rolt968 Posted 14 August , 2016 Share Posted 14 August , 2016 Does anyone think that American soldiers' documents may become more accessible next year? (1917-2017) Roger M Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4thGordons Posted 14 August , 2016 Share Posted 14 August , 2016 (edited) No. Largely because they do not exist. The major repository of US WWI records was almost entirely destroyed by fire in 1973. Almost 18 million records were lost. Sometimes things can be reconstructed by the VA from pension records etc but service records from the WWI period are very thin on the ground. Draft Cards are available of course but these just indicate registration rather than service. One thing that is available in the US is very detailed unit histories and local honour rolls published in the 20s, these often contain lots of service detail. There is a pretty big effort on state/regional and national level to raise the awareness of the centenary in the US. I am involved on the fringes of the Mid-West/Illinois effort. Chris Edited 14 August , 2016 by 4thGordons Typo/duplication Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rolt968 Posted 15 August , 2016 Author Share Posted 15 August , 2016 Thanks Chris Another fire! WW1 soldiers' records seem fated. Does the equivalent of CWGC have more information than it gives out at present? All I have found is rank, unit and date of death (No serial number.). Roger M Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4thGordons Posted 15 August , 2016 Share Posted 15 August , 2016 The closest to the CWGC is probably the American Battle and Monuments Commission Their searchable records give the information on the headstone which is usually as you say Name, Rank, Unit, State they entered service from, date of death, (status KIA/MIA/DOW, DOD) and burial site, like this. I suspect service numbers are attached to these records somewhere but I have not seen them listed or searchable or available anywhere. In general, service numbers seem to be far less prominent in US records than in the UK. The Honor Rolls and Unit Histories I mentioned above almost never mention service numbers at all even when they have very long lists of names. As far as I know there is no equivalent to the Medal Index Rolls (US Victory medals are unnamed but they do have battle clasps so presumably there were at one time lists of who was eligible for what). From what I recall casualty notifications in the newspapers make no reference to service numbers either. The ABMC records are also far less comprehensive than the CWGC because they only maintain records of those graves under their care and a fairly high proportion of US casualties were repatriated and are buried in family plots/local cemeteries in the US and therefore are not in the CWGC database. Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
busterfield Posted 12 October , 2016 Share Posted 12 October , 2016 Hello Chris,I had relations from the Evanston and Chicago areas and would be interested in looking at the honour rolls you mentioned in an earlier post.Do they try and mention all persons who served or only the casualties ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loader Posted 12 October , 2016 Share Posted 12 October , 2016 Many state archives have service record cards for every man from that state that served in WW1. The US govt turned them over to the states yrsa go but some states did not want them so none exist but ot sure which these are. About 10 yrs ago I contacted a state archives that does have the cards to request a copy of a specific card. The woman who took my call informed me the cards were classified as TOP SECRET. I asked why & she said if they fell into the hands of the enemy they could get valuable info on our men!! I tried to explain to her that this enemy had been out of business for many decades & were not a threat now. She hung up on me!! I sent a letter to the director of this state archive explaining what had happened & asking for the card info. I never recd a reply. Now many are on Ancestry I am told so the Kaiser can get the info very easily!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ss002d6252 Posted 12 October , 2016 Share Posted 12 October , 2016 (edited) 10 minutes ago, Loader said: Many state archives have service record cards for every man from that state that served in WW1. The US govt turned them over to the states yrsa go but some states did not want them so none exist but ot sure which these are. About 10 yrs ago I contacted a state archives that does have the cards to request a copy of a specific card. The woman who took my call informed me the cards were classified as TOP SECRET. I asked why & she said if they fell into the hands of the enemy they could get valuable info on our men!! I tried to explain to her that this enemy had been out of business for many decades & were not a threat now. She hung up on me!! I sent a letter to the director of this state archive explaining what had happened & asking for the card info. I never recd a reply. Now many are on Ancestry I am told so the Kaiser can get the info very easily!! The Kaiser was that shifty he'd wait a 100 years to get the information - you might have been a German spy for all she knew. Where they perhaps deflecting queries because they'd made a commercial deal ? Craig Edited 12 October , 2016 by ss002d6252 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
busterfield Posted 13 October , 2016 Share Posted 13 October , 2016 Thanks for replying.I had googled roll of honour for Illinois and will try again later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
healdav Posted 13 October , 2016 Share Posted 13 October , 2016 14 hours ago, Loader said: Many state archives have service record cards for every man from that state that served in WW1. The US govt turned them over to the states yrsa go but some states did not want them so none exist but ot sure which these are. About 10 yrs ago I contacted a state archives that does have the cards to request a copy of a specific card. The woman who took my call informed me the cards were classified as TOP SECRET. I asked why & she said if they fell into the hands of the enemy they could get valuable info on our men!! I tried to explain to her that this enemy had been out of business for many decades & were not a threat now. She hung up on me!! I sent a letter to the director of this state archive explaining what had happened & asking for the card info. I never recd a reply. Now many are on Ancestry I am told so the Kaiser can get the info very easily!! The British army is just as stupid as regards medals. If you ask the Historical Division which medals a man even from WW1 was awarded they will tell you that this is confidentail information only to be released to family members who can prove they are what they say they are. Anyone who can explain this is welcome to try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony N Posted 13 October , 2016 Share Posted 13 October , 2016 55 minutes ago, healdav said: The British army is just as stupid as regards medals. If you ask the Historical Division which medals a man even from WW1 was awarded they will tell you that this is confidentail information only to be released to family members who can prove they are what they say they are. Anyone who can explain this is welcome to try. The medals awarded to those in the British army who served in WWI are available online aren't they? Anything to do with medals being awarded up to and including WWII is also available if applied for with the correct paperwork I thought, but perhaps I'm wrong. Apologies for being off topic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
healdav Posted 13 October , 2016 Share Posted 13 October , 2016 2 hours ago, Tony N said: The medals awarded to those in the British army who served in WWI are available online aren't they? Anything to do with medals being awarded up to and including WWII is also available if applied for with the correct paperwork I thought, but perhaps I'm wrong. Apologies for being off topic. Well, I have had a couple of puzzled enquiries from people looking for someone's medal or whatever, and the reply from the Army Historical Division is to say, 'confidential?. Perhaps hey have never heard of the internet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4thGordons Posted 14 October , 2016 Share Posted 14 October , 2016 (edited) On 10/12/2016 at 05:39, busterfield said: Hello Chris,I had relations from the Evanston and Chicago areas and would be interested in looking at the honour rolls you mentioned in an earlier post.Do they try and mention all persons who served or only the casualties ? Hello Sorry I missed this. The honor rolls cover all who served (and often all sorts of local civilian organizations and local govt etc too) I have the physical books -(I think about 19 at last count) most of which are not available digitally but I would be happy to do look-ups for you if you could post the names/location. Evanston is in Cook County and as far as I know no honor roll was produced by the county (it would have been huge!) but there may be some for some of the individual townships etc. The rolls were usually produced by the local newspaper in cooperation with a local group. I have a list drawn up by the state historical society in 1920 showing which had been produced and which were planned which I use as my collecting guide but of course there is no way of telling if all the planned ones were produced! Regarding the records there were actually a couple of parallel sets of records (because of the Federal structure of the US) There are FEDERAL records which were maintained by the US National archive (and most of which were destroyed in the fire at the St Louis repository noted above. However there are also STATE RECORDS mostly relating to soldiers who served in National Guard Units, and also draft registration records (which show only that they registered not that they were called or served). Post war many states also conducted surveys of burials or published rolls of honor that are sometimes useful (IL has one detailing all the graves of veterans in IL in 1929) Cook CO did produce a survey of VETERANS GRAVES (of all wars) in 1922 and this can be found HERE - of course only any use if the people you are interested in died in the war or very shortly thereafter. Some states have very good records and make them available (IL is pretty good NY is excellent) others have virtually nothing. So -- long and short I have a pretty good selection of records from IL and I am very close to the state Archives and Library who have others. I also have a good working relationship with the Illinois State Military Museum at Camp Lincoln so... if you would care to post or PM me your relatives names and any details of their service you have I can have a look for you. Chris Edited 14 October , 2016 by 4thGordons Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4thGordons Posted 14 October , 2016 Share Posted 14 October , 2016 (edited) On 10/12/2016 at 14:51, Loader said: Many state archives have service record cards for every man from that state that served in WW1. The US govt turned them over to the states yrsa go but some states did not want them so none exist but ot sure which these are. About 10 yrs ago I contacted a state archives that does have the cards to request a copy of a specific card. The woman who took my call informed me the cards were classified as TOP SECRET. I asked why & she said if they fell into the hands of the enemy they could get valuable info on our men!! I tried to explain to her that this enemy had been out of business for many decades & were not a threat now. She hung up on me!! I sent a letter to the director of this state archive explaining what had happened & asking for the card info. I never recd a reply. Now many are on Ancestry I am told so the Kaiser can get the info very easily!! I am intrigued by this because if they really are records of men who served it is news to me! Which state were you dealing with? Are you sure these were not the Draft Registration Cards (which are indeed now available on Ancestry)? These cards do not mean that the individual served just that they registered for the draft (so it would miss professional pre war soldiers and early volunteers). They are useful for personal details (address, characteristics etc) but do not give any details of service. State records of soldiers who served in state units do survive, but these do not, as far as I know, exist for every soldier from the state who served in the US National Army as a draftee. As mentioned above US Unit Histories were also produced in large numbers and these do very often list casualties/awards etc and sometimes have service rolls (by company etc) Chris Edited 14 October , 2016 by 4thGordons Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loader Posted 14 October , 2016 Share Posted 14 October , 2016 The state in this one was GA.. The cards show the dates of enlistment, service overseas, battles & campaigns he was in, wounds & decorations recd. I understand that NY has very good set of them on Ancestry but don't have access to it. Not sure which states still have them but they are very good for info. Gives unit served in too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4thGordons Posted 14 October , 2016 Share Posted 14 October , 2016 Hmmm Interesting I will check into it! Thanks. Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
busterfield Posted 14 October , 2016 Share Posted 14 October , 2016 Thanks for your reply Chris.With my American side of the family seemingly intent on populating Illinois my list could be very large.I'll limit the number to a small amount with what I know of them,dates of birth,full names and service if known.I'll PM you with the small list. Buster Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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