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.

1. 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 This page also includes links to the digitized versions of some of the most requested historical documents.

 

 

2. 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 Yockelson in Prologue Fall 1998, Vol. 30, No. 3.

 

 

3. If your ancestor was in The Spruce Production Division, gathering trees for building airplanes, you can learn more about it in GENEALOGY NOTES: THE ARMY in THE WOODS, Records Recount Work of World War I Soldiers In Harvesting Spruce Trees for Airplanes By Kathleen Crosman.

 

4. Learn about how NARA is preserving movies about the Great War is discussed in Saving the Moving Images of World War I (Fall 2014) – The National Archives preservation staff is digitizing World War I motion pictures.

 

5. Now that you know about NARA preserving the WWI films, you can check out the digitized films from World War I and World War II on YouTube

 

 

 

The 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 combat at St. Mihiel, described in a post on this blog about WWI medals.

While reading, I kept in mind that Joseph McMahon was in Co. B 51st Pioneer Infantry. He was inducted on 28 May 1918, and discharged on 10 July 1919.

The following events involving the 51st Pioneer Infantry were extracted from “Three Quarters of a Century with the Tenth Infantry New York National Guard 1860-1935” (1936) by Clarence S. Martin. Chapter XI covers the Tenth Infantry. From these details, I can gather pictures of the places and news of the day. One of the first things would be to look into the ships that carried him to France and back.

• 14 Jan 1918 Col J Guy Deming from Ohio National Guard put in charge of 51st
• 17 May 1918 first draft contingent arrive Camp Wadsworth, SC
• Drills were intense, and involved digging trenches, road and bridge repair and building. Also infantry drill. They were busy from morning to late at night.
• 27 July 1918 – 51st entrains for Camp Merritt,NJ
• 29 July 1918 – left Camp Merritt, NJ, and marched to Alpine Landing
• They were placed on ferries to Hoboken, NJ, then put aboard German steamer “Kroonland”
• Approaching French coast
• British and French destroyers surrounded the troop ship
• They sailed past St. Mathieu lighthouse through LeGoulet Channel into Bay of Brest
• French and British airplanes flew low looking for submarines
• Several lighter-than-air blimp ships flew low in front of the convoy
• 8 Aug 1918 – “Kroonland” arrives Brest, France in the rain (it rained the day they left 300/365 days in 1918)
• The Tenth and First stayed at Pontanezan Barracks which were built by Napoleon when he was using Brest as his base for an attack on Britan
• Marched from the docks to the city on a ramp-like roadway to a hearty welcome
• Left Brest by train from Kerner Station on the waterfront, enlisted men 40 to a box car (Built for 8 horses)
• 51st sent to Northeast France, detrained at Maron, Moselle
• Billeted there
• HQ of 51st at Maron, Moselle, with the First and Third Battalions
• 12 Sep 1918 – Started to drive to St. Mihiel front
• Company B attached to First Division
• Their first experience with exploding shells, and enemy machine guns and airplanes dropping bombs
• The Pioneers kept roads and bridges repaired and rebuilt. They were tasked with keeping the lines of communication open.
• Trucks were filled with broken brick and stone from destroyed cities and villages. These trucks were prepositioned where enemy attacks were expected. As soon as a shell had exploded in a road, the crew came and repaired it.
• “The men of the Fifty-First performed the duties assigned to them in a most credible manner.”
• Companies B and D, under Captain Niles – ½ caught in barrage between Seicheprey and Richecourt – Corp. Slattery killed.
• 20 Sep the Fifty-First ordered to Saizerais and joined 6th Army Corps. They were between the advanced lines and artillery positions, tasked with repairing roads and bridges.

Army of Occupation

• The Armistice was signed; the hostilities ended. The Fifty-First was sent to Buxreule. The First was also selected for this duty and was sent to Murvaux.
• They went through northern France via the Duchy of Luxembourg.
• The Fifty-First entered Germany by following the banks of the Moselle River. (First traveled the Rhine.)
• They passed through Lorraine, and northern France. They saw the destroyed cities and villages; the Germans shelled, the French shelled German-occupied places. There was no destruction in Luxembourg and Germany.
• The German people were welcoming.
• The Fifty-First’s first stop was they guarded roads and bridges in Aspalt, Luxemburg.
• 3 Dec 1918 crossed Moselle River into Germany
• Followed stream, camped Wittlich Alf, Bollens, Caidens
• Before Kochen [Kochem, Cochem], Col Deming was relieved, Lt. Col Saulspaugh took charge
• 2 Jan in Kochen [Kochem, Cochem] near Coblenz the Regimental Command was established.
• Companies billeted in small towns around Coblenz.
• 19 Jan Col J. L. Gilbreth assumed command
• 18 Mar 1919 Gen Pershing reviewed the Regiment.
• Fifty-First men had a good time while at Coblenz. There was plenty of leave and not a lot of heavy work.
• They traveled from Coblenz to LeMans, France by “side car” Pullmans which were quicker than the trains they took going. LeMans had narrow crooked streets and no indoor plumbing. People had to bathe at the bath houses.
• At LeMans the Fifty-First was deloused, and given new uniforms and underwear.
• 23 June the Fifty-First sailed from St. Nazaire on the “Wilhemina”
• 3 July they arrived in New York harbor
• 4 July they were sent to Camp Mills
• 6 July they left Camp Mills for Camp Upton and were mustered out

Learning 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 affixed (pinned) to the ribbon of the WWI Victory Medals. There are Combat Clasps (stars on each end of the bar) and Service Clasps (no stars), The dates that qualified U.S. Army Soldiers for Combat Clasps are given in the discussion posts.

http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/227596-wwi-victory-medal-question/

From this website, I learned about which medals Joseph McMahon was entitled to wear. He was with the 51st Pioneers for the duration of his service.  Remember that your ancestor had to be assigned to that military unit on the dates of the combat to be eligible to wear that clasp.

The 51st Pioneer Infantry received the Combat Clasp for: St. Mihiel. The combat was at St. Mihiel – September 12, 1918 through September 16, 1918. There were 4 Days of Combat (DoC) at St. Mihiel involving 13 Divisions. The Battle Participation of the American Expeditionary Forces can be found at Google Books. Page 71 shows that the 51st Pioneer Infantry was involved in the St. Mihiel Offensive.

There would also have been a Service Clasp for which the 51st Pioneers would have been eligible for serving in France between April 6, 1917 to November 11, 1918 (12 Divisions – References state ±621,000 issued).

There was also a WWI service from the State of New York.

(These images were taken by the author from medals in her collection.)

The book that is recommended in the posts is World War I – Victory Medals (Ed1) Paperback – July 29, 2014 by James P. Michels Jr. It sells starting at $121.31. I have not been able to locate a copy of this book in a local library.

In another post I will cover some searching techniques to find WWI military memorabilia on ebay.

Grand 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 the Republic (GAR) – 1 – Background

Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) – 2 – The GAR Museum

Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) – 3 – NY State Archives

Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) – 4 – Records Project of the SUVCW

Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) – 5 – Records on Ancestry.com

Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) – 6 – Records at USAHEC

Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) – 7 – Using Google Books

Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) – 8 – Using Google Books

Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) – 9 – The Library of Congress

 

Good luck in your searches, and let me know what you find.

Grand 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 level.

 

 

Clicking on the National Encampments link brings you to a list of them. Follow the links to find out which records for the encampments are held at the Library of Congress.

 

 

Remember, there were also state encampments.

 

Grand 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 ancestor may not be in the book, it is interesting to browse through it. The articles may also give you ideas on more places to search for your GAR ancestors.

 

 

Remember to try other terms in your searches to narrow down the results. Remember to open up the results again and narrow them down in different ways.