{"id":101000,"date":"2024-11-11T09:40:59","date_gmt":"2024-11-11T14:40:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=101000"},"modified":"2024-11-14T09:37:22","modified_gmt":"2024-11-14T14:37:22","slug":"genealogy-tips-researching-military-ancestors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/genealogy-tips-researching-military-ancestors.html","title":{"rendered":"Genealogy Tips: Researching Military Ancestors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction:<\/em><\/strong> In this article \u2013 to celebrate Veterans Day \u2013 Gena Philibert-Ortega gives helpful tips for those researching their veteran ancestors. Gena is a genealogist and author of the book \u201cFrom the Family Kitchen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

When we think of researching the soldiers and sailors in our family tree, we look to military records to learn more about their service. This makes sense since these records document their rank, activities, and discharge.<\/p>\n

\"Illustration:
Illustration: thank you to all veterans.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Illustration credit: https:\/\/depositphotos.com\/home.html<\/a><\/p>\n

But what can historical newspapers tell us about a veteran\u2019s service? Digitized newspapers, such as GenealogyBank\u2019s Historical Newspaper Archives<\/a>, give us the opportunity to find articles about war and military activities that provide historical context, and articles about individual soldiers, which can enhance the information we gather from military records.<\/p>\n

What can be found in newspapers? The following examples provide some ideas.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:
Photo: veteran hugging his child.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Photo credit: https:\/\/depositphotos.com\/home.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Awards and Honors<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hometowns were proud of their military personnel, as shown by printed articles about the honors they received.<\/p>\n

This article, \u201cBronze Star Awarded,\u201d names the receiver, Richard L. Crump, and his street address. It states that he received the award for \u201cmeritorious service in radio communication as chief clerk and operator with Army headquarters in the Pacific.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Dallas Morning News (Dallas, Texas), 23 January 1947, page 14<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While this article is more of a mention and doesn\u2019t provide as much information as we might like, there are other examples that include much more including photos, such as this next article about Captain Gordon Carmichael\u2019s Bronze Star. This article provides some nice background and includes his other honors.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Dallas Morning News (Dallas, Texas), 6 March 1969, page 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

How to Be a Soldier<\/strong><\/p>\n

Newspapers provide so much information, it\u2019s probably no surprise that during wartime they also printed lessons to prepare men as they contemplated their potential military induction.<\/p>\n

This series by \u201cUncle Sam\u201d ran in newspapers during the World War I years. The tagline was \u201cLessons show how any man or boy may learn the rudiments of the American Soldier\u2019s Trade.\u201d Before publishing the 10 lessons, the Wilkes-Barre Time Leader<\/em> announced that the lessons would give \u201cevery reader a knowledge of military tactics and prepare the young men of Wilkes-Barre for selective service.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Wilkes-Barre Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania) 28 June 1917, page 9<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

These lessons start with orders and commands and then progress to teach how to salute, stand at attention, and use weapons.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Wilkes-Barre Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania), 27 March 1916, page 7<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Local Military Notes<\/strong><\/p>\n

Most hometown newspapers ran columns on local service members and their activities. These brief mentions updated neighbors and friends on the service member. You can take advantage of these to add information to your family history timeline.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Fort Wayne News Sentinel (Fort Wayne, Indiana), 29 November 1918, page 2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Search Tip:<\/em><\/strong> Depending on the newspaper you are researching, this section may be titled something different than \u201cMilitary Notes.\u201d If your ancestor is mentioned, searching for his or her name should help you find this type of article. Remember to use name variations in your search, such as rank and surname or initials and surname.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Press-Enterprise (Riverside, California), 20 April 1988, page 87<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Maps<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you have your ancestor\u2019s military records, consider making a timeline of all the battles or activities he or she participated in. You can write short narratives about these and add images, including maps. Twentieth-century newspapers printed maps to help educate their readers about geography and what the war looked like \u201cover there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Dallas Morning News (Dallas, Texas), 12 June 1940, page 3<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

These historical newspaper maps help you understand what your family was reading and what their understanding of the war was. Remember that these places may have been all but unknown to the soldier\u2019s family back home. Maps provided some much-needed context.<\/p>\n

\"A
Dallas Morning News (Dallas, Texas), 11 June 1944, page 12<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Search Tip:<\/em><\/strong> To find maps relevant to a war, enter \u201cmap\u201d in the \u201cInclude these keywords\u201d box on the GenealogyBank search page<\/a>. Then, narrow the search by a year range. Once you receive your results, narrow them further by entering words like \u201czoning\u201d and \u201cweather\u201d in the \u201cExclude these keywords\u201d box on the search page. Try searching with additional keywords like \u201cwar\u201d and \u201cbattle.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

\"A
Dallas Morning News (Dallas, Texas), 20 February 1944, page 12<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Your Veteran and the Newspaper<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some of the things I love about newspapers is the ability to find mentions of an ancestor, as well as historical context to better understand their lives. Take time this Veterans Day to search your ancestor\u2019s name in the newspaper. Don\u2019t forget to also spend time looking for historical context like soldier lessons, maps, and articles on the war. Learning more about your veteran should include names, dates, and places as well as an understanding of their era.<\/p>\n

Happy Veterans Day!<\/p>\n

Explore over 330 years of newspapers and historical records in GenealogyBank. Discover your family story! Start a 7-Day Free Trial<\/a><\/p>\n

Note on the header image:<\/em><\/strong> veteran saluting the flag.
\nPhoto credit: https:\/\/depositphotos.com\/home.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this article \u2013 to celebrate Veterans Day \u2013 Gena Philibert-Ortega gives helpful tips for those researching their veteran ancestors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":101019,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12713],"tags":[2719,2460,2020,1130],"class_list":["post-101000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-genealogy-research-tips","tag-genealogy-search-tips","tag-military-records","tag-newspaper-archives","tag-veterans"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/photo-1111-2024-featured-graphic-veteran-saluting-flag.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101000"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101018,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101000\/revisions\/101018"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}