Through several different avenues yesterday, I received notes that Ancestry.com has a new military records system.
Ancestry.com, the world’s largest online resource for family history, today announced it has launched the largest collection of U.S. military records available and searchable online, featuring more than 90 million names that span more than four centuries of American history from the 1600s through Vietnam. A highlight of Ancestry.com’s U.S. Military Collection is the only complete online collection of WWII United Newsreels from 1942 - 1945.
Beginning now through June 6th (D-Day), Ancestry.com will make its entire U.S. Military Collection free to the public. To search Ancestry.com’s U.S. Military Collection, visit http://www.ancestry.com/military.
I’ve been surfing this military records site off and on since yesterday, and I have yet to scratch the surface. And I love that Ancestry.com is making it open to the public for a while. Sure, it’s a marketing gimmick, but it’s a beneficial one for the public.
Talk about a glimpse into a totally different lifetime. Watch some of the news reels. Closer to home, I found an enlistment record for an Ideus ancestor. The address line says “3 miles north of Weesatche.” Can you imagine a time without addresses?! This is so fun!
But, as almost always happens with genealogy research, these records have opened more questions than they’ve answered. That’s a common affliction for genealogists!
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