Minnesota Digital Library honors Veterans Day with online exhibits

This Veterans Day, the Minnesota Digital Library (MDL) joined the rest of the country in honoring military veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces with a six-part online exhibit series titled “War Stories.”  “The “War Stories” exhibits include the perspectives of Minnesotans who lived through wars, from the Civil War to the Vietnam War. Veterans recorded […]

Revolutionary War manuscripts being digitized at the University of Michigan Clements Library

It’s not just genealogical and historical organizations that have newsletters, enews, and blogs to tell us about new records, digitized records, and events. I subscribe to several college and university special collections emailed news. This one arrived this morning and now I need to find more open time for reading in these. The photos accompanying […]

1973-2023 50th anniversary of the fire that destroyed many military veterans records at NARA

It was July 12, 1973, FIFTY years ago this week. A fiftieth anniversary is usually called a Golden Anniversary. There is nothing golden about what happened at the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in St. Louis, Missouri, part of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). A fire broke out in the National Personnel Records […]

U.S. National Archives and the military record loss in the 1973 Fire

My lunch break today was accompanied by an informative online presentation about the U.S. National Archives location at St. Louis and the disastrous 1973 fire that destroyed many records. It was a helpful presentation. I have attended presentations and read articles about the fire, but this one seemed to hit me more today. This summer […]

Native American Heritage Month: Research Part 2: Military Records

Discussing Native Americans and U.S. military service was not my original plan for Part 2. November 11 was Veterans Day and that changed my focus and thinking. I have spent many hours at the U.S. National Archives delving into military service, pension, and Indian Scout files for Native Americans. The family details in these records […]

The Federation of Genealogical Societies and the National Park Service announce the launch of the U.S.-Mexican War Soldier & Sailor database.

A wonderful press release received today! January 14, 2020 The Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) and the National Park Service’s Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park (NPS) announce the launch of the U.S.-Mexican War Soldier & Sailor database. This online, searchable database contains information for over 85,000 U.S. and Mexican veterans who served in this […]