How to Trace My WWII Family History
Maybe you want to know where your great-grandfather was stationed during World War II (WW II), or wish to learn more about your great-aunt who worked in a plant while her husband served overseas. There are numerous genealogy websites, some fee-based, that can help you trace your WWII family history. If you need help with your research, there are also resources for locating and hiring a professional genealogist.
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Instructions
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Join a genealogy community. For example, Wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com offers a free genealogy database, with over three billion names in over 300,000 family trees, where you can research people, events, records and more from the WWII era, as well connect with other people conducting similar research. In addition, you can join mailing lists dedicated to WWII family history research, or post specific questions about your WWII research to its message boards.
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Register with Ancestry.com. For a fee-based membership, this genealogy website provides access to over four billion records, where you can browse census records, voter lists, immigration records, newspapers, photos and more for the WWI era. Its Learning Center offers training and support through tutorials, blogs and webinars. To sign up for a free 14-day trial, go to Ancestry.com, click the "Give me access" button in the top right of the web page, and follow the instructions.
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Search a genealogy database. For example, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been gathering and sharing genealogical records for over 100 years, available through its Family Search website (Familysearch.org). It offers free online classes to help you trace your family history, free downloadable family history research software to help you collect and organize your family history and more.
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Look up WW II military records. The U.S. National Archives (Archives.gov) offers free look-ups in military personnel, research and service records. You can look up information in casualty lists, photographs and other selected WW II records. To review its WW II records, go to Archives.gov, click the "Subject Index" link in the top red bar, scroll down and click the "World War II" link.
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Hire a professional family genealogist. If you're hitting roadblocks finding historical information, or if you'd like help with a simple task, such as taking a photo of an ancestor's former home, or a more complex task, like tracking down a missing "branch" of your WWII family history tree, consider hiring a professional geneaologist. You can look up professional geneologists through Ancestry.com (go to Ancestry.com, click the "Hire an Expert" button in its top bar, and follow the instructions), and the Association of Professional Genealogists (go to Apgen.org, click the "Find a Professional" link in the top right of the web page, and follow the instructions).
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Join WW II Forums (Ww2f.com). This free community forum, with nearly 15,000 members, is a source for reading and asking questions about WW II. Forum topics include first-hand accounts by those who served in the military, genealogical research, WW II obituaries and other information requests.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit Monument of the Insurrection World War II image by Tomasz Kubis from Fotolia.com
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Comments
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One of the challenges of tracing the steps of a family member who served in WWII is that many Army/Air Corps records were lost in the '73 fire. What a lot of people don't realize is that there are ways to actually trace the steps of individual veterans, showing where they were and what they were doing during the war even if their service records were lost in the fire. Here is a link to a site specializing in this type of work: Military Service Records Research Service.
