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So I've been wanting to do this for some time, but something about this years D-Day celebration really lit a fire in me. I think the combination of now being with the 101st, and realizing that our WW2 vets are at that point where we are just a few years from losing them, I've decided to attempt to collect the story of two veterans from my family.

My grandfather whom I literally know nothing about, and my wifes grandfather, whom I at least know what regiment he served with (502nd 101st). Both have passed away, my grandfather more then 20 years ago, so I've definitely got my work cut out for me.

I've been to the museum here on Ft. Campbell, and the curator had some idea's on where I could begin my search, namely the records office in St. Louis, but the purpose I have of this thread is in asking the general population if they've ever done something like this, and have some helpful idea's that could aid my search.

Are you trying to find family members that have been in the military?
A good place to start might be an LDS Stake Center if you are looking for family records. The reason for this is you might have a lot of that work done for you already, and it's sitting there waiting for you in one of the biggest geneological data base in the world.

By 'lost history', what exactly do you mean? Do you want their life stories? Or just that bit where they were overseas fighting?

In the UK you can look up service records on line. Perhaps the US has got a similar system.

I posted some of this in the other thread, but here goes:

Try and get in touch with the regiment themselves, they may well have either records you can access or a regimental historian that can point you in the right direction.

See if you can get more details on the exact units they fought in, and then try to find out if there's anyone who served with them that would be willing to talk about it. Some will not, but there's every chance you might find someone who knew them well enough to give you some more tips or even some specific details.

The online databases recommended above are a good idea if you have them in the USA, I've used them a bit myself for my relatives and they are quite handy for getting the basic information. A records office will also be a great resource, but a lot more manual, so you might want to phone ahead and arrange for someone a little more experienced there to help you find something. I know record offices over here are willing to do that sort of thing, so that would be the way to go about it if you go down that route.

Good luck, I hope it's interesting, informative and worthwhile for you.

 djones520 wrote:
So I've been wanting to do this for some time, but something about this years D-Day celebration really lit a fire in me. I think the combination of now being with the 101st, and realizing that our WW2 vets are at that point where we are just a few years from losing them, I've decided to attempt to collect the story of two veterans from my family.

My grandfather whom I literally know nothing about, and my wifes grandfather, whom I at least know what regiment he served with (502nd 101st). Both have passed away, my grandfather more then 20 years ago, so I've definitely got my work cut out for me.

I've been to the museum here on Ft. Campbell, and the curator had some idea's on where I could begin my search, namely the records office in St. Louis, but the purpose I have of this thread is in asking the general population if they've ever done something like this, and have some helpful idea's that could aid my search.

You're might have a hard time with the St. Louis Archive. A large section of the archive was burned down in a fire many years ago, and it can be difficult to locate records for entire units across WWII and Korea (my great-grandfather served in Korea, but no record of his service exists anymore because they got caught in the fire). The Army is still trying to recover everything that was lost.

Try, but be ready that the information your looking for just isn't there.

You will want to hunt down the Army's rolls for the 101st which will be time consuming but copies are available and independent of the St. Louis Archive. Many units produced year books of sorts, but for the whole war. The 101st being one of the most prestigious units of the war for us, will have many of these. The problem will be finding a copy as not many libraries or museums maintain those record. You can find them at the USAHEC in Carlisle PA. Once you've found the exact units they were in (and there documents go all the way to platoon sometimes) it'll become much easier to trace their service in the war.

 LordofHats wrote:

 djones520 wrote:
So I've been wanting to do this for some time, but something about this years D-Day celebration really lit a fire in me. I think the combination of now being with the 101st, and realizing that our WW2 vets are at that point where we are just a few years from losing them, I've decided to attempt to collect the story of two veterans from my family.

My grandfather whom I literally know nothing about, and my wifes grandfather, whom I at least know what regiment he served with (502nd 101st). Both have passed away, my grandfather more then 20 years ago, so I've definitely got my work cut out for me.

I've been to the museum here on Ft. Campbell, and the curator had some idea's on where I could begin my search, namely the records office in St. Louis, but the purpose I have of this thread is in asking the general population if they've ever done something like this, and have some helpful idea's that could aid my search.

You're might have a hard time with the St. Louis Archive. A large section of the archive was burned down in a fire many years ago, and it can be difficult to locate records for entire units across WWII and Korea (my great-grandfather served in Korea, but no record of his service exists anymore because they got caught in the fire). The Army is still trying to recover everything that was lost.

Try, but be ready that the information your looking for just isn't there.

You will want to hunt down the Army's rolls for the 101st which will be time consuming but copies are available and independent of the St. Louis Archive. Many units produced year books of sorts, but for the whole war. The 101st being one of the most prestigious units of the war for us, will have many of these. The problem will be finding a copy as not many libraries or museums maintain those record. You can find them at the USAHEC in Carlisle PA. Once you've found the exact units they were in (and there documents go all the way to platoon sometimes) it'll become much easier to trace their service in the war.

Yeah, I saw that 80% of the records from that era are gone. The curator told me of some other places that likely have them. I guess soldiers after WW2 were told to take a copy of their DD-214's to their city hall that they returned home, so there would be a back up copy just in case. My mother will be checking on my grandfathers this week. I've gotta contact the city of Richmond, Virginia to check on the other one. We checked then 101st rolls yesterday. They had nothing, but the guy said that wasn't uncommon for replacements, which he was (joined the fight just after D-day).

I did genealogy for many years. This may sound obvious, but do you have any distant cousins/great aunts/uncles you've lost touch with? Some of the best stories from my family history came from my great aunt, and I didn't even realise she knew half the people she told me about.

Leads and stories come from the unlikeliest of places sometimes. You might want to try and track down some of your Grampa's old friends, coworkers, find out if he frequented any clubs, ect. You might be able to get some war stories 2nd or 3rd hand.

My dad just passed a few months ago. He was with the 101st during Vietnam, needless to say I wish you the best of luck.