My first foray into the field of writing was an article for Ancestry Magazine, which involved research on my grand-uncle, Edwin Dyer, and his service in World War I. (“Somewhere in France”). It also marked my first research venture into cyberspace.

It was late in 1996 and we had a baby in the house. (We still do, but now that she’s ten, she balks at being called “a baby.”) By this time my husband had listened to several months worth of lectures from yours truly on how wasteful he was being, spending all this money hooking us up to that Internet thingy. What possible use could it be?

Needless to say, he is still doing the “I told you so” dance over that discussion. As he set me up on the computer and began showing me how to search for things, I was amazed at all the cool things I found within an hour or so. (It may have been longer, because I can also recall that we had an incredibly slow connection and had to constantly re-dial when I lost that connection.)

My, how times have changed! It seems like eons ago that I sat in front of that tiny monitor and began exploring the few resources that were available for military research online. At the time I had no idea that I would be sitting here now with access to images of actual records online. The completion of the World War I Draft Card database at Ancestry.com for Veterans’ Day reminded me of those early days, so I spent a little time exploring the database and thought I’d share some tips for using this collection.

What's In It?
First a little background on these records. There were three draft registrations for WWI:

• The first registration. (05 June 1917) was for unenlisted men born between 6 June 1886 and 5 June 1896 and used a card calling for name, age, address, date and place of birth, citizenship status, employer’s name and address, dependent information, marital status, race, military service, and physical appearance. (See a sample card.)
• The second registration (05 June 1918 and a supplemental registration on 24 August 1918) was for unregistered/unenlisted men born 6 June 1896 and 24 August 1897 and used a card calling for name, age, address, date and place of birth, father’s birthplace, citizenship status, occupation, employer’s name and address, dependent information, name and address of nearest relative, and physical appearance. (See a sample card.)
• The third registration (12 September 1918) was for all unregistered/unenlisted men born between 11 September 1872 and 12 September 1900 and used a card calling for name, address, age, date of birth, race, citizenship status, occupation, employer's name and address, name and address of nearest relative, and physical appearance. (See a sample card.)

Overall, these records include males living in the U.S. who were born between 11 September 1872 and 12 September 1900 who were not already enlisted in the military—approximately 24 million men. Citizenship was not a factor in the registration requirements, so you may find recent immigrants in the collection, despite the fact that they hadn’t been naturalized.

A couple of important points:

1. Registration did not necessarily mean that your ancestor was called for service.
2. Registration did not include those already in the service. The subject of my first article, Edwin Dyer, enlisted 06 April 1917, before the first registration, so he is not included in this collection.

So who could I look for? I opened up my family database in Family Tree Maker and pulled up the list of all individuals. This list can be sorted by name, birth date or death date, so I clicked on the birth date header and browsed through the list of family members and compiled a list of males who were born between 11 September 1872 and 12 September 1900, and who were still alive at the time of the registrations.

I found several relatives and got previously unknown birth dates for a few of them. In one case, I was able to narrow down a marriage date for a man who was unmarried in the 1910 census and married in 1920. He is listed as single when he registered 31 May 1917, so he was married between that date and the date of the 1920 census -- 01 January 1920.

I Can't Find Him!
As with any record group, there may be spelling or transcription problems that could hinder your search. If you’re unable to locate an ancestor through “creative searching,” the images are also browseable, and although it may seem to be a daunting task at first, there are a few tips that can shorten your search.

The records are set up by, state, city or county, by draft board and then somewhat alphabetically. (For the most part the records I viewed were alphabetical, but there were a few inconsistencies and where writing is hard to read, you may find some misplaced.) The National Archives and the Family History Library have microfilm maps of draft board boundaries for selected cities. (A list of these cities is included in Eileen Polakoff’s September/October 2002 Ancestry Magazine article on these records.)

You may also find lists online. I found a list with the addresses of draft boards for New York City online through the Italian Genealogy Group’s website (http://www.italiangen.org/art9.stm). It was reprinted online from the organization's October 1997 newsletters. Try an online search for “[city or county] draft boards” or check with local societies in the area to see if they have a map or address listing available. Then plot the draft board locations around your ancestors home and see if you can’t find them by browsing the nearest ones. As today’s “Clipping of the Day” indicates, some men may have had to leave work to register and you may also want to check the draft boards in the vicinity of their place of business.

Another short-cut that could help you save time, would be to check the 1920 census for a male neighbor who would have been eligible for the draft and who may have been living in the same place at the time of registration. A good candidate might be a male still living at home with parents who own their home, as opposed to young male who may have married and moved from home between the registration and the time of the census, or renters who may have moved around more frequently. Since roughly a quarter of the population is included in this database, you have a good chance of finding a neighbor who registered at the same local draft board as your ancestor and you may locate him by browsing that board.

Use caution when including a birth date. Although the dates matched up well for the family members I found, when I was playing around with the database, I noted quite a few individuals listed with birth dates that seemed to be wrong, extending well before and after the 1872 and 1900 inclusion dates. For example, Lue Elmer Payne of Warren County, Illinois lists his age in September 1918 as 43, but gives his birth date as 15 November 1866. Either the date is wrong or this patriotic 51 year old man tried to slip by hoping that the draft board volunteer wouldn't do the math.

Conversely, Roy Bland of Stoddard County, Missouri lists his age as 18, but his date of birth as 28 August 1910. In the 1920 census, we find him enumerated with his family with his age listed as 19, making it more likely that his age was correct and that the numbers were transposed in the birth date. (It probably would have been a little tougher for an eight year old to slip by the draft board than a 51 year old man trying to pass for 43.)

With this in mind though, and knowing that patriotism was rampant throughout the country during this period, it could be well worth it to extend your parameters and search for individuals a bit on either side of the 1872-1900 limits. These records are full of information on the men included and are worth searching for all of your direct ancestors who might be included, as well as all siblings, collateral relatives and associates.

I’ll leave you with one last example of what I found in the database. The card for Pietro Vitti, an alien, lists his place of birth as Settefrati, Caserta, Italy. Where it asks "Have you a father, mother, wife, child under 12, or a sister or brother under 12, solely dependent on you for support?" He specifies, "wife & 3 children and one third support of mother and father." We also know from the card that he resided lived on Richmond Hill Road in New Canaan, Ct. and was born May 12, 1887. Used in conjunction with other records, these cards can really open some doors in your research. Have fun!

Ancestry.com subscribers can now search the WWI Draft Registration database.

Juliana Smith is the editor of the Ancestry Daily News and author of The Ancestry Family Historian’s Address Book. She has written for Ancestry Magazine and Genealogical Computing. Juliana can be reached by e-mail at: ADNeditor@ancestry.com, but she regrets that she is unable to assist with personal research.

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