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YOU CAN HELP RE-CREATE YOUR VET's RECORD!
submitted by Charlotte J. Sheldon - posted to this website April 12, 2013
It is very good to hear news about those very special WW-2 men, as well all others who interrupted their 'other' lives to serve for all of us. I am 86 and I recall going to college, studying, WORKING part-time as a paid- nurse's aide in a hospital to pay my way in part, joining the C.A.P. to study aircraft recognition, AND keeping up with a list of family-members and my friends in the service by mail and V-mail--about 16 or so as I recall. EVERYONE pitched in with whatever they could do in our country while these men were doing their job wherever stationed. So, for those of us who remember those WARS and those who remember the following ones, that is the back-drop for this e-mail.
Here in Thousand Oaks, California, but born in Cortland Co., NYS, I teach a Research Methods for genealogy now once a
month: In January, I was compelled to share the news with our wonderful Class of 45-50 people each week, of the complete loss of my Father's Record for WW-1 from the St. Louis, MO. terrible fire of about 1973.
Many veterens and their families still have perhaps not put two and two together, that that fire held ALL 'retired'
Armed Forces Records for WW-1, WW-2, and the KOREAN WAR: This includes the ARMY, NAVY and MARINES, and all the Women's Services as well. The term "retired" means that a file no longer has any 'activity', such as a pension or a widow's pension, or any of survivors' benefit's still on-going.
Thousands and thousands of these records 'held' in the ST.Louis ARCHIVE at that time were mainly destroyed: All were filed on the entire damaged top floor. A lesser amount were water and smoke damaged, some beyond recognition, and some salvageable. Many are totally unrecognizable in any page or part.
My inquiry to this ARCHIVE happened about the year 2000 or so. MY Dad was PVT. Lloyd Addison SMITH of Cortland, NY. and
Wilkesbarre, PENN. and I knew he had been stationed in Vancouver, Washington State and they were "logging trees".
A Private in less than one year does not have the time to gather much in the way of records,now, does he? BUT-my Dad
died when I was about 8 years old and I was gathering up whatever info might be out there to add to that part of my genealogy. [AND,YES, I have found all of those SMITH gens. back to a Christopher-1- SMITH out of Providence and Newport, Rhode Island in the 1600's.......Yeh!]
Here is what the ARCHIVIST wrote to me: They could find NOTHING on my Dad! It was lost. Continuing, he explained that
they wish any and all families of Veterans in those 3 Wars and any living Veterans themselves would write or contact them to FIND OUT whether there were any remnants of that Veteran's Folder intact or not.....THIS IS SO THAT the ARCHIVE CAN, PERHAPS, RE--BUILD a VETERAN's FOLDER -- WITH SOME HELP FROM THE FAMILIES AND VETS THEMSELVES! NOW, this is right up a genealogist's ALLEY,is it not?
Further, he said that sometimes if the Archivists could get even SOME WARTIME INFO about the veteran, then they were able
to get pertinent info on this veteran from other RECORD SOURCES in other archives.
FOR EXAMPLE, a special numerical listing of all the "DOG-TAG" I.D. numbers from the first listings in the 1920's,[I think
it was] and continuing to up to issuance of Soc.Sec. Numbers, which are in a different Archive: This, in turn, would open doors for searches in other far-flung storage holdings, for more information on this same veteran.
TO SHOW HOW LITTLE THINGS I FOUND IN MY SMALL AMOUNT OF STUFF ABOUT MY DAD--PLUS something I found as a curious, thinking, researching-genealogist----AHEM!--can make a BIG difference--I am listing what I put together, 4 small items is ALL it took to help the Archivist to do his job in ST.Louis.
- 1-A dated postcard from my DAD to me MOM in late 1917 or 1918, and on it was a TEMPORARY US ARMY Battalion address: This proved very helpful along with No.2.
- 2- An envelope, NO Contents, unfortunately, from my Dad to my Mom -with a PERMANENT USArmy Engineers Battalion Address on it. Some months after No.1.
- 3-From a local thrift shop [in Calif.] in late 1999, I had picked up a small book titled "How We Won the War" by someone named LLOYD, his surname. This was VOL.-3 and was the only VOL. there. There was lengthy chapter in this little Book, which was titled "How we Won in the Air", or something similar.
This was all I had. I sent copies of these 3 items plus a Draft-Registration i-page from Cortland Co., NY. From this, they found his I.D. NO. which led to a basic itinerary across the US by Troop train from Syracuse, NY to Long ISLAND to Vancouver, State of Washington, then in reverse some monthe later. I requested his Victory Medal if that was possible and later Rec'd. it.
YOU CAN HELP RE-CREATE YOUR VET's RECORD! --Charlotte J. Sheldon, April 12, 2013
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