Monday, January 28, 2013

Pennsylvania State Archives - Military Monday

If your family tree includes anyone that served in the military from Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Digital Archives are worth a look. They have index cards available online for soldiers that served in the Revolutionary War through the PA National Guard in 1921.

I knew my great-uncle Julius King Councill had enlisted in WWI from Pennsylvania, but there was additional information on these cards. I found a card for his service in the Mexican Border Campaign in 1916 and a record of his enlistment in the PA National Guard.


The card above shows that Julius was in Company B of the 6th Infantry and had the rank of Private. It lists his occupation as Inspector and gives a physical description and age. Julius was born in September 1899, so he would have only been 16 at the time of his enlistment even though he claims to be 21.

The second card repeats much of the same information, but also lists when he mustered in for WWI on July 15, 1917. Julius was killed in action in Fismette, France in 1918 at the age of 18 and is buried in Arlington Cemetery.

3 comments:

  1. Thank you for the tip! Unfortunately, it seems my ancestors weren't a very patriotic lot! :) But I will keep this one in my bookmarks for future searching.

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  2. You're welcome! Hopefully, they'll add some non-military records in the future. I noticed that they have a project to digitize death records, but I think those are going up on Ancestry.com.

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