Friday 28 February 2020

Ancestry completes WWII Young Men's Draft Cards

And along comes another huge upload from Ancestry with equally huge potential for researchers with Irish emigrant ancestors: the final tranche of WWII Young Men's Draft Cards, 1940-47 have joined the database with records from Massachusetts, New York City, Ohio, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee and Wisconsin.

It marks the completion of a multi-year project between Ancestry and the US National Archives & Records Administration, and more than 35 million records in this one collection to Ancesstry's database.

In number terms, it even tops yesterday's big announcement for New York BMDs (see blogpost).

The completed record set contains images and indexes for registration cards filled out by men born between the years of 1898 and 1929 from for all states with the exception of Maine (where the cards were destroyed before they could be digitised).

The cards are potentially valuable sources of genealogical and family information, with details that can include: Name; Serial Number; Address and/or Mailing Address; Telephone; Age; Birthplace; Country of Citizenship; Employer’s Name and place of employment; Name and Address of Person who will always know Registrant’s Address plus that person's Relationship to Registrant; Description: race, eyes, weight, complexion, hair; and Year of Registration.

Here's a sample draft card:




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