.
 
I found my great grandfather's War Between the States POW record (he joined at age 15 and was promptly captured by the Yankees in his first battle) and my grandfather's WWI draft registration card in about 15 minutes.

Registering and downloading the viewer to see the documents clearly only takes a few minutes. It is very helpful to know the first, middle, and last names of those you are searching. Birth dates, too, are helpful but not necessary.
 
I found my gradfather's WWI enlistment card and his WWII draft registration card. I find it interesting that men born after April 28, 1877 and before February 16, 1897 (age 45-65) were required to register under a separate category on D.S.S. Form 1 (Revised 4-1-42).

I couldn't find anything on my father from WWII because the database doesn't contain any Navy records from that period.
 
My family's military history (American, at any rate) started with me, so.... :frown:
 
I couldn't find my dad's WWII stuff, either. Hate to say that I'm glad I'm not the only one. Found my grandfather's WWI draft registration card. My dad didn't even know there was one for his dad!
 
I found two of my great-uncles (my grandfather's brothers) WWII information.

I'm disappointed that I could not find any information for my father or my husband's uncle, both served in Vietnam.
 
I found two of my great-uncles (my grandfather's brothers) WWII information.

I'm disappointed that I could not find any information for my father or my husband's uncle, both served in Vietnam.

The older the records, the more I found. It had absolutely nothing on anyone, including myself, who I knew who served in Vietnam. WWI was outstanding with original documents as was the Civil War. Didn't try Korea but I agree, Vietnam was a bust.
 
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