Military Records

The first step is to know what records you should be looking for, and determining which wars, if any, your ancestor may have fought in. The table below, which uses age 16 as the youngest age until World War I, then uses age 18 as the youngest soldier (with age 60 as the oldest outlier), should be used as a general guide to determine which records and wars to research. Remember the ages of soldiers varied greatly. In addition it was not uncommon for younger males to lie about their age in order to get in (or for children to serve as drummers for example). Also it’s possible soldiers fought in more than one war.

Years of Birth War Name Years of War
1615 - 1660 King Philip's War 1675 - 1676
1684 - 1732 King George's War 1744 - 1748
1695 - 1747 French and Indian War 1755 - 1763
1715 - 1767 Revolutionary War 1775 - 1783
1752 - 1799 War of 1812 1812 - 1815
1786 - 1799 Mexican War 1846 - 1848
1801 - 1849 American Civil War 1861 - 1865
1838 - 1882 Spanish - American War 1898
1839 - 1886 Philippine Insurrection 1899 - 1902
1854 - 1900 World War I 1914 - 1918
1881 - 1927 World War II 1941 - 1945
1890 - 1935 Korean War 1950 - 1953
1899 - 1957 Vietnam War 1959 - 1975
1930 - 1973 Gulf War 1990 - 1991

Note this chart above does not include all wars fought during this time period, such as the Indian Wars fought from the 1780’s through the 1890’s, or the Barbary Wars fought in the early 1800’s. There were also earlier wars like King William’s War and Queen Anne’s War fought before this chart, and later wars such as the Afghanistan War, and Iraq War fought after the Vietnam War.


Types of Military Records and Sources:

  • Biographies

  • Bounty Land Warrants and records (including Revolutionary War and War of 1812 and others, for service from 1775 to 1855)

  • Casualty records, death Index, death certificates, memorials, veterans cemetery records, grave markers

  • Census records*

  • Compiled Military Service Records (CMSR’s) may include enlistments, muster rolls, pay vouchers, disciplines, discharges

  • Claims (Southern Claims Commission)

  • Disability Records, Hospital Records, Soldiers’ and Veterans Home Records

  • Draft records and registrations, especially World War I and World War II

  • Home Sources: photographs, uniforms, medals and awards, letters, postcards, journals, scrapbooks, newspaper clippings

  • Lineage societies records , such as Daughters of American Revolution or Sons of the American Revolution

  • Newspaper records

  • Pension Records: applications, payments

  • Prisoner of War Records

  • State Militia Records (you can request from State Archives)

  • Town and county histories, history museums, historical and genealogical societies

  • Unit histories and stories

*Some notes about census records: The 1900 census tallied soldiers stationed in the places like the Philippines, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. The 1910 census tells if an individual fought for the Union Army (UA), the Union Navy (UN), the Confederate Army (CA), or Confederate Navy (CN). Later in the 1930 census veterans of the Civil War were marked with “CW” or “WW” for World War I. You may also see veterans of the Spanish-American War as “Sp”, the Philippine Insurrection as ‘Phil”, the Boxer Rebellion as “Box”, and the Mexican War as “Mex”. The 1940 census asked about military service only for the person listed on line 2 of the page, not everyone. (Source: archives.gov/research/census and familysearch.org/wiki/en/Spanish-American_War_1898)

As always, the first place to check is your home, and that of your parents and grandparents (or closest living relative of your research subject). Look for letters or postcards that soldiers’ may have written home, photographs of people in uniforms, and actual uniforms or medals. Look for saved newspaper clippings and scrapbooks. Closely examine everything you’ve discovered for dates and identifying information. Is there a postmark on that postcard? What kind of uniform is that in the picture? If anyone is available to interview, be sure to ask as many questions as possible. Use these clues to help guide your search for records.

Next, do a few basic sweeping searches of any databases sites you subscribe to, such as Ancestry.com, Fold3.com, and Newspapers.com, followed by broad searches at free sites like FamilySearch.org and Findagrave.com. Then get more specific and intentional by searching specific collections of military records narrowed down by location, date range, and conflict. Gather as much information as you can to know which records to request as well.

It helps to keep a list of soldiers names with their birth and death dates, and the conflicts they may have fought in, as you research. I’ve come across many instances of finding a father and son (or father-in-law and son-in-law, or grandson and grandfather) both enlisted in the same militia. While you should generally be searching for one individual’s military records at a time, If you find a source with a list of soldiers’ names you want to be able to check it quickly for all those you are researching. This method also helps you when you have many ancestors with the same name, and you’re not sure whose record you’ve discovered.

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)

  • The National Archives holds records in both National Archives building in D.C. and the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in St. Louis, Missourri. The latter mainly holds records from 1917 to the present, though a fire in 1973 destroyed millions of files. See here for a detailed descriptions of the available records at each location.

  • You can order copies of older (pre-1917) military service records, pension files, or bounty land warrant applications, either online or by downloading and mailing in the appropriate form to the DC location. See instructions at archives.gov. There may be fees involved.

Below please find a quick list of general military records and sources, followed by a longer list of conflict-specific resources. We encourage you to also consider books and other available sources as well.

General Military Records:

War-Specific Records

Colonial Wars, including King Phillip’s War, King George’s War, and the French and Indian War:

(Note: These records of colonial wars are best found in state archives, but here’s a selection of the kind of records available through online collections)

Revolutionary War


War of 1812

Mexican-American War

Civil War

Spanish-American War

 

World War I


World War II


Korean War

Vietnam War


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