USAHEC Visit – Day 1

We entered USAHEC, and asked the Information Desk to direct us to the Archives. We reported to the Reference Desk. We were issued a key for a locker, and our Research Cards were created.

 

The Specialist had to take my list and translate it into the locations of the material. Then we took the list to the Circulation Desk.

The materials were brought out to us after a very short wait.

 

 

This box held SGT Mansfield’s diary. I scanned it for the events and dates that were included, and to see if Joseph McMahon was mentioned by name. (He was not.) The events described in the diary had been outlined in the 51st Pioneer Infantry history that was found at NARA.

 

 

This was the folder.

 

 

The staff was incredibly helpful with helping us set up to photograph items in the folder. They have camera stands and lights available. We got to work photographing the diary for future research.

 

 

Diary in the WWI Veterans Survey Collection, Army Heritage and Education Center

Transcribing that diary will be on my to-do list.

 

 

Using the document setting on my digital camera, and hand holding the camera, I photographed the 51st Pioneer newspaper, published during the occupation of Germany, in Cochem. These newspapers will eventually be digitized.

 

Newspaper in the Periodical Collection, Army Heritage and Education Center

 

There were few columns about Company B, but none of them mentioned Joseph F. McMahon.

 

Newspaper in the Periodical Collection, Army Heritage and Education Center

 

The Moses Thisted Collection had only one folder for 51st Pioneer Infantry.

 

 

 

In it was only one picture.

 

Photo in the Moses Thisted Photograph Collection, Army Heritage and Education Center

 

Photo in the Moses Thisted Photograph Collection, Army Heritage and Education Center

 

When you are done for the day, you will clear out the locker, return the key, and sign out. If you are done with the materials, you wheel your cart back to the Circulation Desk for refiling. If you are coming back, the Specialists will ask you to fill in a hold slip that includes the date that you are returning. Your materials can be kept for you for a maximum of ten calendar days.

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USAHEC Visit – Homework

The U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center (USAHEC) holds a tremendous amount of information that may assist you in your research about U.S. Army ancestors. They may not have an image of your ancestor, or papers with you ancestor’s name, but there may be material from contemporaries that will shed light on your ancestor’s experience. The Staff is extremely knowledgeable and is available to help you.

There are books about military history, and Army publications. There are extensive collection of unit histories and photo archives. There are veterans’ surveys from the Spanish-America War to the Cold War. There are oral histories. There are collections of personal papers, diaries, and letters. U.S. Army doctrinal, training, and administrative publications. Most post-WWII U.S. Army Chiefs of Staff have donated their personal papers to USAHEC. This is a brief description.

 

Homework:

Before your visit, locate it of items or collections of interest using USAHEC’s online catalog. Tutorials to help find material are available here.

When you have located material of interest, contact USAHEC by e-mail or phone to verify that the materials are available. Also ask what other material they might recommend for the topic you are researching.

The list of documents I wanted to view were:

1. The 51st pioneers [weekly]
2. The Moses Thisted photograph collection
3. The WWI Veterans Survey Pioneer Infantry documents for SGT John Mansfield
4. The SGT John Mansfield photographs (Photographs from the survey had been transferred to the Photo Archives.

I had e-mailed a Technical Information Specialist to check if these materials would be available on the dates of my visit. As it turned out, Item #4 did need to be cleared and would be before I came.

 

NARA II, College Park Visit – Day 3

We returned to NARA several days later to view the boxes in RG120 that held records from the 51st Pioneer Infantry.

In this part of the record set, the documents were arranged by company.

 

 

There were twelve boxes in all. (Company B was on the desk.)

 

 

One of the interesting things was the correspondence books. Before computer indexing, people had to know how to locate items in their records. I have used index books for land and probate records. (See the tutorials.)

 

 

There was my Grandfather’s name as his records were transferred from the IV Corp vocational school in Mayen Germany.

 

 

 

 

 

There was an earlier letter acknowledging the transfer of their records. Joseph McMahon was detached to the IV Corps Vocational school at Mayen Germany, on 31 Mar 1919.

 

 

Fourteen Jewish soldiers from Company B requested leave to attend the Jewish Festival in Coblenz on 14 Apr 1919. The 51st Pioneer Infantry Entertainment Officer asked the YMCA to furnish a concert model guitar to Company B; they were planning to have a show ready by the first of April, possibly after the recovery of a cast member from an accident.

Much of the 51st Pioneer Infantry Headquarters’ correspondence dealt with promotions, demotions (some voluntary), transfers, requests for leave and cancellations of Liberty Bonds. The correspondence included stations before Camp Wadsworth, including Camp Meade and Lemoyne, PA (as the 10th NY Infantry).

The Summary Sheets for the Courts Martial of the 51st Pioneer Infantry were also in this record group. There was an index by last name to help locate the sheets to learn the details of the charges and the findings. Punishment might be fines, forfeiture of pay, or hard labor.

At some time in the future, I will head back to digitize all the folders in RG165 for the 51st Pioneer Infantry, and to read more about the 51st Pioneer Infantry in RG120.

NARA II, College Park Visit – Day 2

Day 2

I went directly to the Research Consultation room, and got help to order the RG120 boxes to find the ones for the 51st Pioneer Infantry.

Since there are limits on the number of boxes, from a number of areas, I went back to the RG120 boxes to copy the interesting documents. This required a stop at the copying desk for them to approve the copies. Those documents required declassification markings when copying and photographing.

The records will be held for three days, unless you sign to return them. I returned those five boxes.

 

 

Then I asked for help ordering the next box in the RG165 series. Hopefully, that box would contain folders with information about the 51st Pioneer Infantry.

It was time for lunch while waiting for the document pull.

The first box we checked was the RG165 box.

 

 

There were twenty folders about 51st Pioneer Infantry. One of them was the history of the 51st Pioneer Infantry. That was a great document. I copied it and photographed it with my digital camera. One page highlighted the activities of Company B.

Another interesting folder contained the Station Lists for Headquarters, Supply and each Company of the 51st Pioneer Infantry.

There’s still more records in RG120 to view!

NARA II, College Park Visit – Day 1

You have to have a clear idea what you are researching. I went in with the topic of the 51st Pioneer Infantry, and brought my homework with me.

An important number to know before you go is the Record Group. You need to know that the topic numbers do not correspond with the identifying information for the boxes.

A Specialist at the Consultation Room will help you locate the correct binder containing the finding aid for the Record Group.

When you discuss your research interest with the specialist, you may receive suggestions about other record groups of interest. ALWAYS listen.

I went to the Archives in search of RG120. The Specialist recommended that I consider RG165, which is the “Records of the War Department General and Special Staffs”, and showed me the finding aid for that record group.

 

 

The Specialist helped me fill out the pull slips. Each pull slip requires the initials of a Specialist before the records can be pulled.

The Specialist also suggested that we go up to the 5th Floor to see if there might be any photographs of the 51st Pioneer Infantry.

While we were waiting for the boxes to come up to the Research Room, we did go up to the 5th floor. That room uses an old fashioned card catalog. We asked for and received help to find the one photo related to the 51st Pioneer Infantry. We filled out a pull slip for that photo.

We looked at the five (5) boxes from RG120. They contained correspondence of the 51st Infantry Regiment. We went through the correspondence and documents. There were some interesting documents, like the price list at YMCA canteens and the rules for soldiers riding trains. The infantry had concerns about equipment and building barns for their horses.

Then it was time to head up to see the photograph. You are given white cotton gloves to wear when you handle a photograph. It was taken on 3/29/19 and was a group of officers who had attended an Arts & Science Course at the University of Edinburgh. One officer, Capt. F. M. Elliott, was from the 51^st Pioneer Infantry.

 

 

Back at the Research Room on the second floor, we looked at the one box from RG165. The box had some folders with information about the Pioneer Infantry. It also had folders for the 1st Pioneer Infantry, but the last folders in the box were for the 6th Pioneer Infantry. We will need some help to find the box with folders for the 51st Pioneer Infantry.

 

Day 1 at Home

At home, I did a little research. In “Brief Histories of the Divisions, U.S. Army 1917-1918” on page 30, the 26th Division Contained the 51st Infantry Brigade.

 

 

The RG120 boxes we had been looking at were of the 51st Infantry Brigade, not the 51st Pioneer Infantry.

So we will need help finding the correct boxes in RG120, too.

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NARA II, College Park Visit – Homework

In this coming series of posts, I will be discussing my latest visits to NARA to view WWI military records.

If you live close enough to the National Archives at College Park, and they are holding records about your ancestors, get out your GPS and go!

The steps of you visit are outlined in my Informal Guide to visiting NARA II at College Park (coming soon).

Homework

I did my homework before the visit by searching the NARA website for documents relating to the 51st Pioneer Infantry. My search terms were “51st pioneer”.

 

 

The description had a section that included 1st-816th Pioneer Infantry Regiments, 1917-9.

 

 

One important thing I did was to create a cheat sheet with important dates in Joseph McMahon’s WWI service as well as important dates for the 51st Pioneer Infantry. This sheet proved helpful as I sorted through the correspondence in the boxes. That sheet can be found here.

Next time…Day 1.