Register of Enlistments

There are several search engines that I now automatically check when I come across a new name to add to my family tree.  I thought I might spend a little time writing about each one and provide a story about how searching the database in question was helpful to me.

One of the first is the U.S. Army Register of Enlistments. It covers the period 1798 to 1914. It is on Ancestry and can be easily accessed from the card catalog with the entry "Register Enlistments." It can also be found on Fold3.com as Army Register of Enlistments, 1798 -1914. Do not confuse it with the Army Registers, 1798 - 1969 which in an incomplete set of the annual officer registers of the U.S. Army. The Register is also available in the Family History Library and probably digitally at the Family History Centers.

The original source for these data were U.S. Army registers found in RG94, Records of the Adjutant General's Office, 1780's - 1917. They can be found in the Preliminary Inventory of the Records of the Adjutant General's Office, PI 17 as entry 89. These 161 volumes (or 45 feet of registers) were microfilmed and published by the National Archives as NARA Publication M233, Registers of Enlistments in the United States Army, 1798 - 1914. It consists of 81 rolls of 35mm microfilm. A box list of the microfilm rolls can be found in the microfilm catalog at Archives.gov.

The purpose of the registers is to document the service of enlisted U.S. Army soldiers from the time of their enlistment to the time of their discharge at the expiration of their service. Each is a pre-printed form ledger that includes the name of the soldier, rank, regiment, dates of enlistment and discharge. They often include a physical description, nativity, age at enlistment, occupation and remarks. The remarks of the best part of the entry because you never know what you are going to find. If the soldier died in service the date of death and place of death are mentioned.

The information was taken from enlistment papers, muster rolls of the Regular Army, and other records.

They are arranged by time periods and by first letter of surname and then chronologically by date of enlistment. There are 13 rolls that cover the period form 1798 to May 17, 1815 which is the period of most  of my interest because of my War of 1812 death database. Mexican War enlistments can be found on Roll 23, covering the period of January 1847 to June 1849 (a up and coming interest). The Civil War is divided into two periods each of two rolls. The same is true of the Spanish-American War. The registers end just before the Mexican Border War, but some Army personnel would have enlisted prior to our foray into Mexico prior to World War I.

At the end of the collection there are additional records that deal with post quartermaster sergeants, Indian scouts, ordnance sergeants, commissary sergeants and hospital stewards which never seem to exactly cover the years that I am looking for. But they are there.

Many of us assume that because we have no family lore of military service that there was none. I will relate on another post the tribulations of such assumptions aside from the Register of Enlistments.

My great-grandfather Joseph Beiley was an interesting person. I will leave it at that. My grandmother made it clear early in my genealogical research that she did not like him very much and did not want to talk about him. When I asked the names of her grandparents she said that she knew her father's father and liked him less and did not know the other three and was sure that they were no different. I never met the man. It turns out that he was in the U.S. Army, unbeknownst to anyone currently living and evidently not talked about by the few who knew. He can be found in the Register of Enlistments.

To find him on Fold3.com you type in Joseph Beiley and you see a person of that names listed under the heading of War of 1812, Mexican War, Civil War, and Spanish American War, all with the subheading Army Register of Enlistments. Each of these entries relates to a single person, born in 1886 who did not participate in any of these wars.

The entry paraphrased reads:

1908                          [Year]
202                            [Register Number]
Beiley                       [Names]
Joseph L.
Jan 16                        [Enlisted When]
Ft Slocum, N.Y.        [Enlisted Where]
Cap Fife                    [Enlisted By Whom]
3 yrs                          [Period]
Buffalo                      [Where born]
N.Y.                           [State]
22                              [Age]  
Farmer                      [Occupation
Blue                          [Eyes
DBro                        [Hair]
Ruddy                       [Complexion
5                               [Height Feet]
6                               [Height Inches]
13 Cav                     [Regiment]
E                              [Company]
Mentions no prior service

The remarks read:

Des. Mch. 28/08 Surrd. Jun 21.09. Dishon dis. Aug. 20.09 at Ft. Hamilton, N.Y. G. O. 105, Dept East 24 mon Detained

 

Walter K. Schroder, R.I.P.

Sadly, I have to start the New Year with the news of the passing of a Heritage Books author.

Walter K. Schroder, 88, passed away on December 28, 2016 in North Kingstown, R.I. He was one of those people who had an interesting life and he was glad to share his experiences through his writing. I first learned of him when I started selling his book Stars and Swastikas: The Boy Who Wore Two Uniforms back in the Willow Bend Books days, before I purchased Heritage Books. It is his World War II experience as a boy in Germany, being drafted at fifteen, captured by the British and serving as a POW interpreter. Over the years I would get to know him personally and after I acquired Heritage Book publish other titles for him. Our telephone calls were always fun to have and I looked forward to talking with him.  I always found his interests to be interesting, which for me was a good thing. My favorites were The Artillery Company of Newport, largely because I always thought that books about the early artillery companies in New England were missing from the bookshelves. Because of my personal interest in writing a book about how to research Hessians, his book on The Hessian Occupation of Newport and Rhode Island, 1776-1779, is in my personal library. His novel about The Hessian Drummer Boy of Newport is on my list of books to read.

From his obituary I learned that he used his fluency in German to assist families of Army Air Force personnel lost over Germany in WWII which I wish that I would have known years ago. The conversations that we could have had. You can read his obituary here.

I will miss him. He was unique and I like that about people. - Craig

I think that I am back

It has been a couple of years  since I took the time and effort to post on this blog. I hope I will do better in the coming year. Each day I hope to be able to share with you something that touched me, made me pause to think, or something that just made me happy. It may have caused me to smile or realize something that I had not realized before. It may have made me frown and decide that I had done something really stupid. I just do not know where it will lead. I have a need to fill up this desire to write something down apart from the 43 projects that consume my normal day. Thank you all for your patience and understanding, but mostly for your friendship. - Craig 

New book on Virginia 1810 census out

Census books really don't excite me anymore. After all the census images are readily available on more than one subscription site. I touch them often. What kind of genealogist wouldn't? They are almost the first place that most of us go to figure a family out in broad terms. So why mention this book?

























Because it is absolutely a gem. My reasons:

1) substitution of the personal property tax list information for eighteen counties
2) the author, John Vogt has been reading Virginia handwriting for a bout a hundred years (well not really, but you would think so) and reads it much better than a person paid to index so many names a second.
3) I can use this as finding aid to the census images
4) its page count to price ratio is not bad, over 400 pages
5) If you don't want the entire 1810 census index for Virginia (which includes West Virginia for those who forgot for just a moment) you can also get individual volumes at the county level.

The book:


INDEX TO THE 1810 VIRGINIA CENSUS
by John Vogt. 2013, 8x10, xv, 392 pages. Paperback; printed on acid-free stock. $39.95


You can find this book on the Heritage Books website at:

http://heritagebooks.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=HBI&Product_Code=107-VA10

You can find full information on the publisher's website here:

http://www.genealogyresources.org/1810_Va_Index.html

Robert Burns, R.I.P.

I come from a family very interested in things Scottish. I own two kilts (which no longer fit). I was President of the Council of Scottish Clans and Associations, Inc. for four years, was Clan Scott Genealogist for fifteen years, and used to have the postnomials of FSA Scot. after my name. I generally only drink single-malt scotch, if given the choice. In March 2013 I will be in Houston speaking to the Houston Genealogical Forum half the time on Scottish research (any guesses what the other half will be?). Then in January of next year I am teaching Scottish research at Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy with the Coordinator Carolyn Barkley, MLS, FSA Scot. When I meet people who first met me years ago, there is the constant, well almost constant, reminder of "Where are the kilts?" Or something to that effect.

You might remember that today is Robert Burns birthday, January 25th. People will be meeting, coming together, and if they are very lucky eating haggis, a substance banned in the U.S. for 21 years. Fortunately, the ban was lifted in 2010. American imitations gave haggis a bad name during the BSE (aka Mad Cow Disease) scare.

Robert Burns is probably the person most responsible for haggis being known outside of Scotland. His poem Address to a Haggis will be spoken out loud many times around the world this week. Here is the first verse.

Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face,

Great chieftain o' the puddin'-race!

Aboon them a' ye tak yer place,

Painch, tripe, or thairm:

Weel are ye wordy o' a grace

As lang's my airm.

Now you might think that Burns, was based on his reputation, a peasant. That is what Burns biographer, Dr. Currie, said. "In reality a peasant." The Rev. Charles Rogers, L.L.D. did not think so, so he took a look at the lineage of this Scottish poet. Rogers, based his work on the "Notes on his Name and Family," a thin duodecimo (remind me to look that up) published privately by Dr. James Burnes in 1851. That and entries in the parochial and other registers. Rogers published his work as Genealogical Memoirs of the Family of Burns and of the Scottish House of Burnes in 1877 for the Royal Historical Society. 

It turns out that the Burns family (then Burnes) was actually not bad off. They intermarried with the Keiths of Craig, a branch of the House of Keith-Marischal. Then there was the grandfather. But you will have to read the book. Such Keiths would make me a cousin. Mother will not be pleased. I'll remind her that it is on her husband's side of the family, but she still won't like it.

If you are interested, Heritage Books published a reprint of the 1877 work in 2009. It can be found here.

P.S. The reason my mother does not like Burns is because she is a Sir Walter Scott fan and considers the Burns to be overrated. Roger's wrote a book on Sir Walter Scott also, and it eventually would end up in an issue of the Scott Genealogical Quarterly, but we will save that for his birthday on 15 August.

Clark Veterans Cemetery

Marine Corps Deaths, 1917-1921, Craig R. Scott
available from HeritageBooks.com.

I am working on a book on Marine Corps Dead, 1917 to 1921. Always has been something that I wanted to do, so now I am doing it. It is almost finished. It actually was finished months ago, but I decided to add more information, like are they buried in Arlington, or in a National Cemetery. American Battle Monuments Commission has been helpful for those buried overseas. Then I decided, well if there was a Find A Grave entry, I at least should mention that there was such a thing. Nothing specific just that there was a entry.

USS Helena. Photo credit: Library of Congress.

While working I came across Corporal Paul Vincent Smith, Marine Detachment, USS Helena died in Hong Kong, China on June 27, 1921 of some disease. His sister, Ethel Bearde lived at 2 Bouton St., Norwalk, Connecticut at the time of his death according to Marine Corps records.

By consulting Find a Grave I found that he was buried in the Clark Veterans Cemetery, Clark Freeport Zone, Philippines. Reading about the cemetery I found that thousands of veterans are buried there. Especially, American soldiers and Filipino Scouts who served in the U.S. Army and other American veterans.

Coffins of Spanish American War dead. Credit: Library of Congress.

It looks like the cemetery came into being about 1900 at the conclusion of the Spanish-American War. Since I know from research in Quartermaster Records, years ago, that many Americans were disinterred in the Philippines and sent by way of Manila to San Francisco and then on to the next of kin, this was of interest to me.  The responsible organization for moving remains from the Philippines to the U.S. was the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps, was the U.S. Burial Corps. They also move remains from Cuba. One day I hope to have a reason to touch those records again.

Fast forward past 8,600 burials including World War II, Vietnam and the Iraqi War (just one in 2004), and many dependents. Whereas in 1900 is was an army post called Fort Stotsenburg, now it was now a place named Clark Air Force Base. I place I visited many times during my two years in Subic Bay (different story). Prior to becoming Clark Air Force Base in 1948, the cemetery had been solely administered by the U.S. Army and the U.S. Navy. In 1949 the U.S. Air Force assumed responsibility. In 1984 is was the last active USAF cemetery outside of the United States.

Then in 1991, Mount Pinatubo, an active volcano erupted, and buried the cemetery with eight inches of volcanic ash. In November 1991 the USAF left Clark Air Force Base. Basically the cemetery was forgotten about and abandoned by the U.S. Government.

In 1994, veterans belonging to the local Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post 2485 stepped up to clean up this, what is a good word, disgrace. Since then VFW members has administered and maintained the cemetery at a level that prevented in from getting any worse. For such a massive task there is never enough volunteers or donations, but there is always a lot of hard work. They even kept the cemetery open to new burials of American and Philippine Scouts who had a valid DD Form 214. They did this by arrangement with the Philippine Government. Arrangements were something the Air Force failed to create when they left the ash behind.

The Clark Veterans Restoration Association was created to promote the cemetery and to advocate that the U.S. Government to reassume it responsibility to administer the cemetery.

Well, to say the least as I was learning all of this information, I was getting more and more irritated by the lack of concern on the part of the U.S. Government for our veterans. Maybe it was just me.

Then I learned that about ten days ago, President Obama signed a bill that turns the cemetery over to the American Battle Monuments Commission. $5M dollars to make it all right and get it into the ABMC system.

Evidently, in April 2012, U.S. Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) introduced "The Remembering America's Forgotten Veterans Cemetery Act," which had 15 bipartisan co-sponsors. The act requires the ABMC to restore, operate and maintain the cemetery to honor those buried there.

I feel so much better. I just don't remember seeing this bipartisan effort on the news. Must just be me.

There is a picture of a tombstone at 121012af_Clark_Cemetery_500.JPG

A copy of the Ayotte bill is found at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c112:S.2320.IS:

Christmas Present for the Legal Genealogist

I am doing something that I don't normally do. I am reposting somebody else's blog. I hope she does not mind, because I was not going to ask her for permission given what I am about to say. I guess I am playing it forward. I like this person and what she does for genealogy so much that I gave her a Christmas present (she what she want's for Christmas below). And I am asking you to consider doing the same thing if you are of the same mind as I am. I learn from the person almost every time she she put her fingers on her keyboard. If you don't get her blog, you should consider that also.    C.     P.S. Please go look at the original blog post as it has pictures that I could not import.     The Legal Genealogist

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All I want for Christmas

Posted: 01 Dec 2012 05:50 AM PST

Not my two front teeth
Drum roll, please. The Legal Genealogist is about to make a major announcement to my family:
I love you.

Gee… what a surprise.
No, really. I do love you. So that’s not the announcement.
But, as you know only too well, I have never, ever, ever, loved this time of year.
And since you all know it, that’s not the announcement either.
And though I know some of you think I’m a unAmerican pinko Commie freak who stubbornly refuses to do my part as a patriotic citizen in helping to revitalize the American economy, it doesn’t rise to major announcement level when I say that the simple fact of the matter is:
I loathe Christmas shopping.
I hate having to do it for others. I hate having to come up with a list for myself. I hate the commercialism, the “gimme gimme” attitude so many people have, the disappointment on the face of a loved one who doesn’t share my enthusiasm for what I chose, the feeling of disappointment I have when something I’ve chosen isn’t appreciated.
I hate having to try to figure out, year after year, what the “hot item” is for a particular age group, and I hate the knowledge that no matter when I start, I am always — always — going to be trying to order something on December 23rd for overnight delivery.
Bah humbug.
Fortunately, as each of you, my much-loved nieces and nephews, have gotten older, I’ve been able to make the shift from the “what are you getting me” mode to the “how can we do something good” mode. One by one, as each of you has crossed into adulthood, the toys have been set aside, and we’ve moved to a contribution in your name to a charity of your choice.¹
Much better. For me, less stress. For you, I hope, the sense of doing something meaningful rather than collecting more stuff.
So as we enter the month of December this year, I’m returning the favor. I’m telling all of you, my nieces and nephews,² — and here’s the announcement — what I want for Christmas:
I want a War of 1812 pension.
No, really. I do want a War of 1812 pension.
And you should want one (or more) too. We know darned good and well that my 3rd (your 4th) great grandfather Jesse Fore was a fifer in Captain Michael Gaffney’s company of South Carolina Militia³ — and he got a pension.⁴ And my 3rd (your 4th) great grandfather Elijah Gentry and his brother James Gentry and their father (my 4th, your 5th great grandfather) Elijah Gentry Sr. all served in the 1st Regiment Mississippi Territorial Volunteers.⁵ None of them survived long enough to get a pension, but Elijah Jr.’s widow might have qualified.
So, what I want for Christmas is a War of 1812 pension. And here’s how you do it.
Head over to the website of the Illinois State Genealogical Society, where I’m a member. (You do remember that your grandfather and great grandparents all settled in Chicago when they came over from Germany, right?⁶) They’re doing something really neat, and I hope you help our family join in.
It’s called the ISGS War of 1812 Pension Match Challenge. It’s part of the Federation of Genealogical Societies’ “Preserve The Pensions” campaign to raise $3.7 million to digitize all of the War of 1812 Pension Application Files at the National Archives and put them online where they can be accessed free.
And here’s how the challenge part works:

ISGS will MATCH any donation up to the first $10,000 that is made before December 31, 2012. This means that if you donate $10, ISGS will match your donation with another $10; if you give $100, ISGS will give $100. In addition, Ancestry.com has announced it will also match the overall amount donated by ISGS, which means that the $10,000 raised plus the $10,000 in matching donations will become $40,000! Your $10 donation actually becomes $40 to help digitize these files!

Now c’mon. You were going to drop $10 on that Chia pet, weren’t you? The soap-on-a-rope? The pine-scented candle? The (sigh) car air freshener?
Do us both a favor. Buy me a War of 1812 pension for Christmas instead. Send that same $10 via an online form or by a plain old-fashioned check to the Illinois State Genealogical Society and its ISGS War of 1812 Pension Match Challenge.
You’ll make me very happy… and very proud… this Christmas.
Love ya. (I do, y’know… Really.)

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SOURCES

1. Letting each of you choose the charity has put me on some, um, shall we say interesting mailing lists in the past few years, but hey… the entertainment value has been enormous. ↩
2. No, not you in the under-21 and/or still-in-college crowd. You’re still getting your toys (or the cash), and I still want my caramel chocolates. ↩
3. Compiled service records, Jesse Fore, musician, Captain Michael Gaffney’s Company, 1st Regiment South Carolina Militia; Carded Records, Volunteer Organizations, War of 1812; Records of the Adjutant General’s Office, 1762-1984, Record Group 94; National Archives, Washington, D.C. ↩
4. Jesse Fore (Musician, Capt. Michael Gaffney’s Co., 1 Regiment South Carolina Militia, War of 1812), pension no. S.O. 4,553, S.C. 7,041; Case Files of Pension and Bounty-Land Applications Based on Service in the War of 1812, 1871-1900; Pension and Bounty Land Applications Based on Service between 1812 and 1855; Department of Veterans Affairs, Record Group 15; National Archives, Washington, D.C. ↩
5. Compiled service records, Elijah Gentry, Pvt., James Gentry, Pvt., and Elijah Gentry Sr., Pvt., Captain Samuel Dale’s Company, 1st Regiment Mississippi Territorial Volunteers, War of 1812, RG 94, NA-Washington. ↩
6. See 1930 U.S. census, Cook County, Illinois, Chicago Ward 16, population schedule, enumeration district (ED) 17, page 223(B) (stamped), sheet 18(B), dwelling 155, family 386, Hugo Geissler household; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 5 Apr 2012); citing National Archive microfilm publication T626, roll 441. ↩