Introduction to Military Records at the National Archives

This year the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) will host a Virtual Genealogy Fair on September 3–4, 2013. As part of the planned programming, the Virtual Fair will include introductory sessions on civilian and military records at NARA that are useful for genealogical research. Military service, of course, represents one of the major aspects … Continue reading Introduction to Military Records at the National Archives

Family Tree Friday: War of 1812 Pension Files Online

June 18, 2012--the anniversary of the U.S. declaration of war against Great Britain--marked the official start of the bicentennial of the War of 1812.  To help celebrate that anniversary and bring attention to one of America's lesser known conflicts, let's take a look at some of the records of that war, starting with an essential … Continue reading Family Tree Friday: War of 1812 Pension Files Online

Records Heading West to St. Louis

The following post is by guest bloggers Rebecca Warlow, Description and Digitization Supervisor, and Ann Cummings, Supervisory Archivist for Textual Records. At the DC-Area Researchers Forum in November we announced that some records would be moving from the National Archives at College Park to the National Archives at St. Louis in 2012.  The time has … Continue reading Records Heading West to St. Louis

Reminiscing with Vietnam Veterans at Archives II

At the National Archives, you never know who will come in to do some research.  A few weeks ago, the Still Pictures and Motion Pictures research rooms hosted about 30 Vietnam Veterans who were interested in researching the records of the Department of Army Special Photography Office- or DASPO for short.  The best part about … Continue reading Reminiscing with Vietnam Veterans at Archives II

Tag It Tuesday! Honoring Our Veterans

Friday marks the annual observance of Veterans Day, a day on which we honor the millions of brave men and women who have served in the Armed Forces.  This Tag It Tuesday, in tribute to our military veterans, we’re asking you to tag records in the Online Public Access (OPA) that relate to veterans and the military.   … Continue reading Tag It Tuesday! Honoring Our Veterans

NARA Coast to Coast: The New National Personnel Records Center

This guest blog post is by Theresa Fitzgerald and Wanda Williams, archivists at the National Personnel Records Center. The National Archives and Records Administration’s (NARA) National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) has moved into a new 474,000 square-foot facility at 1 Archives Drive in north St. Louis County.     With a current workforce of nearly … Continue reading NARA Coast to Coast: The New National Personnel Records Center

Family Tree Friday: Bounty land vs. pensions–what's the difference, anyway?

Since the beginning of the Family Tree Friday blog, we've talked a lot about pension records and indexes, but I'm not too sure we've ever mentioned or even defined that other essential and related benefit of military service, the bounty land warrant!  Pensions, of course, have been granted to veterans since the end of the … Continue reading Family Tree Friday: Bounty land vs. pensions–what's the difference, anyway?

Family Tree Friday: Confederate POW Deaths & Burials Online

As a way to tie together all the Confederate prisoner of war records that we've discussed over the last several weeks, I thought you might want to know about a specific record the War Department compiled in the early 20th century to document all of the Confederate POWs who died in Federal custody during the … Continue reading Family Tree Friday: Confederate POW Deaths & Burials Online

Family Tree Friday: Confederate records about Union POWs

Since I introduced a lot of information about Confederate prisoners of war in my last blog post, it seemed appropriate to mention what material we also have available relating to Union POWs held in Confederate military prisons.  As you may imagine, records about Confederate prison camps are not nearly as complete as those for Union … Continue reading Family Tree Friday: Confederate records about Union POWs

Family Tree Friday: Confederate prisoner of war records

Continuing the discussion of Confederate records, another major portion of material in Record Group 109, War Department Collection of Confederate Records, includes records about Confederate prisoners of war.  Of particular note, these are actually records created by Union military prisons, compiled or maintained by the Office of the Commissary General of Prisoners in the U.S. War … Continue reading Family Tree Friday: Confederate prisoner of war records