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IRISH GENEALOGY Researching Your Irish Roots |
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The Desert Shamrock
Arizona’s Original Irish
Newspaper
Volume 10, Number 3,
May/June 1999, page 20
RESEARCHING YOUR IRISH ROOTS
Military Records
By Robert M. Wilbanks IV, B.A.
Professional Genealogist & Historian
Ever since the beginning
of humankind, the need for survival, and the differences of opinion, have often
led to armed conflict. As nations
developed in Europe, the purpose of conflicts grew to politics and/or the basic
need for more land. With the discovery
of the vast new world, the Americas, the settlers, hoping to escape the
constant wars and conflicts in Europe, found themselves threatened by new
peoples, as well as their old enemies.
With the formation of armies comes the creation of
records. While wars cost the lives of
people and the destruction of civilian and government property and records,
they also create a new type of record with a potential wealth of genealogical
information. Military records can
provide details of the soldier, including date and place of birth, occupation,
residence, name of parents, physical description, etc.
Many Irish young men were
often very quick to join any military.
They found service in the military to be an exciting adventure. It also provided them with much of the
necessities of life which were difficult to obtain as civilians in Ireland, and
offered the potential to improve their status in life.
A great number of Irish
served in the British Army from its formation in 1661 until 1922. It is estimated that as many as 15% of the
Irish either served or had family that served.
Catholics were not prevented from joining, though for a time they were
prevented from being officers. These
Irish soldiers primarily served in the far reaches of the British Empire.
In the United States as
well, the military provided an excellent opportunity for the Irish. Many newly arrived immigrants would join
when they couldn’t support themselves in a new land, or for the offer of bounty
land, or for a quicker way to become naturalized as an American citizen.
The American Civil War, 1861-1865, is a
perfect example of the great numbers of Irish who served in the American
military. During this conflict the
Irish were the largest group of immigrants to serve in either the Union or
Confederate armies. Numerous regiments,
1000 men each, were comprised entirely of Irish. The green flag with the harp of Brian Boru, shamrocks, and “Erin
Go Braugh” in gold, was the third most common flag in this war. Four Union Generals and five Confederate
Generals were natives of Ireland.
The military records of primary interest to genealogists are
divided into two categories: Service
Records and Benefits Records. A third
category of records, lesser used by genealogists but no less important, is best
described as Miscellaneous.
Service Records are the records created at
the time of the active service of the soldier.
Soldiers were written down in muster lists, roll call lists, payment
vouchers, hospital records, Quartermaster records, and other such records
created at the time of the soldier being in military service.
Benefits Records are records created after
the soldier was no longer in the service. Acts of Congress created such
benefits as pensions and/or bounty land records. Bounty land was the
disbursement of land as reward for past service. A veteran’s widow and/or orphans could also receive such benefits
and so can also be found in such records, adding a wealth of genealogical
detail to the family tree.
The Miscellaneous category would include
lesser known or used forms of records, such as records of Old Soldiers Homes,
headstone and burial records, lists of soldiers who died overseas, were missing
in action, or prisoners of war, as well as records relating to civilians.
There is a great wealth of records for the
British Army which are housed at the Public Record Office in Kew, Richmond,
Surrey, England. Unfortunately, there
is no comprehensive or partial index with which to search for a specific individual
who served. Explaining in detail how to research these records would require
more space than I have here. There are numerous guides which can help,
including the book Ireland: A Genealogical Guide, by Kyle Betit and Dwight Radford
of Salt Lake City.
In America there were a number of wars and
conflicts from the early colonial period to the American Revolution. As the United States was not yet a country,
military records were kept by the individual states and can now be found at the
States’ Archives. Many of these records
have been transcribed into books available at most genealogy libraries.
After the formation of this country and
government, the military became primarily a federal matter and therefore the
records are more uniform and reliable than the records at the state and county
level. Also, they are all in one place,
the National Archives in Washington D.C.
These military records are organized
primarily by the various wars that America was involved in. The service records are then organized by
state or unit designation, the company, and then alphabetically by
surname. The benefit records, also
organized by war, are filed alphabetically by name of the soldier. There are consolidated indexes for each war
and conflict up through the Civil War.
The indexes for the service and benefits
records for all of America’s wars have been microfilmed and are available at
the National Archives, the 12 regional branches, and various other facilities,
including the Family History Library in Salt Lake City and thus through its
local branch centers.
Only the service records of certain wars
and only the pensions of Revolutionary War veterans are available on
microfilm. Copies of service and
benefits records for all wars can be obtained directly from the National
Archives by filling out NATF Form 80 to order copies of veterans records. Copies are $10.00 per file only if a record
is found.
For previous articles on
the basics of searching for your family history, visit my web site at
http://www.robertwilbanks.com; click on Professional Services, then
Genealogical Writings.
DISCLAIMER: This is an important reminder that the above article is provided here exactly as originally written and published several years ago. Therefore, while most of the primary context of the article may still be relevant, please be aware that possibly certain of the information and references may now be outdated, such as individuals and organizations, links, contacts, facilities, etc. Please follow-up accordingly for more updated information.
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©2013, Robert M. Wilbanks IV, Scottsdale, Arizona
created Nov 15, 2013; last updated Nov 15, 2013