General Information * Colonial Wars * American Revolution* --Loyalists * War of 1812 * Indian Wars * Mexican War * Civil War * Spanish American War * World War I * World War II * Korean War * Vietnam * More Links
General Information
Any basic how-to book will include at least one chapter on this topic and there are many books that cover how to locate and use military records.
A great deal of helpful information is on the web.
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Colonial Wars: Pre-1775
Wikipedia: Military History of the 13 Colonies
On the Web:
American Revolution (1775-1783)
Books and Articles :
Locating Your Revolutionary War Ancestor: A Guide to the Military Records. Neagle. (This is out of print, but many libraries would own it) (find in a library)
Crume. "Researching Revolutionary War Records Online" in Family Chronicle, April 2007 pages 23-28
On the web: How to guides:
Researching Your Revolutionary War Ancestor -- a research guide by Connie Lenzen. This is written for patrons of the library of the Genealogical Forum of Oregon, but is useful to anyone. The books she lists are available in most libraries that have a genealogy collection of any size.
Also helpful are
Data Online
Online Revolutionary War Indexes and Records: A Genealogy Guide
Colonial Ancestors provides some information on Revolutionary War soldiers and of course the DAR has tried to identify all Revolutionary War Soldiers.
Scanned images of selected revolutionary war pension records are available through Heritage Quest, which may be available through your local libraries (all Michigan libraries have a subscription). These can be viewed at home, as well as in the library. (Dick Eastman describes this database). Included are files of 80,000+ individuals who served
in the Revolutionary War. Each veteran's file usually contains six or more pages on each
veteran and normally includes the veteran's former rank, unit, and period of
service, age or date of birth, residence, and sometimes-genealogical information
on other family members.
Revolutionary War Pension Records can be difficult to read. Is it worth it to take the time to transcribe them? Here is an example of what a transcription might provide.
Footnotes, a subscription database, provides scanned images of the full revolutinary war pension record files.
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Revolutionary War-- Loyalists
Books and articles:
Merriman. United Empire Loyalists, A Guide to Tracing Loyalist Ancestors in Upper Canada (Ontario) (review) (find in a library)
Bunnell. Research Guide to Loyalist Ancestors. A Directory to Archives, Manuscripts, Published and Electronic. (find in a library)
On the Web.
Start with the website of the On-Line Institute for Advanced Loyalist Studies. Notice that they have a genealogy page in addition to several pages filled with valuable research information.
Print out : Getting a Handle on Your Loyalist Ancestors Using Published Sources (.pdf file)
Loyalist Research of Canada
More Links:
War of 1812
Online War of1812 Indexes and Records: A Genealogy Guide
Indian Wars (1790-1898)
Mexican War (1846-1848)
Books and Articles:
On the web:
Civil War (1861-1865)
Books and Articles
Segars. In Search of Your Confederate Ancestors 2008 (find in a library)
Online Civil War Indexes and Records: A Genealogy Guide.
Sons of the Union Veterans of the Civil War's National Graves Registraton Database.
Spanish American War
Online Spanish-American War Indexes and Records: A Genealogy Guide
World War I
Books and Articles
Schaefer. The Great War: A Guide to the Service Records of All the World's Fighting Men and Volunteers (find in a library)
Available Online
Online WWI Indexes and Records: A Genealogy Guide
Nudd. . World War I Draft Registrations (article by archivist at National Archives, published in Eastman's Online Genealogy Blog)
The WWI draft registration cards are available at Ancestry.com. If you don't have a subscription and can't get to a library that has a subscription, remember: you can still search Ancestry.com WWI records. The results list will show the state and county (but not the city). You can order the records from the Family History Library, but must know where the registration took place. Here is the entry for Michigan -- note you must click the VIEW FILM NOTES box to determine what reel to order. If your ancestor was in a large city, it can be quite tricky to pinpoint the film.
"They Answered the Call: Military Service in the United States Army During World War 1, 1917-1919" from Prologue vol.30 no. 3 Fall 1998
For more links, see Cyndi's List: WWI
World War II
Online WWII Indexes and Records: A Genealogy Guide
Neill. WWII Draft Cards -- describes them and gives information on obtaining them.
NARA. World War II Records
"World War II Army Enlistment Records and Access to Archival Databases" in Prologue vol. 38 no. 1, Spring, 2006
While not military records, researchers with 20th century immigrant ancestors will want to research the alien registration records (1940-1944) microfilmed and held at the INS. It looks like you must make a FOI request to get them. Alien Registration Form, A Genealogical Resource discusses these records, including a detailed explanation of how to obtain them.
Korean Conflict
Online Korean War Indexes and Records: A Genealogy Guide
Vietnam
Online Vietnam War Indexes and Records: A Genealogy Guide
More Links...
Cyndi's List
Genealinks: Military Sites
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