How A WWII Morning Report Can Solve A Mystery

WWII Military Research can have challenges for many reasons. Of course, the fire at the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) may have burned an army ancestor’s file. Unlike WWI records. Not many of the WWII records are online. This means a little more work is required in identifying which records will help and then traveling to the repositories.

We had known that my father was stationed in Greenland as a soldier during WWII, and that he traveled to Greenland by ship. He spoke very little about WWII, but that was some of the very little that he had shared.

His Report of Separation contains the date that he departed the Continental United States, in Box 36.

Date of Departure: 1 Aug 43

Destination: Greenland

Unlike the WWI ship manifests, the WWII ship manifests are not digitized and indexed. That means to use them you have to take a trip to NARA II in College Park, MD. The problem is that these records are stored by ship name, so you need to know the name of the ship to find the manifest. (In contrast, we can search using a soldier’s name to locate the ship manifests without knowing the ship names upon which our WWI ancestors traveled.)

Timelines are one of my favorite tools in genealogy. Of course, I have been busy building a timeline and gathering information in a binder dedicated to researching my father’s WWII experience. Without the ships’ names, there was some missing data in that timeline.

A while ago, I located a great ebook online, “Troopships Of World War II” by Roland W. Charles at https://www.80thdivision.com/pdfs/wwii_Troopships.pdf

Having that timeline, I had explored this book for candidate ships carrying him to and from Greenland. I had identified potential ships and eliminated many.

The one clue that has been taking me places was a single sheet of paper found in my father’s personal belongings. It commemorated his crossing of the Arctic Circle. This certificate included his name, superior officers’ signatures, and the latitude of the Arctic Circle. Being concerned with operational security during wartime, this certificate had a blank line for the ship name as well as for the longitude where they crossed the circle. The day of August in 1943 was also blank. But there was one clue, his military organization: Btry ‘A’ 500 AAA Gun Bn

Morning Reports are a wonderful resource. Several years ago, I brought my research team with me to NARA St. Louis to view and copy the Morning Reports for the 51st Pioneer Infantry Regiment, in which my grandfather served in WWI. The WWI Morning Reports are now online, which makes them very convenient to gather and use. However, the WWII Morning Reports have not been digitized and require a visit or the use of a retrieval service.

Here, at last, was information about my father’s outgoing trip. On 1 August 1943, Battery (Btry) A of the 500th Antiaircraft Artillery (AAA) Battalion (Bn) of the U.S. Army Coast Artillery Corps (CAC) was onboard the SS Yarmouth.

Now, I could learn more about the USAT Yarmouth from Engineer Charles’ book.

These facts also tie in with information about Greenland convoys that are posted here: http://www.warcovers.dk/greenland/geen_main.htm

At this point, it was time to slow down and record the collection of evidence that I had. One of the best ways to understand something is to undertake explaining it to others, so I created a document to share with my brother. This document contains the facts I know, so that they can be summarized in a research plan.

We remembered mentions of the outgoing convoy, and now I can investigate them. I will contact NARA to see if I can arrange to view the Yarmouth’s manifests, and perhaps consider looking at the deck logs. Both should be located at College Park, MD.

Researching Civilian Employees of the Federal Government

Researching Civilian Employees of the Federal Government

This blog post is intended to get you started on researching civilians who worked for the Federal Government. Civilian employment also includes records for those who worked for the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) or Works Project Administration (WPA) employment.

NARA has an older publication that has information about their resources researching federal employees: https://www.archives.gov/files/publications/ref-info-papers/rip110.pdf

(To find other NARA informational publications, see our blog post: Finding Helpful NARA Publications)

Although this is one of the older publications, there is a section about civilian employees of the Federal Government beginning on page 30 of this document:

An important thing to know is that personnel records become archival 62 years after the person’s employment by the Federal Government has ended. This 62-year time is calculated on a rolling date. Before 62 years has elapsed, the records are non-archival.

Prior to 62 years after the end of a person’s employment as a civilian employee of the Federal Government, their Official Personnel Folders (OPF) can only be accessed by the employee or an authorized third-party requestor.  During that time, only limited information may be released to the general public through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

The National Personnel Records Center’s (NPRC) Federal Records Center Program maintains the Official Personnel Folders (OPF) of former Federal civilian employees whose employment ended after 1952.

A starting place to learn who can request records, and how to request them, would be the webpage for Official Personnel Folders (OPF), Federal (non-archival) Holdings and Access: https://www.archives.gov/personnel-records-center/civilian-non-archival

Learn how to access archival Official Personnel Folders (more than 62 years after the civilian employment ended) from: https://www.archives.gov/st-louis/opf

Once you know the agency where the civilian employee worked, look for its current website. In some cases, the name of the agency or its organization within the government may have changed, so investigate the history of the organization. Look for information about projects in which your ancestor had been involved.

Good luck researching your civilian employees of the Federal Government, and let me know how you do!

Finding Helpful NARA Publications

Genealogists know to look for all available sources of information when doing their reasonably exhaustive search. We also know to list the resources when creating reports and proof documents.

But how do we know what we don’t know?

The best way is to keep learning. Keep reading, seek out publications about topics of interest, attend webinars and learn from other genealogists.

A great place to look for source material is the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Without knowing what sources are available, searching using the catalog is daunting. With that in mind, this blog post contains some resources from NARA to learn more about a topic you are researching. The topics are discussed from the perspective of records that NARA holds, and they could help identify sources to help solve your genealogical problem.

NARA offers Reference Information Paper (RIP) with illustrated descriptions of specific topics. The descriptions show what can be found in several different NARA record groups (RG).

A list of the Reference Information Papers (RIP) can be found at: https://www.archives.gov/publications/ref-info-papers.

The RIPs that have been digitized and are online will show a link to view web version of the document. If there is a pdf icon displayed at the end of the link, that means that the RIP is available for download.

The RIPs that have no link associated with their description are unavailable. These appear to be those containing dated material.

NARA staff have also authored Research Reports, these are now called Reference Reports. Some are not up-to-date, and do not necessarily reflect everything that is now available online. They can provide good explanations and good ideas for what records might be available.

The Mount Vernon Genealogical Society Inc offers a page about NARA Research Reports. A good place to start would be with the Reference Reports Table. This document contains information about the status of Research Reports, as well as links to where they or similar information might be found. Links to these can be found at: https://www.mvgenealogy.org/fileDownload.php?sid=16

Pioneer Infantrymen at the National Museum of the US Army

Recently I attended The Army Historical Foundation’s Genealogy Seminar at the National Museum of the United States Army. The Museum is located at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. You can read about that seminar in Army Historical Foundation’s Genealogy Seminar.

After the presentations, I had a little time to go through the Museum exhibits. As you might expect from my books and blogs posts, I headed to the first floor to look for the exhibits about WWI and WWII. With the Museum closing soon, I glanced around the Nation Overseas Gallery, which was about WWI. There is so little about the Pioneer Infantry Regiments in museums, and I was thinking this would be no exception. Then my husband pointed out the image of a soldier from the 2nd Pioneer Infantry Regiment. The photo showed Alex L. Wingo, a wagoner who served with the Supply Company of the 2nd Pioneer Infantry, on the right. (Mules were also featured on this display!) It was exciting to see one of the Pioneers featured in such a prominent place, in such a prominent museum.

Then I looked at the next image and it was of a soldier from Company L of the 806th Pioneer Infantry Regiment, Theodore C. Banks, who received the French Croix de Guerre for gallantry.

As you can imagine, I was very excited to see the Pioneer Infantry Regiments represented.

A little bit of research about these soldiers yielded some additional information. Liner Alex Wingo was from Roebuck, SC., and muster rolls told more about his service. He enlisted on 25 May 1918, and on 8 July 1918 he was appointed a Wagoner in the Supply Company of the 2nd Pioneer Infantry Regiment. From US Army Transport Service records, confirmed by Find A Grave, his brother Wagoner Guy H. Wingo served in the same company. From a photo on Find A Grave, the man on the left in this picture appears to be his brother. He returned to the US with a casual company on 25 May 1919.  

Corporal Theodore Christopher Banks was from Salina, KS, and served with Company H of the 806th Pioneer Infantry Regiment. (In the rosters there was a soldier of this name in Company H who served from Aug 1918 to Aug 1919. There was no soldier named Banks in the rosters for Company L.) He enlisted on 5 August 1918 and ended his service on 19 August 1919. He began his service as a Private, and was promoted to Private 1CL in October 1918. He was then promoted to Corporal in June 1919. (His VA Master Index Card shows his birth year in 1896, while other records show the year as 1903.)

Of course, I was so excited that the Pioneer Infantry Regiments were represented in the Nation Overseas Gallery, that when a Docent said hello, I shared that with him. Docent Jim was interested in what I had found, so as we walked over to the pictures, I shared a little bit about the Pioneers, and told him about the books I had written.

Personally, I always ask a docent questions if I have any. When I do not have a question, I ask these dedicated and trained people about the areas of the museum which coincide with my areas of interest. One of my favorite questions is to ask about the highlights, especially when there is little time.

So I asked Docent Jim about highlights of the WWII exhibits and he had the time to lead us through the Global War Gallery. He showed us some very interesting highlights and the stories behind some of the displayed equipment.

Without a doubt I must return to this Museum when I have more time to tour it properly. There are audio tours available, and while I might use them, I will always ask questions of the docents.

Thank you, Docent Jim.

And to thank you to the soldiers of the Pioneer Infantry Regiments for their service in the Great War.

A little bit of research about these soldiers yielded some additional information. Liner Alex Wingo was from Roebuck, SC., and muster rolls told more about his service. He enlisted on 25 May 1918, and on 8 July 1918 he was appointed a Wagoner in the Supply Company of the 2nd Pioneer Infantry Regiment. From the US ATS and FindAGrave, Wagoner Guy H. Wingo was his brother. From a photo on FindAGrave, the man on the left in this picture appears to be his brother. He returned to the US with a casual company on 25 May 1919.   Corporal Theodore Christopher Banks was from Salina, KS, and served with Company H of the 806th Pioneer Infantry Regiment. (There was a soldier of this name in Company H who served from Aug 1918 to Aug 1919. There was no soldier named Banks in the rosters of Company L.) He enlisted on 5 August 1918 and ended his service on 19 August 1919. He began his service as a Private, and was promoted to Private 1CL in October 1918. He was promoted to Corporal in June 1919. (His VA Master Index Card shows his birth year in 1896, while other records show the year as 1903.)

Army Historical Foundation’s Genealogy Seminar

On 11 May 2024 I attended The Army Historical Foundation’s Genealogy Seminar, hosted at the National Museum of the United States Army. The seminar was entitled “Unlock your military legacy.” There were attendees both in person and online, and I was able to attend in person.

The speaker lineup was impressive: Richard G. Sayre, COL (USA-Ret.), Pamela Boyer Sayre, and Rebecca Whitman Koford, CG, CGL. Many of you know Rick and Pam from their outstanding presentations. Among her many accomplishments and extensive service to the genealogical community, Rebecca currently works as Executive Director of the Board for Certification of Genealogists® and is the Director of the Genealogical Institute on Federal Records (Gen-Fed) which is held annually at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.

Rebecca began the seminar with an excellent presentation about “Records of the U.S. Army held by the National Archives and Records Administration.” Sharing her hands-on experience, she demonstrated the types of records and how and where to locate them. Demonstrations of how to use the NARA Catalog are always beneficial. She also shared examples with us of records she had found about her ancestors.

“Map Repositories in the Washington D.C. Area” was next, and in that presentation Rick discussed more than the repositories; he explained the history of mapping in the US. It is significant to know about the maps, including who created them and their purpose. He showed what was on the maps and their usefulness for using them in the context of an ancestor’s war experience. He shared so many great examples!

After a delightful lunch, and having been inspired by the two previous presentations, I was ready for the next presentation. Pam presented “Tracking an Eighteenth or Nineteenth Century Soldier.” She showed us how to time travel using Google Earth Pro. First she demonstrating what could be done, then she explained the steps in detail for how to use those features to document your military ancestor’s life in a visual and engaging format. Not only is this a great way to share information with non-genealogists, but this is also a great technique for immersion into the context of an ancestor’s service. This is something I had been considering, and using her approach will make the task straightforward and manageable.

The last presentation was by Rick and Pam, “Learning About a Twentieth Century Soldier.” This session presented resources and brief case studies about researching the service of twentieth-century soldiers at NARA facilities. Rick and Pam decided to focus on WWI, and a follow-up presentation for learning about WWII soldiers will be recorded and distributed to attendees at a later date. After the resources were discussed, a clear methodology was presented. Of course that methodology included the use of one of my favorite tools, timelines. Rick clearly described the homework that a researcher needs to do before contacting and visiting a NARA facility.

The presentations were very practical in nature. While it is great to find out about resources and how to use them in your research, it is also important to know where and how to find them. Being able to use them and share them is also incredibly valuable. The NARA Catalog can be awkward to navigate, so insights that the speakers shared were appreciated. There are always things to learn from such distinguished genealogists.  

The final presentation held a couple of surprises for me. Two of my books were listed in the bibliography for the final presentation. Of course I was delighted to be included. The real surprise is that Rick and Pam showed a slide that contained the cover of my recent book, “Researching U.S. WWI Military Members, Military Organizations and Overseas Noncombatants: A Research Guide for Historians and Genealogists” I was happy for my book to receive a shout out. (They had no idea I would be in the audience!) I was even happier to see that the Pioneer Infantry Regiments were also mentioned in the presentation. If that was not enough, I was delighted when Rick asked me unexpectedly to say a few words about the Pioneer Infantry Regiments. What a privilege, and how great to see the Pioneers’ stories being told.

This all-star line-up held an informative seminar and disseminated actionable information! Thank you!

In the next blog post I share more about my visit to the Museum after the seminars concluded.

You can find out more about these two books, and others, on this website. They are available on Amazon.

“Researching U.S. WWI Military Members, Military Organizations and Overseas Noncombatants: A Research Guide for Historians and Genealogists”

“A Guide to the U.S. Pioneer infantry Regiments in WWI”