WWI Research

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         The U.S. World War One Centennial Commission             is building the National World War I Memorial.

Visit their WWI Centennial website and learn about your ancestors who served. At the Memorial website you will find a number of useful resources to help you learn more about WWI and your ancestors who served. The education page includes links to a series of  webinars related to WWI along with a free WWI genealogy research guide you can download from the site. You will also learn how the VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) also supports our military veterans.

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In May 1943, the Army Air Forces recommended the adoption of a special form, the Missing Air Crew Report (MACR), devised to record relevant facts of the last known circumstances regarding missing air crews, providing a means of integrating current data with information obtained later from other sources in an effort to conclusively determine the fate of the missing personnel. MACRs are arranged by year and aircraft serial number, which is also known as the tail number. - Fold3

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Find Your Military Ancestors at the Internet Archive

The March meeting of the WWI Genealogy study group was focused on how to take advantage of the Internet Archive to learn more about your military ancestors.

If you are not familiar with Internet Archive, it is a “non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more”.  While genealogy archives like Ancestry.com, FindMyPast and others are focused on events like births, marriages and deaths, the Internet Archive is also focused on the stories related to them. At Internet Archive you will find regimental histories

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They Answered the Call

Military Service in the United States Army during WWI - 1917-1919

The National Archives’ Prologue Magazine from Fall 1998 has an impressive article written by Mitchell Yockelson on researching your ancestors who served in World War I.

By the way, the National Archives’ Prologue Magazines has a Genealogy Notes section in each iasue. You can find a list of those articles here.

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These cemeteries and memorials, most of which commemorate the service and sacrifice of Americans who served in World War I and World War II, are among the most beautiful and meticulously maintained shrines in the world.

You can learn more at their website - https://www.abmc.gov

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Fold3 is a genealogy platform focused on those who served our country in the many wars that are part of our history. You can take advantage of their free membership which gives you access to the following resources:

* create memorials for your ancestors who served

* search/browse all images

* upload images to your gallery

* upload, annotate and print your own images

* access to all free records

To access the free records, select the Browse menu at the top of the screen, then select the war you are researching. A list of records appears in the Publication section showing which are accessible to free memberships.

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Stoneham Oral History Project: World War I : Barrett, David J.

1 sound file (60 minutes), digital

This interview includes the following topics: During WWI, David Barrett was overseas from September, 1917 until April of 1919. He participated in the battles of Aisne-Marne(Chateau-Thierry); Meuse-Argonne; St Mihiel; Chemindes Dames; Toul Sect; and Troyon Sect. He discusses trench warfare and the use of horses and mules in battle.  He makes observations regarding the morale of the troops as well as their patriotism. He was a witness to an air battle between Eddie Rickenbacker and a German Ace pilot.

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Research at the Internet Archive

The Internet Archive (https://archive.org) has a huge - and growing - collection of digitized resources related to WWI. You will need to create an account, but it costs you nothing to join. Take advantage of the broad range of books, records and other ephemera available in the archive.

To find publications related to WWI, choose the American Libraries section and then use the search box in the left sidebar and the Topics & Subjects section further down to refine your search.

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You will find even more great cartoons at the Library of Congress.

(via Wallgren and Baldridge: Illustrating World War I in The Stars and Stripes Newspaper | Headlines and Heroes)

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World War I Service Cards

Searchable collections of manuscripts, war records, historic images, vital statistics, audio and video recordings from the State Library and

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A Street Near You

https://astreetnearyou.org

This is a fascinating project to “explore the local legacy of the First World War, but at a global scale”. Currently there are 500,000 location records for 410,000 men and women who died while serving in World War I.

The project encourages users to share their information, stories and images so they can create life stories for almost eight million men and women who served in uniform and worked on the homefront.

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Begin Your WWI Research

To get started, go through your family’s collection of military-related items. Some of the items you will find useful include:

WWI draft registration cards

Obituaries

Photographs

Newspaper clippings

Oral histories

Discharge papers

Other papers from the Veterans Administration

Memberships to veterans groups like the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars and Marine Corps League

Ribbons and medals

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United States Entry to WWI

The United States was never formally a member of the Allies but became a self-styled "Associated Power". The United States had a small army, but, after the passage of the Selective Service Act, it drafted 2.8 million men,[193] and, by summer 1918, was sending 10,000 fresh soldiers to France every day.

In 1917, the US Congress granted US citizenship to Puerto Ricans to allow them to be drafted to participate in World War I, as part of the Jones–Shafroth Act.

German General Staff assumptions that it would be able to defeat the British and French forces before American troops reinforced them were proven incorrect.

Via Wikipedia

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(via Columbia calls--Enlist now for U.S. Army / designed by Frances Adams Halsted ; painted by V. Aderente. | Library of Congress)

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New-York Tribune December 15 1918

“Tank technique: the crawl—Men of the 107th Infantry “siccing Tige” on a German machine gun nest. You can’t see the bullets, but they were there.”

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The Digital Public Library of America brings together the riches of America’s libraries, archives, and museums, and makes them freely available to the world.

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Official site of the United States World War One Centennial Commission. In WW1 nearly 5 million men & women joined the US military (116,516

Tap/click the web address above the guide cover to download a copy of this guide.