Family Searcher

By Nina G. Brawn
    Did you know this year is the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War. Speaking of our military heritage, I once attended a Wassebec Genealogical Society meeting and found a presentation by Jack Battick on World War II veterans quite interesting. He had tracked down the records of several men, and shared the stories of their military exploits.
    Of course learning about some of the ways to find military records was very helpful. But to me, it was the “backstory” that he had discovered that made it all so interesting. After Jack’s presentation most of the other members had a tidbit to share on his or her ancestor. Although I had no close relatives who served in World War II, it was a very interesting evening and well worth a trek out on a cold January evening.    If you are interested in trying to track down similar records for your ancestor, Ancestry.com is a great place to start. Ancestry has military records you can search, not only for WW II, but also back to early Colonial Wars in America. I used Ancestry.com to locate Civil War records for my great-grandfather. Once I had the basic information from online, I was able to send to NARA (The National Archives and Records Administration) to get copies of the actual records for him! (You can do this online if you wish.)
    It is so amazing to realize that those old records are still available. Of course, many have been lost to fire and other problems over the years, but if they still exist for your ancestor, what a find! If you are not directly related to the deceased veteran, you will need to get a relative to collaborate with you to get WWII records. The forms you will need to fill out to get the records from NARA will indicate what you need. If you know the service person’s military ID number, this will ease the search tremendously. You will at least need to know the branch and dates of service.
    Sometimes the old records may require you to learn a new “language”. For example, one ancestor of mine died of “Tuberculosis of the Knees” (What we now call polio.) The more you can learn about the military processes of the time, the easier it will be for you to understand the import of the information you do locate. You may want to take your documents to a veteran, or veteran’s society to get help in understanding some of the “lingo” used.
    Editor’s note: This regular column is sponsored by the Aroostook County Genealogical Society. The group meets the fourth Monday of the month except in July and December at the Cary Medical Center’s Chan Education Center, 163 Van Buren Road, Caribou, at 6:30 p.m. Guests and prospective members are always welcome. FMI contact Edwin “J” Bullard at 492-5501. Columnist Nina Brawn of Dover-Foxcroft has been doing genealogy for over 30 years, is a freelance genealogy researcher, speaker and teacher. Reader e-mails are welcome at ninabrawn@gmail.com.