On 6 April 1917, the United States declared war on Germany and officially entered the Great War. Six weeks later, on 18 May 1917, the Selective Service Act was passed, which authorized the president to increase the military establishment of the United States during the war. As a result, every male living within the United States between the ages of eighteen and forty-five was required to register for the draft.

Of course, not all the men who registered actually served in the armed forces, and there were some who served in the war but did not register for the draft. Those exempt from registration were enlisted in the military or naval service, including reserves.

In some places, the day of registration was treated like a holiday. The country was surging with feelings of patriotism, and parades and public gatherings were commonplace. Entire families often accompanied the registrant into town. Businesses and schools closed. Boat horns blew, train whistles sounded, and church bells chimed throughout the country. Registrants often travelled great distances so they would arrive in time to be included. Registration lasted all day from 7:00 am to 9:00 pm.

If a registrant was not at home, he could register elsewhere and the card would be sent to his home draft board. In some rural counties, it may have been easier to travel to the bordering county to register and request the registration be sent on to the actual county. Because it’s possible that some of these registrations were never transferred, when searching for cards in rural counties, it may be worthwhile to check neighboring counties, even if they are located in another state.

If you think your ancestor didn’t register because he was not a citizen or was too old, you may be surprised to find his registration card anyway. Non-citizens were subject to the draft and they had to register; all men between the ages of eighteen and forty-five had to register between May 1917 and September 1918.

In all, approximately 24 million men registered for the World War 1 draft. These 24 million men are estimated to be almost 25 percent of the population of the country in 1917—18. If you had family in the United States during the Great War, you are likely to find at least one relative within this large collection.

In 1987 and 1988, the National Archives contracted with the Genealogical Society of Utah (Family History Library) to microfilm all of the original registration cards, enabling anyone with access to a Family History Center to research the cards. Now the complete collection of microfilm is also available at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., and branch archives have collections based on their location (for example, cards for Indiana are at the NARA regional archives office in Chicago, Illinois). And, just recently, Ancestry.com has begun putting these records online.

The information included on each registration card differs somewhat, but the general information usually includes full name, home address, date and place of birth, age, race, country of citizenship, occupation, employer, personal description (hair and eye color, height, disabilities), and signature. Additional information may include address of nearest relative, dependent relative, marital status, father’s birthplace, or previous exemption from service. If your family member had his twenty-first birthday between 5 June 1917 and the summer of 1918, his registration card may also include his father’s birthplace as well as his own birthplace.

In July 2002, Ancestry.com began posting images of the draft registration cards and will continue to launch images until all 24 million cards are online. In addition, an index to all the cards is being created to facilitate research. To browse the current collection, simply click on the state, then county, then draft board of your ancestor. Note that these images are in the subscription area of the website.

Another database was started by Ray Banks in 1995 and is also available at Ancestry.com. This index of registration cards includes five percent of the men who registered or just over 1 million names. Six states (Alaska, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Mississippi, and Nevada) are complete while the balance from twenty states is incomplete.

The final database was created by Carole Glick Feinberg. It includes all of two draft boards plus part of a third for New York City. It covers the area on the Upper East Side of Manhattan from 96th Street to 106th Street, and includes 13,000 names. The database is available through the Jewish Genealogical Society in New York.

Due to the value of these registration cards it is certain more databases will be created and someday all 24 million names will be searchable.

For the most part, the cards are organized within each state or territory by county. Each county had at least one local draft registration board. An additional board was needed for every population area with more than 30,000 residents. Exceptions to the county rule include Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island that were divided instead into districts and cities.

Due to large populations, 236 cities had their own local draft registration boards. Sixty-four of these cities had more than four boards. To assist in the search for these cities and a few others, the Family History Library (film no. 1,498,803) has a series of maps of draft boards.

If your family lived in a small city or town, you will need to determine the microfilm that covers that county. The cards are arranged alphabetically within each draft board with all three registration dates interfiled. This means you do not need to know which of the three registration dates to search for.

In some cases, there are different arrangements of the cards. The records of the thirty-five boards of Detroit, Michigan, are copies of originals combined into one alphabetical set. Also filmed are the duplicate registration cards for Detroit, but the originals are a better source. The whereabouts of the majority of the duplicates are unknown.

Also, some cards were misfiled so it is necessary to look at the cards at the end of the draft board’s cards for strays. Scan as many cards as possible if you are convinced your relative’s card should be found in a certain location and it isn’t discovered on the first round. As with any research, be aware of interpretation of handwriting and spelling discrepancies that could affect where the card was filed.

If you don’t find your relative’s card is where you think it should be, search through neighboring towns and counties. Twenty-six larger cities and one county have many draft boards. In order to find the correct draft board in these cities you will need to find an address, or series of addresses, for your family. Among the sources that may be helpful are city directories, vital records, and the 1920 Census, which lists the address of the family. Finding aids (generally maps) will then lead you to the draft district for the family’s address.

You may want to determine if additional finding aids exist for the city you are searching. Newspapers can be a terrific source. The New York Globe printed maps of all of New York City that indicated the boundaries of the 189 draft boards on 11 September 1918, the day before the actual registration. They were published to assist the men in finding their local draft board.

For more information on the World War I draft registration cards, consult Kathleen Hinckley’s chapter in The Source (Ancestry, 1997) and John Newman’s book, Uncle, We are Ready! (Heritage Quest, 2001).

Locating the draft registration card for one of your ancestors can be exciting and is sure to further your family history research. And, with the promise of online images and new finding aids, the search will become easier than ever.

Eileen Polakoff, a transplant to New York City, is a full-time professional genealogist specializing in Jewish-American family histories and research. She is the co-author of Entrepreneurial Spirit in America: Rudd, Kortz, Finkenstein, Levand.

Return to the Ancestry magazine September/October 2002 table of contents.