Finding Your Military Family: A Guide to Databases and Websites
Major Databases andWebsites
Ancestry (paid subscription) or Ancestry Library Edition (from your home library)
HeritageQuest (from your home library)
Fold3 (from your home library)
FamilySearch (from your home library if they are an affiliate)
Cyndi's List
https://www.cyndislist.com/us/military/
https://www.cyndislist.com/military-worldwide/
Government Repositories
Library of Congress Veterans History Project
https://www.loc.gov/vets/bib-factsheet.html
https://memory.loc.gov/diglib/vhp/html/search/search.html
National Archives
Search SOME of the NARA holdings (enlistment records, casualty reports, prisoner of war data)
https://www.archives.gov/research/military
https://www.archives.gov/research/military/genealogy
https://www.archives.gov/research/military/veterans/aad.html
https://aad.archives.gov/aad/
(complete list of accessible online records)
National Park Service
Includes information on wars, military branches, biographical data and more
https://www.nps.gov/subjects/military/index.htm
U.S. Civil War Soldiers and Sailors Database
https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/soldiers-and-sailors-database.htm
U.S. Mexican War Soldiers and Sailors Database
https://www.nps.gov/paal/learn/historyculture/search-usmexwar.htm#sort=Title%20asc
Illinois State Archives
https://www.ilsos.gov/departments/archives/databases/home.html
1929 Illinois Roll of Honor
Illinois Black Hawk War Veterans
Illinois Civil War Muster and Descriptive Rolls
Illinois Civil War Veterans of Missouri Units
Illinois Civil War Veterans Serving in the U.S. Navy
Illinois Mexican War Veterans
Illinois Soldiers' and Sailors' Home Residents
Illinois Spanish–American War Veterans
Illinois Veterans' History Project
Illinois War of 1812 Veterans
Illinois Winnebago War Veteran
Archives and Books
Volume 1, with links to the other four volumes for Civil War pensioners (also available on Ancestry and FamilySearch)
List of Pensioners on the Roll, 1883,
Record of the services of Illinois soldiers in the Black Hawk war, 1831-32, and in the Mexican war, 1846-1848
https://archive.org/details/recordofservices00inilli
Roll of Honor: Soldiers Buried in Cook County, Illinois>
https://www.genealogycenter.info/military/burials/search_cookcoroll.php
WWI Cook County Draft Lottery
https://cook.illinoisgenweb.org/record/militarywwidraftlottery.html
Soldiers of the Great War (WWI Illinois)
https://archive.org/details/soldiersgreatwa02doylgoog/page/n281/mode/2up?view=theater
Specialized Museums
Pritzker Military Museum and Library
https://www.pritzkermilitary.org/
Cantigny Park First Division Museum
https://cantigny.org/things-to-do/museums/first-division-museum/
The Census
1840 census asked the name, age, and place of residence of pensioners of the Revolutionary War
1890 Veterans Schedules of the U.S. Federal Census
1900, 1910, 1920 separate Military and Naval Population Census
1910 census asked if there was a survivor of the Union or Confederate Army or Navy in Column 30
1930 census asked whether there was a veteran of the military or navy and in what war in columns 30 and 31
Old Soldiers Home Records
Ancestry: U.S., National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, 1866-1938
NARA: Records, RG 231
FamilySearch: United States Military Old Soldiers Home Records (Table of Homes and Location of Records)
Fraternities, Sororities and Other Organizations
DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution)
http://services.dar.org/Public/DAR_Research/search/?Tab_ID=6
http://services.dar.org/public/dar_research/search/?tab_id=0
https://www.dar.org/library/research-guides/how-guides
SAR (Sons of the American Revolution)
https://sarpatriots.sar.org/About (Use the tabs at the top of the page to search the databases)
GAR/SUVCW (Grand Army of the Republic/Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War)
http://www.idaillinois.org/cdm/ref/collection/isl7/id/2885
Each office of a GAR post or department was responsible for maintaining its own files. Most of the local records are not available.
https://www.loc.gov/rr/main/gar/garintro.html
The National Society United States Daughters of 1812
https://members.usdaughters1812.org/i4a/memberDirectory/index.cfm?directory_id=31&pageID=3409"
https://members.usdaughters1812.org/i4a/memberDirectory/index.cfm?directory_id=44&pageID=3768
General Society of the War of 1812
State War of 1812 Societies List
https://gswar1812.org/state-societies/
Spanish American War Database
https://sites.rootsweb.com/~scjssawv/index.html
Other Societies and Groups
https://www.cyndislist.com/societies/lineage/military/
https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/United_States_Military_Veterans_and_Lineage_Society_Records
Society for Military History-Archives/Museums/Online Records
Red Cross
https://www.icrc.org/en/archives
https://grandeguerre.icrc.org/ (Five million digitized WWI prisoner records)
Women
https://www.dar.org/library/collections/dar-special-collections
https://www.archives.gov/research/alic/reference/military/women.html
https://libguides.mnhs.org/wwii_women/primary
Children
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/grant-kids/
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/children-civil-war
https://blog.genealogybank.com/civil-war-music-makers-finding-drummer-boys-in-old-newspapers.html
African American
https://www.archives.gov/research/alic/reference/military/blacks-in-military.html
https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/African_American_Military_Records
https://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/freedmens-bureau
Asian American
https://discovernikkei.org/en/resources/military/ (Japanese American Military Experience Database)
Hispanic American
https://www.army.mil/hispanics/history.html
Native American
https://www.archives.gov/research/native-americans/military
https://www.dar.org/library/collections/dar-special-collections
Cemeteries
National Gravesite Locator
https://gravelocator.cem.va.gov/
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Civil War Cemetery Burials>
https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search-cemeteries.htm
Confederate Graves Registry
National Graves Registration Project Database
POWs
POWVets
http://powvets.com/pow-search/
Prisoners of the First World War: The ICRC Archives
https://grandeguerre.icrc.org/ (5 million prisoners of WWI records)
NARA
https://aad.archives.gov/aad/series-list.jsp?cat=GP24 (WWII, Korea, Vietnam)
Military Service Branches
Air Force Historical Research Agency
U.S. Army Center of Military History
United States Coast Guard Historian’s Office
United States Marine Corps History Division
Naval History and Heritage Command
Air Force Records at the National Archives
Army Records at the National Archives
Coast Guard Records at the National Archives
Marine Corps Records at the National Archives
Records of the National Guard Bureau at the National Archives