Veterans Administration Master Index, 1917-1940

FamilySearch is an amazing resource when searching for an ancestor or proof of his/her residence, birth date, or military discharge dates. And it is free to those who register.

If a record or an image you want isn't available online at their site, FamilySearch will tell you where you might find it. 

I've just spent an hour viewing these links below. Some contain a FAVORITE sentence of mine: 
"To view a digital version of this item, click here."  Ahh, access!

Veterans Administration Master Index - via FamilySearch Historical Records:
https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/United_States,_Veterans_Administration_Master_Index_-_FamilySearch_Historical_Records

U.S. National Archives, Military Records, 1885-2004
https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/United_States,_National_Archives,_Military_Records,_1885-2004

I bookmarked this site. Once again, FamilySearch is free to those who register:
https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2968245

This link connects you to what is inside the Granite Mountain Record Vault buried deep in Utah. #TornadoProof
https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/4092378?availability=Family%20History%20Library


My Dad served in Korea during the war. Years ago we ordered and received his military file from NARA (National Archives) and also his father's records from the Great War. 

I thought I had exhausted the many online military databases available regarding my Grandfather's service in World War I. But upon signing on to FamilySearch today, it suggested a record I hadn't seen before.

It was a simple card showing his enlistment and discharge dates. Full legal name, address, DOB. Yes, I already knew those dates from other records, but hey! It's another source. Secondary proof! Proof I might obtain when learning of a distant cousin whose birth date is unknown. 

An added bonus was seeing yet another (miss)spelling of Grandpa's middle name. A three-syllable word that I've not seen with any other person. This rendition appeared to be typed phonetically:  Sulvenious.  #SMH

It was a reminder to allow for misspellings when searching databases by keyword. 





The Welch Watchman Paper

      If I may, here is some news of the day. All clippings are from The Welch Watchman in Welch, Craig County, in northeastern Oklahoma. 

      Two articles are from the March 21, 1907 edition, page 6.  Welch was then in Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory. Soon to become the new state of Oklahoma. My Pennsylvania people had once lived near there in the late 1870s. But had moved on into Pawnee County. 


      Yes, I know. Quaint.


      Published June 1, 1921, front page:



      From June 8, 1921, page 3:



      And from June 22, 1921, page 1:



       The June 1, 1921 article above mentioned the local theater would soon show The Miracle Man, claiming it was the "biggest picture produced since the Birth of a Race." It was endorsed by churches as the "cleanest and highest class picture of the age."

      Well, then!

      Before "googling" Birth of a Race I thought surely the writer instead meant the well-known Birth of a Nation by D.W. Griffith.

      But, no.

      Birth of a Race appears to be a rebuttal to that hideously racist film that also had "Birth" in its title. 

       Wiki provided details. Links to streaming both silent films are added inside two of its articles:

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_a_Race

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Miracle_Man_(1919_film)


--Thanks for dropping by!

A Few Winters

(to be continued)


1.  See Jacob Winters near the bottom. It is the only Winters from Iowa I found listed--so far. Possibly Andrew Winters' granddad? It's a lousy copy, I know. And some of his descendants lived in Iowa at the time so... But then, YOUR Winters may have lived in another state. Several Winters fought the Brits during the Rev. War.

From:  Ancestry.com. U.S., Revolutionary War Pensioners, 1801-1815, 1818-1872



2.  ANDREW JACKSON WINTERS:

See No. 12 - Andrew J Winters 

Source: Ancestry.com. U.S., Civil War Draft Registrations Records, 1863-1865


1860 Federal Census



3.  JAMES WINTERS and NANCY ACKLEY:




4.  LOUIS WINTERS:


From: Ancestry.com. Florida, U.S., Arriving and Departing Passenger and Crew Lists, 1898-1963 

Did you see both front and back of draft card?


From The Tulsa World on Wednesday, June 19, 1985, page 36


Barney Weiser Marries Anna Harmon

Happy to find this brief mention of my Great-Grand uncle's marriage to Annie Harmon. #OldNewspapersROCK

From The Galveston Daily News, in Galveston, Texas on Sunday, February 1, 1874, page 4:


Barney was 28 years old, and living in Chambers County, Texas. Annie Harmon was 17, and the daughter of Joshua Charles Harmon (1826-1896) and Claraneizo Peveto (1828-1916)--residents of Liberty, Texas.

Annie bore Barney three (known) children before his untimely death in March of 1880 at age 34. Annie then married James Frisbie (1853-1927) in August 1880.

Again, I'm ever so grateful to the web site The Portal To Texas History for its rich database. See for yourself Barney and Annie's marriage license data in print at the bottom of page 4:

https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth462593/m1/4/zoom/?q=%22Barney%20Weiser%22&resolution=4&lat=859.092419912944&lon=2090.2600374546146

Military Exemption Denied

On his draft card dated June 5, 1917 my 21 year old grandfather replied, "Support of parents (Mother and stepfather)" to Question No. 12: Do You Claim Exemption From Draft (specify grounds). 

He was denied, and later sent to France and Germany along with his older brother Urban.

Elton Wiser served with the 357th Infantry, U.S. Army from October 3, 1917 to May 26, 1919 when the USS Huron sailed from St Nazaire, France, bringing the Yanks back home.  

Today I found this article from The Tulsa World newspaper published September 25, 1917, p. 6. It mentions my grandfather and others from Oklahoma who sought exemptions from the draft--and were denied.



Elton's father was born in Germany in 1845. He and his young brothers immigrated to Texas with their mother in the early 1850s. He married, farmed, and had many children. But he died at age 50--just months before his son Elton was born:

-- The Galveston Daily News, Wednesday, October 30, 1895, p. 2.


While proud to have served under his hero Gen. John Pershing, I know my grandfather Elton was deeply troubled by the battles he witnessed. Today we call it PTSD. But I never thought to ask him if he felt conflicted fighting in the country of his ancestors. Those ancestors of a man he hadn't known. 

Daniel Boone Childers' Obituary

-- The Wagoner Tribune, page 1, published 19 March 1946 in Wagoner, Oklahoma.


Not my Childers, but a fascinating family I've long researched. This man's father was shot/killed one hot August day a few blocks from where I now live. On the Perryman ranch. 

Obituaries are great founts of data. Whether accurate or embellished, they say so much about the survivor(s) who write them. 

More later... 

Love Them Black Sheep Cousins!

At long last, I've found a distant cousin arrested for moonshine.

Well, he and his Stoneburner in-laws were found with "mash" after a raid. Does that count? 

Meet Samuel Perry McIntire: 

Published 14 Jan 1927, Friday, p.1, The Stillwater Gazette, Stillwater, Payne County, Oklahoma.  


Attention Willhelm cousins:  Perry was a 2x GGrandson of our James Andrew Wilhelm. (I'm a 4x ggrandchild). His mom was Nancy Ellen Wilhelm who married James W. McIntire in McDonough County, Illinois in 1874. They later moved to Kansas. Soon after Oklahoma became a state, many of their children slipped over the border, married and raised families. I suspect some are still nearby. 

This is their dad's obituary from 1925:



James was 73 when he passed. But only three years earlier he was mentioned in a Chautauqua County, Kansas paper. I am grateful to "TracyMart" on Ancestry who alerted me to this tattle of a a piece from Friday, 17 Feb 1922:

-- Page 5 of The County Liner & Cedar Vale Commercial paper in Cedar Vale, Chautauqua County, Kansas.

Isn't genealogy WILD!