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5 NARA Resources for WWI Research
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has many resources for you to research context for your WWI ancestors. Some of them are online. This is the place for you to begin researching NARA’s World War I Records. This page also includes links to the digitized versions of some of the most requested historical documents. Read an article in NARA’s Prologue magazine about finding your WWI Army ancestors. They Answered the Call, Military Service in the United States Army During World War I, 1917-1919 by Mitchell...
read moreThe 51st Pioneer Infantry from a NY Guard History
There is a chapter in “Three Quarters of a Century with the Tenth Infantry New York National Guard 1860-1935” that discusses the Tenth Infantry in World War I. The Tenth Infantry became the 1st and 51st Pioneer Infantries. I read the chapter once for context, then again to identify the actions of the 51st Pioneer Infantry. The chapter contained some details for specific Companies. This details in this chapter outlined the experience that my Grandfather had while he was in the service. I knew about the 51st Pioneer Infantry’s...
read moreLearning about WWI Medals
As I continue to research my Grandfather’s military service, I decided to look into which medals he was eligible to wear. One of them would be the WWI Victory Medal. I have seen several on ebay, and decided to learn more about them. (These images were taken by the author from medals in her collection.) On the US Militia Forum I found a very informative thread about WWI Victory Medals. This thread contains detailed information for WWI researchers about World War I Victory Medals. There are answers about the bars that are...
read moreGrand Army of the Republic (GAR) – 10
The previous posts about the Grand Army of the Republic were intended to give you a starting place to get you acquainted with the GAR and to begin looking for your Union Soldier and Sailor ancestors in these records. One area that was not covered was newspapers. When you are searching for information about your ancestors in newspapers, remember to also look for announcements about the GAR and its members. Remember to look at the listings of records compiled by the SUVCW, but do not stop there! The blog posts can be found at: Grand Army of...
read moreGrand Army of the Republic (GAR) – 9 – The Library of Congress
This post is the ninth in a series of posts is about how to locate record the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR). The first post contains information about the GAR. The past blog posts have used New York State for examples. This post will go national and discuss the Library of Congress has The Grand Army of the Republic and Kindred Societies: A Guide to Resources in the General Collections of the Library of Congress. On this page you can click on your state to find a listing of each state’s local posts. These are the posts at the community...
read moreGrand Army of the Republic (GAR) – 8 – Using Google
This post is the eighth in a series of posts is about how to locate record the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR). The first post contains information about the GAR. Search terms: grand army of the republic new york My results looked like this: One of the very interesting results was the digitized scrapbook from the E.G. Marshall Post No. 397, Rochester. This page includes the story of the disbanding of the Post by the last surviving member, and the closing of the book. You can download the whole scrapbook from this website. Although your...
read moreGrand Army of the Republic (GAR) – 7 – Using Google Books
This post is the seventh in a series of posts is about how to locate record the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR). The first post contains information about the GAR. Looking at the USAHEC research bibliography, some of the books the were referenced were out-of-print and might be located at Google books. So I searched Google books books.google.com using the search terms: Grand Army of the Republic The search results showed several of the volumes of the Journal of the National Encampment, Grand Army of the Republic. They also listed the Detroit...
read moreGrand Army of the Republic (GAR) – 6 – Records at USAHEC
This post is the sixth in a series of posts is about how to locate record the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR). The first post contains information about the GAR. If you have seen the other tutorials on this website, you will know that a good way to locate the resources at U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center (USAHEC) is to locate the a finding aid. Start at the Library Guides for USAWC Graduates and All Other Patrons. In the Library Catalog and Digital Collections box, you can search both the Library Catalog and our Digital...
read moreGrand Army of the Republic (GAR) – 5 – Records on Ancestry.com
This post is the fifth in a series of posts is about how to locate record the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR). The first post contains information about the GAR. To use the GAR records on Ancestry.com, start at the Card Catalog. From the Search menu, select Card Catalog. In the Keyword(s) field type: Grand Army of the Republic. Click the Search button. From the results list, you can select an individual database to search. Click on New York, Grand Army of the Republic Records...
read moreGrand Army of the Republic (GAR) – 4 – Records Project of the SUVCW
This post is the fourth in a series of posts is about how to locate record the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR). The first post contains information about the GAR. The Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, mentioned in a previous blog post about the GAR, have an ongoing project to populate a database with the locations of available GAR records for every chapter. It is the GAR Records Project. From that page, you can select “Explore the GAR by state”. I clicked on New York. Following the other links on the page led me to some...
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