US Military Records

The up-to-date version of this post will be maintained at: http://genweblog.blogspot.com/2006/05/military-records.html

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Faces of the Fallen - collection of information about each US service member who died in Iraq: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/iraq/casualties/facesofthefallen.htm

National Cemeteries Gravesite Locator: The VA has put a Nationwide Gravesite Locator online, with all the burials in all National Cemeteries nationwide, with the exception of four cemeteries that have not completed their records: Long Island; Los Angeles; Ft. Rosecrans; and the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Interment.net has Los Angeles National Cemetery online (85,825 records): http://interment.net/data/us/ca/losangeles/lanat/index.htm

Fort Rosecrans (71,608 records): http://interment.net/data/us/ca/sandiego/rosecrans/index.htm

National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (35,224 records): http://interment.net/data/us/hi/oahu/natmem/index.htm

The website says: "Arlington National Cemetery records are also available for interments that occurred after 1999. As more records are added to the database, more burial information will become available. Some state veterans cemeteries can also be searched."

Nationwide Gravesite Locator: http://gravelocator.cem.va.gov

There are many vets who are NOT buried in the National Cemetery system. But once the final records are in place, this will cover all those who are. Keep in mind that many of those buried in the VA cemeteries are not vets, but family members. My father is a veteran of the Second World War, and so my mother was eligible to be buried in the Tahoma National Cemetery. When my father dies, his ashes will be with hers, under one shared stone.

Many soldiers who died during the war are buried overseas. My husband's uncle Frank was one such -- we found his grave by searching the American Battle Monuments Commission site: http://www.abmc.gov/.

Here is his listing: http://freepages.family.rootsweb.com/~bobofwa/JohnF_Zimmerman.htm

Whether your vet is gone, or still with you, you can honor him or her at the WWII Registry: http://www.wwiimemorial.com/default.asp?page=registry.asp&subpage=intro It isn't much, but it's something.

Find your WWII vet's WWII Enlistment File: http://valoriez.blogspot.com/2004/05/wwii-enlistment-file.html

The search on the WWII Registry page supposedly searches the ABMC database, but the listing that comes up for John F. Zimmerman is minimal compared to the beautiful page that comes up by directly querying the ABMC site. So it's worth searching both sites, if you don't know where your vet is buried. And of course Interment.net: http://interment.net and Find A Grave: http://www.findagrave.com/ are both worth a look, too.

Obtaining military records of U.S. veterans from the National Archives: http://www.archives.gov/veterans/evetrecs/index.html
20th-Century Veterans' Service Records Safe, Secure -- and Available, By Norman Eisenberg: http://www.archives.gov/veterans/research/prologue-spotlight-nprc.html

POW Network Japan: http://homepage3.nifty.com/pow-j/e/
$$$ Ancestry has a database of 143,374 records of WWII POWs, compiled by the Red Cross

Another great WWII site: Indiana Soldiers & Sailors: http://fizkid.tripod.com/
   Photographs of the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines

WWII Kansas Veterans Index: http://www.kshs.org/genealogists/military/wwiivetsindex.htm

Online Military Indexes & Records - A Genealogy Guide: http://www.militaryindexes.com/

WWI Draft Records: http://www.genealogybranches.com/worldwaronedraftcards.html

Missouri World War I Military Service Cards Database: http://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/ww1/
Other Missouri military records, not online: http://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/resources/military.asp

Pennsylvania Archives: http://www.digitalarchives.state.pa.us/
   PA National Guard Veteran's Card File, 1867-1921; Civil War Veterans' Card File; Revolutionary War Military Abstract Card File; World War I Service Medal Application Cards; Spanish American War Veterans' Card File of United States Volunteers; Mexican Border Campaign Veterans' Card File; Militia Officers Index Cards, 1775-1800. About 1,500,000 records - more to come.

Another useful link - USIGS Military Links Collection: http://www.usigs.org/library/military/links/

State-level Lists of Casualties from the Korean Conflict (1951-1957) and the Vietnam Conflict (1956-): http://www.archives.gov/research_room/research_topics/korea_and_vietnam_casualties.html

Also, for Vietnam: http://www.viewthewall.com/

FoundDogTags.com is a site attempting to return dog tags found in Vietnam to the families: http://www.founddogtags.com/

Civil War / War Between the States: http://valoriez.blogspot.com/2004/01/american-civil-war-or-war-between.html

War of 1812: http://valoriez.blogspot.com/2004/12/war-of-1812.html

The Mexican War: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/mexican_war.htm


Commonwealth War Graves Commission (UK, AUS, NZ): http://www.cwgc.org/cwgcinternet/search.aspx

$$$ UK War Dead from the Boer War to the Korean Conflict: http://www.1837online.com/

Canadian Military Records and Service Files: http://www.collectionscanada.ca/02/020203_e.html


French War Dead: http://www.memoiredeshommes.sga.defense.gouv.fr/

Volksbund - German War Graves: http://www.volksbund.de/
   Click "Gräbersuche" to search the names of German war dead. Nachname=surname; Vorname=first name; supplying a date of birth or death is optional. Click on "Suche beginnen" to start, then register your name and address. Required: Vorname (first name), Nachname (last name), Straße / Nr. (Street & Number), Land/Plz/Ort (Country/Postal or Zip Code/City). Then click on "Zur Ergebniseite" to continue. On the next screen click "Suchanfrage ausführen." Thank you Casi!

Finding German Military records: http://en.wiki.genealogy.net/index.php/Finding_German_Military_records


You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the other man's freedom. - Clarence Darrow