How To Find Military Service Records

How To Find Military Service Records

When researching military records, the National Archives has the most comprehensive collection of military records. If you don't want a complete military service or pension record and just want to know what branch of the service someone served in, try to look up obituaries, family histoires, and biographies, cemetery records and tombstone incriptions, or for civil war records, using the Broderbund's Roll of Honor CD-ROM product.

Newspapers: To find information about an individual's military service in an obituary, you must at least know the approximate date of death, the deceased's full name, and the state and city or town where the death took place or where the obituary was likely to have been published.

Family Histoiries & Biographies: Both family histoires & biographies may mention military service. To get a copy of a family history or biography that is not in the family's possession, you must know the individual's full name, and the approximate area (state or county) where the individual may have resided.

Cenmetery Records: Gravestones sometimes make reference to militasry service. To find a gravesite, it is helpful to know the name of a cemetery or the general area where an individual is buried. Wills, obituaries, or death certificates may also yield the necessary information.

Broderbund's Military Family Archive: Broderbund has Family Archive CD-ROMs containing military records and military records indexes, which may assist you in locating your ancestor's military reocrds. You can look up your ancestor's name on the individual Cds, or use the FamilyFinder Index, available on the CD-ROM with Family Tree Maker software and also available for searching on this website. The Family Finder Index is an index of over 170 million names from census records, marriage records, military records, actual family trees, and more. It can help you by telling you if your ancestor's name is listed on one of the military or other Cds that Broderbund Software sells.