Using 20th Century Military Service Personnel Records to Research Your Family History
Sep13

Using 20th Century Military Service Personnel Records to Research Your Family History

To get started with your research please visit Golden Arrow Research: Research a Veteran   Most of us have relatives who served in the military at some point in the past. For those of us wanting to pursue genealogical research, the military records created during our ancestors’ time in the service can provide a wealth of information.  This includes not only documentation of the individual veteran’s military service but also a number...

Read More
WWII Era Navy Military Service Records: An Overview
Sep05

WWII Era Navy Military Service Records: An Overview

To request your veteran’s Navy service records please visit Golden Arrow Research: Request a WWII Navy Service Record. This post is an introduction which touches briefly on some of the more common elements of WWII Navy Service Records (sometimes referred to as WWII Navy O.M.P.F.’s or official military personnel files). WWII era Navy Service Records are fairly standardized. The record keepers who were charged with...

Read More
Requesting Information from a Military Service Record Under the Freedom of Information Act
Sep04

Requesting Information from a Military Service Record Under the Freedom of Information Act

If you need to access information from the military service record of a veteran whose service records are not open to the public (and you are not the veteran’s next of kin) your best bet may be to request basic information from the military service record under the Freedom of Information Act. Requesting basic information under the F.O.I.A. will allow you to access legally releasable information within the military service...

Read More
Understanding Which Military Service Records are Open to the Public
Sep03

Understanding Which Military Service Records are Open to the Public

  Understanding the way that the government categorizes and maintains military records can be frustrating.  To complicate matters, the rules are often changing as the National Archives attempt to walk the tight-rope of allowing public to access to military service records while simultaneously protecting the privacy of individual veterans. One question that I hear quite frequently is: How do you know which military service records...

Read More
How to Obtain a Military Service Record
Sep01

How to Obtain a Military Service Record

To request a military service record now please click here: Request a Military Service Record   Ordering military service records which are held at the National Archives can be a confusing and frustrating process for those who are unfamiliar with the many rules and procedures involved in the process. I am on site at the National Archives working with military service records almost every day of the week, so I have a bit of inside...

Read More