General Information * Service Records * Pension & Land Grant Records *

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

Books: 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.

• The most comprehensive is U.S. Military Records: A guide to Federal and State Sources, by James C. Neagles. 1994. (find in a library)
• One that is helpful for finding 20th c. ancestors is How to Locate Anyone Who Is or Has Been in The Military by Lt. Col. Richard S. Johnson. Many libraries will have one or both books.
• Military Records at Ancestry.com 2007 (find in a library) is helpful for navigating the records available through Ancestry.com -- although now out of date.

• FamilySearch Wiki: United State Military Records
• The NARA site has a full section on research in military records available in the National Archives. Be sure to scroll down for information on specific wars
• The Ancestors site has a segment on military records. (check out links on right side of page )
• The Access Genealogy Military Resource Center has a well organized page of links to helpful sites.
• U.S. Military Campaigns, Conflicts, Expeditions and Wars. (a list, with dates and areas involved. Very handy, but you must scroll down to get to it.
• Early American Wars: A Guide to Early American Units and Battles before 1865 gives some helpful background on the earlier wars.
• Online Searchable Military Records & Databases

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Service & Related Records

• National Archives: Service Records
• The Source (Ancestry's online Wiki) has information about
  • service records specific to each war
  • miscellaneous military records

Pension & Bounty Land Records

• FamilySearch Wiki:
  • U.S. Military Pension Records
  • U.S. Military Bounty Land Warrants
• The Source (Ancestry's online Wiki) has information about records of veterans' benefits
• Knowing the law in effect at the time helps you understand the timing of your ancestor's pension application.. GenealogyQuest provides a listing (with text) of the
  • federal laws establishing requirements for obtaining a pension.
  • federal laws establishing the requirements for bounty land

Colonial Wars: Pre-1775

Wikipedia: Military History of the 13 Colonies

• Pequot War 1637-1638 (see also the Wikipedia entry for the Pequot War)
• French and Iroquois Wars 1642-1698 (see also the Wikipedia entry French & Iroqouos War)
• King Philip’s War 1675–1676 (see also the Wikipedia entry King Philip's War)
• Pueblo Rebellion 1680 (see also the Wikipedia entry Pueblo Revolt )
• King William’s War 1689–98 (see also the Wikipedia entry King William's War)
• Queen Anne’s War 1702–1713 (see also the Wikipedia entry Queen Anne's War )
• Tuscarora War 1711-1715 (see also the Wikipedia entry Tuscarora War)
• Dummer's War 1723-1726 (see also the Wikipedia entry Dummer's War)
• King George’s War 1744–48 (see also the Wikipedia entry King George's War)
• French and Indian War 1754–63 (see also the Wikipedia enry French & Indian War )
• Pontiac's Rebellion 1763-1766 (see also the Wikipedia entry for Pontiac's Rebellion)

On the Web:

• There is a Society of Colonial Wars with independent societies in about 1/2 dozen states have websites. You may be able to get information about your ancestor if there is a society in a relevant state, or by contacting the national organization.
• Soldiers in King Philip's War -- don't overlook the Pico search engine. You can find all pages where a name is found.
• Massachusetts Soldiers in the Colonial Wars.. on NEHGS website (you may have to be a member to get at this, but I think not).
• Colonial War Bounty Land Grants (Virginia)
• Research Guide to Colonial War sources at the Connecticut State Library.

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)

On the web: How to guides:

• FamilySearch.org: Finding Your Revolutinary War Ancestor
  
• 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

• Gormley. Revolutionary War Military Records
• Gormley. Tracing Patriot Ancestors
• Bockstruck: Revolutionary War Bounty Land Grants
• Neil. Service to the Cause: Tracing Your Civilian Patriot Ancestors

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.
• Pension Records
  • 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.
  • Footnotes, a subscription database, provides scanned images of the full revolutinary war pension record files.
  • 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.
  • You can't rely on Ancestry.com to determine if there is a R.W. pension record for your ancesetor; the works they indexed create only a partial listing. (as of 4/09)
• Prisoner of War Records
  • 8000 prisoners aboard HMS Jersey ("Hell Afloat")

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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:

• Cyndi's List: Loyalists
• Canadian Genealogy & History Links: United Empire Loyalist

Post Revolution

Papers of the War Department 1784-1800

War of 1812

Online War of1812 Indexes and Records: A Genealogy Guide

Butler. Military Records of the War of 1812 (an article generally describing the records at the National Archives.) Note: War of 1812 pension and service records have not been microfilmed, but indexes are available on film and through subscription databases online.

NARA. Military Resources: War of 1812. A detailed description of each of the various record groups at the National Archives.

Indian Wars (1790-1898)

Mexican War (1846-1848)

Books and Articles:

• Butler. U.S. Veterans of the War with Mexico 1846-1848 A Guide to Genealogical Research. 1998. (find in a library)
• White. Index to Mexican War Pension Files 1989 (find in a library)
• Wofe Index to Mexican War Pension Applications 1985 (find in a library)
• Known Military Dead During Mexican War 1846-1848 (find in a library)
• Norris. "Finding Your Mexican War Ancestor" in Family Chronicle June 2006 p. 11-16

On the web:

• Online Mexican War Indexes and Records: A Genealogy Guide
• Aztec Club Searchable Database of Officers who served in the Mexican American War. (note this is limited to officers)
• Find filmed Mexican War records that can be ordered from the Family History Library.
• Descendants of Mexican War Veterans This site has no information on descendants, o but it contains a huge amount of information about the war and the records it generated, including a bibliography of published rosters and links to online rosters, which are essential for determining if your ancestor fought in the Mexican war.
• Want to know more about the Mexican War?

Civil War (1861-1865)

How to..

Online Guides

• FamilySearch Wiki: U.S. Civil War 1861-1865
  • Part 1 and Part 2
  • This will take a couple of hours, but is by far your best lesson on learning about Civil War research, both Union and Confederate.
  • Many links... note especially you can visit sites for Civil War research for each state.
• Family Search Lessons covering Civil War research
  • Civil War Pension Research: Union Soldiers
  • Civil War Research: Learning About your Union Veteran Ancestor
  • Military Records: Civil War
• About.com Reserching Your Civil War Ancestor
• Sons of Confederate Veterans. Confederate Research Guide
• Bentley Historical Library. Civil War Resources (for Michigan) -- you will often find guides such as this on the websites of state archives and libraries.

Books

• Groene. Tracing Your Civil War Ancestor, 1995 (find in a library)
• McManus. Civil War Research Guide: A Guide for Searching Your Civil War Ancestor, 2003 (find in a library)
• Post. First Guide to Civil War Genealogy and Resarch, 3rd ed. 2010 (find in a library)
• Segars. In Search of Your Confederate Ancestors, published 2008 (find in a library)
• Norris. Tracing Your Civil War Ancestors: the Resources You Need for Success, 2011, (find in a library) (review)
• Neagle. Confederate Research Sources: A Guide to Archive Collections, 1986 (find in a library)

The Records

• Start With: Civil War Soldiers & Sailors System
• Understanding Compiled Military Service Records
• How to find Compiled Military Service Records for Civil War Soldiers
• To find records available from the Family History Library, search the catalog under [placename] -military history OR military records --Civil War... ; for example
  • United States -Military History -Civil War...
  • Southern States -Military Records - Civil War...
  • Michigan - Military History Civil War
  • Michigan, Calhoun Co. - Military Records - Civil War
• National Archives. Civil War Records
  • To find Confederate Pension Records
• How to Order Civil War Pension Records -- Union and Confederate
• Online Civil War Indexes and Records: A Genealogy Guide.
• Newspaper column: Confederate Pension Records - Out There for the Asking -- a nice summary.
  • part 1 and part 2
• Access Genealogy: Links to online Civil War records
• 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

Joe Beine's Guides of online resources for WWI

• Online WWI Indexes and Records: A Genealogy Guide
• World War I Draft Registration Cards: Online indexes and Finding Aids Plus Microfilm Research 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