Hello my genealogical friends! I hope, as always, that I am finding you well in your research for your family tree. Recently we have covered naturalization records and keeping with theme I thought it might be best to also further your knowledge about another specific record area, military records. I cannot wait to share with you their importance in your genealogy journey, military record basics, and of course some tips for finding these types of records!
As always, I am sure that the first question you have for me is: What do military records provide us that other vital records do not? While we have covered again and again the importance and information provided by vital records, we have also learned that they do not always give us a complete picture of our ancestors’ life. In my last blog post on naturalization, we discussed how these records could help us track where our ancestors’ life’s lead them throughout different points in time. Similarly, military records can help us with this task too. Often times when a soldier is deployed to a certain area his family could also be living close by or a guide to finding the location of his/her family. Even though it could be tempting to skip over these types of documents remember this key point and consider putting the time and effort in to find them. They could be a very important step in expanding your family tree and tracking the rest of that branch!
Now as you have probably learned through your hours of research when searching for any sort of record it is important to have some context about the time your ancestor lived in. For military records be mindful of what large wars may have happened around the time that they would be eligible for service. Examples of large wars to remember might include: The Revolutionary War, The War of 1812, and World War II. Understanding the war and time period that your ancestors’ may have served in will allow you to know what sort of documentation you can expect to run into. For a more in-depth explanation for individual wars please feel free to check out my webinar about military records located on this same site.
I know that looking for records of any sort can be challenging at best and frustrating at worst. Knowing where to find them as your first step can sometimes be the hardest part. The best advice I can give is somewhat an echo of what we talked about in the last paragraph. Be mindful of where (which country or area your ancestor served for) and when. If your ancestor served for Britain check the British National Archives. Again, if you are finding yourself unsure of what sort of specific documentation you will find regarding an ancestor who served for a specific country during a specific war, I urge you to check out my longer form content via webinars where I go into more depth about this topic. Truly the topic of military records is one of the most complicated when it comes to finding specific sites to access information about specific wars and nations. As normal please feel free to reach out if you have specific questions about your own projects. My contact information is listed above. Happy researching!
Winona I Laird, “The Genealogy Granny”
