How To Research Military Family Registers

Armed services records tin can exist a rich source of details for your family history. They convey basic information such every bit name, residence, historic period, and may as well provide a concrete clarification. They besides provide details of military service that tin can enrich your understanding of their lives -- dates mustered in and out of service, the unit of measurement served in, a record of injuries sustained, and so on. And if you're lucky plenty to notice a pension file, it may include non only information about armed services service but records of important family events such as birth, matrimony and death certificates, messages, and perhaps even photographs.

Given the frequency of U.Due south. military conflicts, your ancestors may have served in the armed forces even if you're non aware of information technology. Before delving into military records, however, you'll need to conduct research in other types of genealogy records so yous'll have the information y'all need to constitute a link between your specific ancestors and the names which appear on military lists, rolls and registers. Since most names are non unique, information technology can exist hard to determine whether the James Smith who served for Virginia in the Revolutionary War is the same person as your ancestor with that proper noun. Knowing information such as your ancestor's state and county of residence, approximate age, names of relatives, wife and neighbors, and any other identifying information you can detect will aid you in trying to approve identities. For early conflicts, when the population was notwithstanding relatively small, information technology's important to as well check census records of the era to determine if there are other men with the aforementioned proper noun living in the same area.

Once you lot have the background data you need, this guide will assist yous to navigate the various types of military records that are available. It's organized as follows:

The first two tabs provide an overview of the types of military records, and where to find them, including tips on locating military records online
The records available for each of the major U.S. conflicts are listed under their own tabs, organized by type of tape
- Note that the first tab is ever for "Guides" -- don't ignore these! Many useful articles about diverse aspects of war machine tape inquiry have been created for each conflict, and the invaluable advice in them is not repeated in this guide.
- Federal records are described separately from state records
Resources relating to the military service of African Americans, Native Americans and other indigenous groups, and, where applicable, women, are included for each disharmonize. In addition, the last tab of the guide highlights boosted resource that may aid individuals researching members of these groups.