CNYGS’s upcoming speaker, Michael Strauss cost me $70 last year. Am I upset? No way! I’m thrilled! The records that I had despaired of getting were worth every penny of what I spent on them.
It all started last spring while sitting in a session at the New England Regional Genealogical Conference (NERGC) in Springfield, Massachusetts. Michael was talking about military records, in particular those from the world wars. As many of us are already all too well aware, a fire in Saint Louis in 1973 destroyed many records. Destroyed were about 80% of the Army and 75% of the Air Force records for a good share of the 20th century. I had tried over 20 years ago to get the records of two WWI Army veterans. Those of my maternal grandparents-- to no avail due to this fire. Some have been reconstructed over the years. There are more becoming available all the time through this process.
I talked with Michael after the presentation and he encouraged me to try again. Perhaps my grandparents’ were some of the lucky records that had been reconstructed and now available. That hope, along with some tidbits he had mentioned about Seabees during World War II encouraged me to try the requests again. However, this time I ordered with a twist to them. This time I sent 3 requests instead of 2. The first was for my grandmother's World War I Army Nurse records. The second was for my grandfather's World War I Calvary records. The new request was for my grandfather’s Seabee records when he reenlisted during World War II.
It was a very busy time during the early part of last summer and I set the responses aside when the first two came back with no records available. I had almost forgotten completely about them. Then one day, going to the mailbox I found yet another envelope from NARA. For that $70 mentioned above, I could get what was left of the records of Marion Wooster when he served in the Seabees. You better believe a check went out by return mail!
A couple weeks later a fat envelope arrived. I eagerly went through it. Much of what was there, I had already found on my own. However, papers backed up family stories with the facts. There were a few new tidbits, such as whom Grandpa had worked in the years before re-enlisting. Some of the records were about his prior service and included stuff about Grandma as well. Did I have her naturalization papers already? Yes, but here was another copy along with their marriage certificate. Invaluable papers to have if I hadn’t already have them.
My uncle, their youngest child, has done a lot of genealogy over the years. But, with age and illness, he has now stopped doing any research. Much of what I knew about his father’s service, I had gained from him. He especially knew about the time in the Seabees, as he had been an adolescent during that time. I took this envelope of papers to him one afternoon. We spent well over an hour looking through the papers together. He was delighted to see all this information. My uncle was particularly fascinated about his father’s work history. He sat there remembering names and places from his childhood. In fact, of all the papers in that envelope, this was the only page he wanted to keep a copy of.
Michael won’t be talking about the world wars at the upcoming presentation. But I’m sure he’ll join me in urging you to send out requests for those records. It costs nothing to ask, if they find something, you can decide then whether to order the records or not. Meanwhile, I’m looking forward to hearing what new tidbits and record groups he will introduce us to that might expand some of my searches!
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