Researching Military Records
Longwood's Journey
If you should have other valuable tips or places for
researchers to look, please contact us.
Researching Military Records
Civil War
For UnionVeterans, check the 5 volume set of The Roster of
Union Soldiers, by Broadfoot Publishing. This will tell you what unit the soldier served with.
Many local libraries have this collection as part of their local history
collections.
You can then mail to the National archives to get a pension and military
file on the soldier.
http://www.archives.gov/research_room/genealogy/research_topics/military.html
You may wish to save time and use a private researcher. We have used the
Civil War Records Consultants and have found them to be excellent.
http://www.civilwarrecords.net/
Check the official records of the Union and Confederate Armies. This
is a searchable database.
http://library5.library.cornell.edu/moa/browse.monographs/waro.html
The Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies. A searchable
database.
http://library5.library.cornell.edu/moa/browse.monographs/ofre.html
The National Park Service's Civil War Soldier's and Sailor's system
http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/
The New York State Archives at Albany has the Grand Army of the
Republic files in their collection. In 1895, the then state
historian sent out a request to the local chapters to ask the members to
write a personal account of memories. They are organized by regiment and
contain valuable information.
www.nysarchives.org/a/researchroom/rr_mi_GAR_guide.shtml#RegHistSurvey
Go to the Library of Congress web site and search to see if a
Regimental History was written. Example: 57th New York Infantry - Type
in the regiment, if a book title appears, go to the reference desk of
your local library and request an inter-library loan. Your library will
find a library that has the book, which it will loan to your library for
certain amount of time
http://www.loc.gov/z3950/
Use Simple Search
National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections
- Descriptions of approximately 72,300 collections located
in 1406 different repositories with approximately 1,085,000 index
references to topical subjects and personal, family, corporate, and
geographic names. Here you can find where letters, diaries, and other
valuable information can be located. Try a number of different searches
such as family name, division, regiment.
http://lcweb.loc.gov/coll/nucmc/nucmccat.html
If no regimental history was written, then look for the 30+ volume set
of The Supplement to the Official Records of the Union and
Confederate Armies, by Broadfoot Publishing. This volumes contain
the order of events for Regiments and individual Companies. These
entries follow the regiment and companies through the war.
http://www.broadfootpublishing.com/
World War 1
Although a fire at the National Archive facility in 1973 destroyed much
of the individual information, you can still piece together information.
Soldier Card - The New York state Archives keeps record
cards of men who served during world war 1. The information on these
cards consists of birth date, units and companies served with, rank,
engagements, dates served overseas.
http://www.nysarchives.org/a/researchroom/rr_military.shtml
2. With the above information you can send away to the National Archives
to see if personal information was not destroyed in the 1973 fire.
3. You can get copies of the morning reports for the company of the man
you are researching.
http://www.archives.gov/facilities/mo/st_louis/military_personnel_records/morning_reports_and_unit_rosters.html
MORNING REPORTS are created
each morning, as the name implies. They are an "exception
based" system, only containing information on those individuals
who are not "Present and Accounted for". Among the reasons for
being listed on a morning report are:
- Promotion or demotion
- Being killed, wounded or missing in action
- Being assigned to a unit, or leaving a unit
- Going to a hospital for treatment, or to another activity
for training
- You can also get the roster of a particular company.
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4. Go to the Library of Congress web site and search to see if a
Regimental History was written. Example: 77th Division, 305th Infantry -
Type in 305th Infantry, if a book title appears, go to the reference
desk of your local library and request an inter-library loan. Your
library will find a library that has the book, which it will loan to
your library for certain amount of time.
http://www.loc.gov/z3950/
Use Simple Search
National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections
- Descriptions of approximately 72,300 collections located
in 1406 different repositories with approximately 1,085,000 index
references to topical subjects and personal, family, corporate, and
geographic names. Here you can find where letters, diaries, and other
valuable information can be located. Try a number of different searches
such as family name, division, regiment.
http://lcweb.loc.gov/coll/nucmc/nucmccat.html
Researching a soldier killed overseas- These records were not
destroyed as they were kept with the National Archives in MD.
National Archives and records Administration
8601 Adelphi Road
College Park MD
20740-6001
NWCTM
These records usually contain correspondence with families to determine
if the family wanted the body brought back home for burial, or to be
placed in the American cemeteries in France.. They sometimes have a
description of how the soldier died.