I’m sorry this is a day late, but it was important to me that this get posted.  You see, I found an article pertaining to military records and thought it would be very useful to the new genealogists and a refresher to the seasoned genealogists.

Yesterday, while I was home (it was a holiday for me), sipping hot tea and reading the 70+ blogs I follow, I came across an article by one of my favorite blog authors.  Her name is Kathleen Brandt and is the owner/author for a3Genealogy.  Kathleen is an Expert Author for Archives.com as well and it is an article that she wrote for Archives that I was really impressed about.

In this article, she talks about how 80% of the Army records and 75% of the Air Force records were destroyed in a fire on July 12, 1973 and what genealogist researchers could do to get military information they needed to reconstruct their ancestor’s military “experience”.  You can read her full article here.

In her article she goes through and shows the reader how to obtain their ancestor’s Report of Separation (DD214).  However, she also talks about other documents and resources to request, such as the Last Pay Voucher, Department of Veterans Affairs, Medical-Related Alternate Records, and Morning Report.  This was very, very helpful to me.

I am researching my father-in-law, Robert Harold Stanard (1931-1991).  He joined the Army in 1950 and was honorably discharged in 1952.  I have requested from the National Personnel Records Center (Military Records) and received a copy of his separation Report (DD214).  Also with the DD214 was a letter telling me that Robert’s military file was one of the unfortunate files that was destroyed in the 1973 fire and that the DD214 was all that they could provide to me.  After reading Kathleen’s article, I have sent a follow-up request and requested Robert’s last Pay Voucher, any Medical-Related Alternate Records and the Army’s Morning Reports.  I am crossing my fingers that they are able to find the records I requested.  I should hear something from them in about 4-6 weeks.

I love reading Kathleen Brandt’s blog, a3Genealogy.  She is great author and when I grow up, I wanna be a professional genealogist just like her!!!

Have a great day everyone!