Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) – 1 – Background

In this series of blog posts, you will learn where to look for Grand Army of the Republic  records.

The Grand Army of the Republic was a fraternal organization founded in Founded in Decatur, Illinois on April 6, 1866 by Benjamin F. Stephenson. It was open to Union veterans of the Civil War. The veterans served in the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, Marines and the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service (became the Coast Guard). There were hundreds of posts across the U.S., numbered in sequential order of as they were admitted. The GAR grew powerful politically. From 1866 to 1949. There were over 7000 posts with more than 400,000 members by 1890. There was a “National Encampment” annually; many states also had encampments each year. You may see a GAR insignia on a Union veteran’s tombstone, or a nearby marker.

Five U.S. presidents were GAR members: Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James Garfield, Benjamin Harrison and William McKinley.

Its last member died in 1956, its mission was taken over by the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW). The SUVCW was founded in 1881, and is dedicated to the preservation of the history and legacy of these veterans.

There are fourteen categories of records that a post might have. The materials may provide information about the members’ war service and postwar activities. The Post Descriptive books contain information about the members, including birthplace, residence, occupation, service information, discharge information, wounds and other remarks. There were also ledger books, cash books, letters books and minutes books. A brief description of the GAR records can be found at What is A GAR Record?

Your Civil War Union ancestors may have been members of the GAR. Unless you find indexed records, you will need to know the ancestor’s: 1) Name, and 2) Post Number. Knowing the regiment and company will also be helpful to make sure you have located the correct veteran. There are different ways to find the post number. Consider looking for a post located in your ancestor’s town; check the Mortuary tables for the membership; or check an obituary. Once you find the post number, you have to find where the records reside.

Read on to the next posts to learn how to look for these records.

Researching the Merchant Marine

During my talk about military archives at the Howard County Genealogical Society, the question came up about researching Merchant Marines.

Some brief research was educational. I learned that the U.S. Merchant Marine has no official historians and researchers. The Merchant Marine predates the U.S. Navy (13 October 1775), the U.S. Marines (10 November 1775) and the U.S. Coast Guard (formerly the Revenue Cutter Service was founded on (4 August 1790)). On 12 June 1775, a party of Maine mariners in an unarmed lumber schooner captured the HMS Margaretta, which was a fully armed British warship.

The mariners involved in “ocean-going service” during World War II do have Veteran Status. They may be entitled to a gravestone, a flag for their coffin, and burial in a National Cemetery. Merchant Mariners who served during other wars do not have this recognition. For more information, see the information at http://www.usmm.org/contact.html

Remember to make a timeline for your ancestor and gather information about the ships and their history while the ancestor served.

I recommend the resources at the American Merchant Marine at War website. These are the links that would be good starting places:

 

1) American Merchant Marine at War

http://www.usmm.org/

This website is dedicated to those Mariners who died during U.S. wars, and contains many links to valuable research material about the Merchant Marines. This website covers a lot of ground, including history and links to help a researcher dig farther into researching their Merchant Mariner and ships. You can also purchase gift items or make donations to support the website.

 

2) American Merchant Marine at War Records and Contact Information

http://www.usmm.org/contact.html

This page has the contact information for service records for mariners and ships.

However, do check the website for more history and historical documents.

 

3) Frequently Asked Questions about the Merchant Marine

http://www.usmm.org/faq.html

This list of frequently asked questions is a great gathering of information about the Merchant Marine including the background about the people, the history, the wartime casualties, and how to join.

 

4) One page Information Sheet Handout about WWII Merchant Marine

http://www.usmm.org/infomm.pdf

This pdf document is a one page summary of how the U.S. Merchant Marine made victory possible in WWII.

Using the USAHEC Tutorials

If you have had ancestors in the military, using military archives can be a research destination. You may find information about your ancestor, but it is more that your ancestor’s name will not be indexed. It is more likely you will locate collections and documents that contain information about the time and unit that where your ancestor served. In turn, these may contain references to your ancestor. At there very least, they will provide insights into the times and places your ancestor inhabited.

After a visit to the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center (USAHEC), described in a previous blog post, I created these tutorials to capture what I had learned.

The main way to search for holdings is to use the Reference Bibliographies, described here. Use these Bibliographies as a finding aid to locate resources relevant to your ancestors at the USAHEC. You may discover that there are collections of images available for your ancestors time and possibly from the group with which he or she served. In my tutorial, you can learn to use the entries bibliographies and look for digital copies of the books.

When you are ready to narrow down your search to the Library and Digital Collections use this tutorial.

An amazing holding is the Veterans Surveys. These documents have been completed by Veterans to capture their own story of service. Copies of the survey form are available at USAHEC and can filled out by any veteran. The tutorial for locating the Veterans Surveys is located here.

After finding holdings that may contain data, in collections that are not online, you will have to visit the facility to view them. That will be covered in upcoming blog posts.

Finding Joseph McMahon and the 51st Pioneer Infantry Regiment (NY), Company B

My Grandfather, Joseph F. McMahon, was born on 29 August 1894 in Kilrush, County Clare, Ireland. He arrived in the U.S. on 6 October 1907 with his widowed Mother and the youngest siblings. Sadly, he died when my Father was a young child. Through this research into his military service, I am trying to learn about him and the stories that he might have told.

As I have researched his life, I found out that many of my preconceived notions were incorrect. Most notably, he became a citizen before his military service in WWI. Also significant was that he married my Grandmother before going to war. I did not know how they met, but the 1920 U.S. Census gave the clue that they were both clerks in the Western Union Telegraph office.

One my earliest steps was contacting the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) of NARA by mail. I received a call from their office asking me to verify some information to make sure that they had the correct Joseph McMahon. I recognized the address in Brooklyn that was given. His records were lost in the 1973 fire, so I received a final payment roll record.

Another step in researching his service was writing to the New York State Archives for his service abstract card. This was done via mail before the database became available at Ancestry.com.

 

From this card I could begin to construct a timeline of his military life.

Joseph F. McMahon – Timeline of Service	Co B 51 Pioneer Infantry
28 May 1918	Inducted @141 New York, NY
27 July 1918	Leaves for overseas
1 Sep 1918	Pvt 1cl
4 July 1919	Return from overseas
10 July 1919	Discharge (Final Payment Roll)

 

My first visit to the U.S. Army Heritage & Education Center was to attend a lecture. At that point, I did not know as much about the 51st Pioneer Infantry from New York. (The person on the desk was not familiar with the term “Pioneer” so I knew I needed to have more information.) These Pioneers were New York State National Guard troops, and not part of the regular Army.

Using Google terms: 51st pioneer infantry has brought up some information

There is a website for Camp Wadsworth, Spartanburg, SC.  The website includes pictures of the camp and information about the military training there. Some of the information there included:

51st Pioneer Infantry: Formerly 10th New York Infantry.  Composed of 39 officers and 904 enlisted men after reorganization.  Commanded by Colonel J. Guy Deming and filled to wartime strength with draftees.  The regiment left Camp Wadsworth on July 17th with 3545 officers and men.

There is a New York Military History Museum, with a lot of information online.

There are “Gas Attack” Magazines from Camp Wadsworth that mention the 51st. Since the website did not have a search engine, I used Google terms: 51st pioneer site:https://dmna.ny.gov

I am working to learn more about the history the 51st Pioneer Infantry from New York in World War I. My first stop was Google and Google Books.

Combining the information I have found in my Google searches, I have compiled some timeline information. Some may overlap or be contradictory, and at this point I do not know the movements or actions specifically involving Company B of the 51st Pioneer Infantry of New York.

• The 51st was a New York National Guard Regiment, reorganized as a Pioneer Infantry.
• The 51st Pioneer Infantry was formerly the 10th New York Infantry (National Guard).
• 4 JAN 1918 The 10th NY Infantry was re-designated 51st Pioneer Regiment; 1st NY Infantry was re-designated 1st Pioneer Regiment
• The 51st Pioneer Infantry was composed of 39 officers and 904 enlisted men after reorganization. It was commanded by Colonel J. Guy Deming and filled to wartime strength with draftees.
• They were organized in  Jan 1918 in Camp Wadsworth, SC as corps troops unit
• These troops were not part of any Division; they were attached when needed to an American Army or Corps.
• The regiment left Camp Wadsworth on 17 July 1918 with 3545 officers and men.
• They went overseas in Jul 1918
• 29 JUL 1918 Left Camp Wadsworth for Port of New Jersey Steamer “KROONLAND” to France
• They served with IV Army Corps Aug-Sep 1918
• 8  AUG 1918 arrive Brest, France
• Assigned to Corps Engineers, 4th Army Corps, US AEF
• The 51st (and 1st) Pioneer Infantry Regiments served as Corps Engineer support with the 4th Corps.
• They served with First Army Sep 1918
• They served with IV and VI Army Corps Sep-Nov 1918
• 12 SEP 1918 St Mihiel campaign
• They were with the Third Army on the Rhine occupation
• They returned to the U.S. in Jul 1919
• They were demobilized at Camp Upton, New York

Using the online resources at USAHEC, I searched for specific items I want to view at their facility in Carlisle, PA. I used the combined search in the “Library Catalog and Digital Collections” box on the Research Page, described in this Tutorial.

I found:

(1) Pioneer_infantry_World_War_I_veterans_survey_inventory

(2) Militia_Bureau_World_War_I_veterans_survey_inventory (the entry for the 51st Pioneer referred me back to the first document)

(3) (Newspapers) The 51st pioneers [weekly].

(4) (Photographs) Pioneer Regiments – 51st Pioneer Infantry RG522s – Moses Thisted Coll. View of the 51st Pioneer Infantry Regt. in Germany, 1919.

The Pioneer_infantry_World_War_I_veterans_survey_inventory included listings for all the Pioneer Infantries. From there I learned that the 7th through 50th Pioneer Infantry Regiments were never organized.

There was an entry for someone in Company B.

 

I am also finding out a little more about the 51st Pioneer Infantry using newspapers. Specifically, I have begun to use Fulton Postcards because of the number of digitized New York State newspapers at the site.

This post © 2015 Dr. Margaret McMahon. Created 7 August 2015.

 

USAHEC Reference Bibliographies Tutorial has been updated

USAHEC has updated their webpages!

The tutorial about using the Reference Bibliographies has been update, too.

Click on the Tutorial tab to view it.

 

Check out a new Tutorial

I have posted a new tutorial about one way to search the holdings US Army Heritage and Education Center (USAHEC). USAHEC is the archive for the U.S. Army. This the first tutorial that shows how to use the Reference Bibliographies that are available.

Go to the Tutorials page and select the link to view USAHEC: Using the Online Catalog: Reference Bibliographies.

I will be posting more tutorials about other ways to search for USAHEC resources. When I visit to view the resources, I will post about that, too.