Military Records

Military records encompass a broad range of documents. Militias throughout history and in most countries have been fairly well organized. Of course, the maintenance of these organized groups led to the creation of several different types of records. Military paper trails are among some of the more informative types of genealogy records for learning more about your ancestors who served. 

Among the various types of records that document military service we find:  draft records, muster rolls, service records, pension records, bounty land records as pay for service, cemetery records and veteran's records, among others.

Draft records were generally compulsory conscription records, but there have been drafts that asked for voluntary registration. Generally adult males from the age of 18 to 35 were drafted. However, we have seen individuals as old as 45 register for the U.S. WWI draft. Ancestry.com has begun to scan and index the World War I Draft Registration Cards 1917-1918, with 19 of 50 states completed. We can research all 50 states in the full microfilmed version of the WWI Draft cards for you. Canada has published online searchable images of its WWI registration of eligible males.

Sample U.S. WW1 Draft 1918

Muster Rolls (sometimes called militia lists) are lists of individuals within a particular unit. Muster rolls for early colonial research can be extremely helpful in identifying approximate ages and certainly the names of males in a particular region. We use these rolls in colonial research quite a bit. Several compilations of early U.S. muster rolls have been published and usually only cover a particular geographic area. Thousands and thousands of muster rolls are housed at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. Typically these rolls just list the individual's name and the name of their commanding officer at the head of the list. But, sometimes notations such as age and health and rank will be found, too. Murtie June Clark penned one of our favorite sources for early muster lists, Colonial Soldiers of the South, 1732-1774.

Service records are detailed files kept on a soldier throughout their career. These files will include at least the individual’s full name, rank, age, and physical description. Contemporary files can also include medical history, marital status, race, occupation, city of birth, and place of residence at enlistment and at death, date of death, performance, awards and medals, disciplinary actions, prisoner of war information, insurance, beneficiary's data, and date of retirement. Civil War service records are often informative, especially in areas of the South. If you'd like United States service records, they are available at the NARA, or you can order a Civil War service record search through our research group. Revolutionary War service records will help you to establish that your ancestor served in the Revolutionary War. Census records will sometimes notate military service.

Pension records, of all the military records, are by far the best source of genealogical material for your ancestral military veteran. In the U.S., the Revolutionary War and Civil War produced a good set of historical pension files. Pension files hold paperwork associated with the soldier's actual pension application. This file will include several documents that must support the applicants claim of service. At minimum, the file will list the applicant’s name, his or her length of service, the state and unit in which he or she served and some supporting proof of their service and discharge. This proof sometimes consists of actual discharge papers, but was usually offered by affidavits from individuals who really knew the soldier well - brothers, sisters, cousins, fellow servicemen and/or neighbors. A brief history of the applicant's whereabouts at enlistment and then after discharge up to the point the application was being made can sometimes be found in pension records. This information helps to document the soldier's migration so that you can find the soldier in other records. We have found that Revolutionary War pension records are very helpful in tracking a pensioner's whereabouts. U.S. Civil War pension records are especially good in that they usually included the spouse’s name and oftentimes her maiden name. In many cases the names and birth dates of children are found in pension records, too. Make sure that you add your ancestors' military pension to your list of genealogy records to obtain!

Bounty Land Records hold information on U.S. military personnel in the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 who received land warrants for their service in these wars. They or their heirs were permitted to settle on warranted land that would thus be patented to them. They or their heirs were also permitted to sell or otherwise transfer the warrant to someone else. As with other types of land purchases, these military warrants and patents have become matters of record and are certainly worthy of examination. 

Cemetery Records regarding buried veterans have been compiled and made available in book publications, and on the Internet. For instance, Patricia Law Hatcher has compiled abstracts of Revolutionary War Patriot's Graves (it is out of print, but available at the Family History Library and online at Ancestry.com). Many U.S. military personnel have been buried in cemeteries set aside for patriot burials, such as Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. Local cemeteries might have tombstone markers with military insignia, an inscription indicating service, or notations of military service in the actual burial records.

Veterans' Records are records that are made for an individual that includes his service information from the time of enlistment to the time of his death. These records usually hold information on the Veteran's spouse, beneficiaries, race, and medical history, date of death, performance, awards and medals, disciplinary actions, prisoner of war information, insurance, and date of retirement. Contemporary Veterans' records are held at various archives and can be ordered from your local V. A. (Veterans Administration) office. The soldier must be deceased and you need to have either a Social Security Number or service number for the soldier. You will also need to have a death record on hand if they ask for it as proof of death. You can contact the local Veterans Administration office and they will do the search for you. The file usually contains the soldiers full military history.

Timeline of Some Organized U.S. Military Actions

• French and Indian War, 1754-1763
• Revolutionary War, 1775-83
• War of 1812, 1812-15
• Indian Wars, 1780s-1800
• Mexican War, 1846-48
• Civil War, 1861-65
• Spanish-American War, 1898
• Philippine Insurrection, 1899-1902
• World War I, 1917-18
• World War II, 1941-45
• Korean War, 1950-53
• Vietnam War, 1965-73

Some historical records of varying types relating to military history prior to WWI are available for examination at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. Modern records must be obtained through the NARA or your local Veteran's Administration.

Information on International Military records and sources will be added, as time permits.

• Revolutionary War Indexes
• Revolutionary War Pensions 
• Civil War Service Records (North and South)
• Civil War Pension Index UNION
• United States WWI Draft
• United States WWII Draft