Researching Maryland WWII Ancestors

Perhaps you have seen the War Memorial in Baltimore.

Did you know that the War Memorial in Baltimore serves as a repository for approximately 70,000 discharge papers of the Maryland veterans who served during World War II.

Discharge papers are a great starting place for researching your WWII ancestors. These papers give the dates and branch of ancestors’ service, as well as where they fought, and the medals they earned.

Veterans and their families can order the discharge papers. Check out the page with War Memorial Miscellaneous Information for the link to download the order form. The section of the page is shown below.

 

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Researching Maryland WWI Ancestors

In this blog, our books and talks, you may have seen the New York Service Abstracts of WWI Military Service in my examples. Have you looked for what your state has to offer? As I come across more of these resources, I plan to post information about them in this blog. This post describes a useful starting place for those who are researching Maryland WWI service members.

To locate an abstract of your Maryland WWI ancestor, consult the two-volume book set, Maryland in the World War, 1917-1919; Military and Naval Service Records. Vol. I-II. Baltimore, MD, USA: Twentieth Century Press, 1933.

 

These volumes contain abstracts of the service of Maryland WWI service members, but the beginning of the book contains valuable information about Maryland in WWI and a list of abbreviations.

You can use WorldCat to search for these books at a local library, or you can find a digitized copy of the books and the records on the web.

Ancestry.com has created a database from these volumes, Maryland Military Men, 1917-1919. (The other related data collections may also be useful in your research.)

Use your own Ancestry.com account, or access it from a public library, a Family History Center or at NARA.

If you do not have access to Ancestry, or you have an interest in the additional information in the volumes, you can view them online at Hathi Trust.

Maryland in the world war, 1917-1919, Volume I A-J

Maryland in the world war, 1917-1919, Volume II J-Z

You can scroll through these online document to find pages of interest and download individual pages without logging in.  However, you need to login as a Hathi Trust partner to download the whole document. Look on the left of the browser window for the links to download the page.

 

There is a possibility that the Maryland’s World War I Centennial Commission will host these books on their website in future. If they do, I will update this post.

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Family History Outing: The National World War I Museum and Memorial (Part II)

In case you missed it, Part I can be found here.

When you walk into the Museum, you cross over a glass floor to enter the exhibits. Below your feet is a field of poppies; above you the tower through the glass ceiling. You then walk through the chronologically arranged galleries, experiencing trenches and a bomb crater.

The artifacts include weapons, vehicles, flags, personal effects and uniforms. The walls are filled with data that helps put the conflict in perspective.

There are activities for families, including a family visitor guide and interactive activities like creating your own propaganda poster using their images, words and colors.

There are rooms for audio reflection, where you can listen to voices, music, poetry and prose of the Great War.

Below the Museum is the Edward Jones Research Center. Through its windows, you can get another view of the poppy field. While you are there, you can chat with an Archivist. The Archives contain books that may help in your research. Some states, and even counties, have compiled books with abstracts of their WWI soldiers.

Undoubtedly you will be exploring the Museum for a while, so you will be glad to know that there is a place to eat. Among the traditional café fare at the Over There Café, you can enjoy Trench Stew, Army Goulash or Chipped Beef. You might consider a sampler platter. (GF stands for Gluten Free.)

 

There is also a Museum Store where you can shop tax free.

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Family History Outing: The National World War I Museum and Memorial (Part I)

Dedicated in 1921 with five WWI leaders present, the Liberty Memorial Tower, Assyrian Sphinxes, Exhibit and Memorial Halls were completed in 1926.

The newer part of the Museum sits below, and was completed in 2006.

Read the Visitor Guide for the details of the Interior and Exterior. Symbolism is embedded in the architecture of the Museum.

The Liberty Memory tower is 217 feet tall. Courage, Honor, Patriotism, and Sacrifice are the 40-foot Guardian Spirits on the Memorial. Ride the small elevator, and take a few steps for a 360-degree view of Kansas City, MO. Given that this part of the Museum is already on a hill, the view is terrific.

Both Assyrian Sphinxes cover their eyes. The east-facing Sphinx, Memory, faces the battlefields of France, and its eyes are covered from the horror that is war. The west-facing Sphinx, Future, hides from the unknown in what is to come.

Be sure to walk around the Museum on the paths to see more parts of the memorial.

Best bet: Tickets are always issued for two days, and they are half-priced on Wednesday.
Another opportunity: Visit the close by Money Museum at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, which opens a half hour before the WWI Museum. If you take the survey at the end of the exhibits, one of the prizes if a ticket for half-priced tickets at the WWI Museum.
Museum Trivia: Museum personnel shared that the Sunday before the full eclipse was the second busiest day in the museum’s history. Only the opening day surpassed it.

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“The Summer of 1918 (in 2017)”

This summer I spent a lot of time in 1918. It was a time when our nation had entered a war of global conflict, an ocean away. It was a time when U.S. men began being drafted into military service, training and traveling. It was when men from the U.S. took up arms in defense of civilization.

The United States had a small army and had to ramp up quickly to gather the needed troops. Private organizations became part of the war effort. People on the home front geared up to support the war by buying war bonds, wrapping bandages and conserving food. The U.S. entered the war with its own advanced technology, bringing telephone equipment and signal corps operators to manage it.

To do this, I immersed myself in some of the record sets from that year, books published during that time (or just after), books written later about the time, traveling to a museum about the time and even viewing a solar eclipse.

The record sets were Morning Reports and Rosters at the National Personnel Records Center, and the U.S. Army Transport Service lists that are available at NARA II at College Park and are on Ancestry.com. The museum was the WWI Museum in Kansas City, MO.

In upcoming posts, I will be sharing stories about the visits, the records sets, and the books that made this “The Summer of 1918” for me.

5 Things to Tell New Genealogists

Have you ever helped a friend start a family tree? Starting out with a blank tree, and beginning to fill it, is always a joy. I have done this a few times and have come up with some hints to tell people who are completely new to all of it.

 

 

1) Start with yourself and work backwards.

When you work backward, you are sure to construct a solid trail to a family that you can be sure is yours.

 

2) No, really, start with yourself.

Collect and scan all the documents that prove you and your relationships. Think about what you would like to find for your ancestors, and collect that information for yourself. You could even include a brief autobiography.

 

3) Spelling, schmelling.

Do not get hung up on spelling. People in the past were not as hung up as we are on correctly spelling their names. The people who copied down the records often did so phonetically. So, don’t expect the spelling of your ancestor’s names to be the same in each record you find.

 

4) Keep track of your sources.

You will want to know the source of the information. Documenting your facts in your family tree software program is a great idea. It will be helpful when you come across conflicting evidence. It will also remind you where you have already looked, and keep you from ordering the same record multiple times.

 

5) Start a timeline.

When you make a timeline of an ancestor’s life, it makes you focus your search on the correct times and places. The timeline can make you think in terms of the events that were happening concurrently, to give context to your ancestor’s life.

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