A Free Resource for WWII Records, Military and Civilian

A terrific new resource will help you unearth family history records from the 1940s and 1950s. And guess what...it's free! 

Preparing for D-Day

Digging through World War II era records is very challenging, both because there's so much available online, but also because so many important records haven't been digitized yet. The folks at the National WWII Museum in New Orleans have put together Researching American Military and Civilian Records from World War II to help you sort it all out. Just register at the site, and download the guide at no charge.

There's good stuff here for researching veterans, employees of the military and plain old civilians. The guide includes write-ups on specialized sources including:

• MEDICAL RECORDS
• NAVAL AVIATION TRAINING JACKETS 
• MISSING AIR CREW REPORTS
• MERCHANT MARINES
• PRISONERS OF WAR (POWS)
• FEDERAL CIVILIAN EMPLOYEES
• JAPANESE AMERICAN INTERNEE RECORDS
• RED CROSS RECORDS
• US CADET NURSE CORPS

Some of it's online, most of it isn't, but the document is a good guide to what's what. Hopefully, it will help you track down genealogy information that would have been elusive otherwise.  

And don't forget, a few other pages on my blog here include enlistment records and American military records from the Revolutionary War onwards.

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Don't forget to also check for your family history at NewspaperArchive and Newspapers.com. These are subscription databases, but they are among the most powerful research tools available for looking into family roots. And visit the main page of Free Genealogy Tools for more, umm, free genealogical tools.

Newspaper Archives for Genealogy

It's not just presidents, celebrities and sports heroes who get mentioned in the newspaper. 

Mulberry Street, NYC

Small town papers, in particular, have always covered the big events in the lives of ordinary citizens: a high school graduation, opening a new bakery or shoe repair shop, enlisting in the army, an engagement, a wedding, a new baby.  A new publication, Newspapers Give Us the Rest of the Story, does a nice job of showing how to use newspaper archives for a detailed search on family history.

This free ebook (at 14 pages, more of an article, really) is provided by GenealogyBank, a subscription newspaper search service. It details the search of the author's ancestor, one William Kemp, who arrived in the United States in the mid-1800s. The author uses several online tools, including shipping records and immigration records to focus his research in newspaper archives. He then goes on to do a splendid job of using newspapers to uncover the trials and tribulations of his ancestor's journey to America.

It's well done, and worth a download. Keep in mind, though, that in addition to GenealogyBank, there are other newspaper archive resources. You can find plenty of free newspaper archives online, as well as subscription services like Newspapers.com and NewspaperArchive.

Good hunting!

Search BillionGraves

Are there really a billion grave sites listed at BillionGraves? Unlikely...but they might get there one day.

This is an interesting site, with a deep database of listings, in the US and around the world. Data is provided by volunteers who use the Billiongraves app to photograph grave sites and upload the GPS data for the site along with the actual record of who's buried there.

The GPS component makes it easy to survey surrounding graves. Since families are often buried in close proximity to one another, the site can provide clues to family relations that you might have missed at other sources. If you visit the actual grave, the Billiongraves app on your phone will guide you directly to the site.

Searching is free, as is access to the first tier of information, which is a pretty full listing of the individual grave record. If you want the full record though, including neighboring graves, you'll have to subscribe to their Plus service.

A search at Billiongraves, along with a search at Findagrave, gives you enormous access to records of the deceased. Add in the military grave databases and....wow!

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Don't forget to also check for your family history at NewspaperArchive and Newspapers.com. These are subscription databases, but they are among the most powerful research tools available for looking into family roots. And visit the main page of Free Genealogy Tools for more, umm, free genealogical tools.