By Gena Philibert Ortega

Researching the dead can be easy. Contacting the living can be a whole different ball game. When you find a new cousin, except for genealogist cousins, the most important thing to remember is that not everyone is thrilled about family history. In fact some people could care less (a collective ouch is felt by many of us).

The following are some ideas about making that first contact:

• Contact potential cousins in the least intrusive way as possible. Responding to a genealogical query from a researcher is much different than contacting an unknown cousin out of the blue. With the unknown cousin, I would consider writing an e-mail, if the address is available, or mailing a letter. I know that some genealogists don’t think twice about calling an unknown cousin. I would hesitate just because some people may find it intrusive to get a call from someone asking or telling them about their family history. If you choose to make a call, try to write out what you will say and be sure to be short, sweet, and concise. Don’t overwhelm the person, and be prepared if the person does not want to talk to you.

• If you are requesting information from someone, be sure you are specific. Telling a genealogist you want anything and everything to do with Great-Grandma Harris is probably not going to get you much. But asking what they know about her death might get you what you need. When writing a letter or e-mail, I would recommend that you provide the person with some information and then make your request.

• If you are requesting documents or other items, even the person’s time to look up something, make sure you offer to reimburse them. Taking time out of their lives to make copies, mail documents or get information for you is worth something. The person may decline a monetary reimbursement but at least offer it. You may even consider sending something as a thank you based on how much the person has supplied you. A thank you card or a gift certificate might be much appreciated it.

• Also, remember to provide your new cousin with copies of your research. Your contact may inspire them to learn more about their family history or bring up questions that they have. Consider sending completed family group sheets or pedigree charts to them so that they can know more about your shared family history. You may also consider putting together a blog, wiki, or web site that updates family members on your findings.

However, you decide to contact the living, these contacts can often lead you right where you want to be…finding the dead.

The Ottawa City Directory 1909

A very complete and useful directory of Ottawa and Hull for 1909, including the (then) outlying districts of Ottawa: Billings Bridge, Eastview (Old Cummings Bridge, Janeville & Clarkstown), Mechanicsville and Rockliffe Park.

The directory gives an alphabetical list of all business firms and private citizens; a classified business and a miscellaneous directory; and a complete street guide showing the occupier of every building on every street and the intersecting cross streets.

Passengers Arriving in New York from Ireland 1846–1851

http://www.worldvitalrecords.com/indexinfo.aspx?ix=ireland_famine

Historical Context
The Center for Immigration Research (CIR) at the Balch Institute created this series to promote access to information about immigrants from Ireland to the United States during the era of the Irish Potato Famine, 1846-1851. It was extracted from ship passenger lists in the records of the U.S. Customs Service (NARA Record Group 36).

Questions Asked:
Name
Age
Town of Last Residence
Destination
Passenger Arrival Date
Codes:
Passenger’s Sex
Occupation
Literacy
Native Country
Transit Status
Travel Compartment
Passenger Port of embarkation
Identification Number for the Ship Manifest
Other Voyages (of the Ship)
Passenger List (for that voyage on that ship)

Why This Database is Valuable
These materials identify 604,596 persons who arrived in the Port of New York, 1846-1851, and the ships on which they arrived. Approximately 70 percent of the passenger records list Ireland as the native country. The other 32 countries include Canada, Brazil, Saint Croix, Russia, Morocco, the United States and countries throughout Europe. These records include passengers aboard ships with both Irish and non-Irish ports of embarkation for emigration to America. The series consists of four electronic files. The primary file is the Famine Irish Passenger Record File (FIPAS) that includes passenger lists with the personal names involved in this wave of immigration. Three additional files supplement it and serve as electronic code files. They are the Famine Irish Manifest Header File, the Famine Irish Port Code List and the Famine Irish Country Code List.

Next StepsMake sure to check with the Passenger List for the ship. People with similar surnames could have traveled together as families, and these could lead to naturalization records for New York, New Jersey, or whatever city the immigrant settled in.

by Gena Philibert Ortega

Employment and business records can provide rich detail about the everyday lives of our ancestors.  Even if your ancestor was a “farmer,” details about what farming was like during your ancestor’s era can provide you with a better understanding of their life and lead you to other records that may be of assistance to your research.

The following is a general overview of business and occupational records including a look at a few specific occupations.  While these records and repositories are specific to researching occupations, some of the ideas also may be of assistance to you as you research other aspects of your family history.

Where do you find what your ancestor’s occupation was?  The U.S. Federal Census can provide a glimpse at what type of occupation your ancestor was involved in. City directories also provide information. You can find city directories on genealogy database sites like WorldVitalRecords.  Consult the website U.S. City Directories, http://www.uscitydirectories.com/ for information about repositories and the city directories they house in their collections.  You can also check out Miriam Robbins Midkiff’s blog, Online City, County and Rural Directories at http://onlinedirectorysite.blogspot.com/.  She provides links to where you can find directories online.

Don’t forget to consult obituaries and newspaper articles for information about your ancestor’s work life. Many of the resources we currently use as genealogists include a space for the person who is filling out the form to include information about their occupation. The World War I Draft Registration includes a place for the registrant to add their occupation.  For 20th century ancestors, you can order their Social Security Application and see what occupation they listed on that form.  However, keep in mind that this will only provide you their occupation at the time they applied for a Social Security card.

Finding your Ancestor
In general you will want to explore various sources online and in the “real world” to find information about your ancestor’s occupation.  Do not make the mistake of thinking everything is online.  Only a small portion of information is online, the rest can be found in various “real world” places.  Places to conduct research include: the library in the place your ancestor is from, the library where you are located, museums, state archives and libraries, county archives, courthouses, organizational archives and libraries, and more. For my checklist on repositories, check out my blog at http://philibertfamily.blogspot.com/2009/05/places-to-find-documents-records-and.html.

When thinking about where business or occupational records for your ancestor may be located, consider what is involved with the occupation and groups that your ancestor may have been involved with as a result of his or her occupation. Was there a union that the ancestor would have had to join? Would they have been a member of a professional or a fraternal organization?  Did that occupation or business have a professional or trade magazine or newspaper? Did that business involve interactions with other businesses or the government? Are there government records involving that occupation like a business license, fictitious business name or tax records?

There are some online resources that can help you better understand your ancestor’s occupation. Google Scholar, http://scholar.google.com/ , can lead you to “scholarly” books and journal articles about your ancestor’s occupation.  While you probably won’t find information about your specific ancestor in Google Scholar, you can use it as a resource to learn more about your ancestor’s occupation. In one case someone told me about researching his ancestor, a sheriff, and finding a book through Google Scholar about sheriffs from the ancestor’s locality that included his picture. 

Google Books, http://books.google.com/books, is a great place to look for local histories and histories of an occupation or business. Don’t forget to look for books that may have to do with a related industry or pursuit. One of my ancestor’s brothers owned a cotton mill.  I was looking at a quilt book one day that featured quilts from the state the cotton mill was in and it included a picture and history of that cotton mill.

You can look for images of your ancestor’s specific business or occupation on sites such as Google Images, http://images.google.com/. Look for images that include examples of the industry and how the work was done.

Occupations
Remember that when looking for occupational records you will be looking at sources in many places.  Don’t forget to do a locality search on the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC), http://www.loc.gov/coll/nucmc/, and find out what manuscripts exist for the location your ancestor lived in.  Manuscripts include unpublished documents like grocery store ledgers, diaries, business receipts, correspondence, diaries/journals, theses/dissertations, etc.

To search on NUCMC go to the website and then in the middle column where it says “Searching Manuscripts” click on the link “Searching on OCLC WorldCat.”

Also try using Periodical Source Index (PERSI) and conduct a locality search to see what genealogy/historical newsletter articles might exist.  PERSI is available to search through Ancestry and through Heritage Quest.

PERSI is a service of the Allen County Public Library and they index genealogy and historical newsletters.  They only index the title, so you can search for a surname but you probably will have better luck with locality or even an occupation.

Railroad
Was your ancestor working on the railroad all their live long day?  There are some places to check for railroad records.  For those with railroad workers I would recommend the book, Directory of North American Railroads by Holly T. Hansen.  This book contains the addresses of 1600 repositories that hold railroad records. You can purchase this book through Holly’s company, Family History Expos at http://www.fhexpos.com/store/product.php?id=652.

There is a great article about researching railroad employees on Genealogy Today entitled Locating Railroad Employee Records at http://www.genealogytoday.com/guide/railroad-employees.html. This article also includes links for railroad employee records, related organizations, employee magazine online and additional records.  Some of the records linked to are available at Genealogy Today.  Remember with most online genealogy databases you can search for free-you just have to pay to see the “hits.”

You might want to consider checking out railroad maps, especially if your ancestor “rode the rails” for his occupation.  Some sites where you can see railroad maps are The Library of Congress Railroad Map Collection 1825-1900 at http://rs6.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/rrhtml/rrhome.html . The Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum, http://cprr.org/,  has some great 19th century maps that will be a bonus to your research.

If your ancestor worked for the Railroad after 1936, you could request records from the Railroad Retirement Board, http://www.rrb.gov/mep/genealogy.asp.  However, you can only request the records of those that are deceased. It is a $27.00, payable in advance, to have the Board look for records for your ancestor and that fee is non-refundable even if they find no records.

Was your ancestor in a railroad accident?  The National Archives (NARA) has records of railroad accidents from 1911-1984.  To learn more about railroad records at NARA, consult the article, Riding the Rails Up Paper Mountain: Researching Railroad Records in the National Archives at http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1997/spring/railroad-records-1.html.   You can also find details of accidents from newspapers local to the accident site and sometimes even farther.  My grandfather was an engineer for a railroad and was involved in a large accident that occurred in the desert region of Riverside County, California.  The details of the accident were reported as far away as Los Angeles County.  Don’t forget to look in surrounding areas for the accident coverage.

I would also recommend looking at collections housed at museums, including railroad museums and historical societies as possibilities for additional records.

Inventor
Did your ancestor invent something?  Did they apply for a patent for that invention?  You may want to check the Google Patent Search, http://www.google.com/patents.  This patent index allows you to search over 7 million patents.  Once you find the one you are interested in you can read the application online or download it as a pdf file.  You can also cross reference it to patents for similar inventions.

Coal Mining
One website that includes links to coal mining resources is Genealinks at http://www.genealinks.com/coalminers.htm. A website about Southeastern Ohio coal mining can be found at http://www.ohgen.net/ohathens/coalhistory.htm.  For those with UK coal miners, there is a fabulous site called The Coal Mining History Resource Center at http://www.cmhrc.co.uk/site/home/. This website includes a database of UK mining deaths, a pictorial of a day in the life of a miner in 1939, mine location maps in Great Britain and the Isle of Mann. A description of Scottish miners can be found at http://www.ancestralscotland.com/research-your-roots/working-men-and-women/coalminers/. A History of coal mining in Nova Scotia can be found at http://www.mininghistory.ns.ca/.

The Department of Mining for each state (United States) generally published an annual report that detailed information about a mine and can include any mining accidents and the names of those who were involved.  These may be kept at a historical society, library or a state archive or state library.  An example of one such report is the West Virginia Dept. of Mines and Mining Annual Report for 1883 found at Internet Archive at  http://www.archive.org/details/annualreportdept19west. The 1911 version can be found at Google Books at http://tinyurl.com/yjaz74d.
A list of reports for Pennsylvania can be found at http://tinyurl.com/ygqlp5a.
To learn about coal mining research, read the article, Coal Mining Research in the United States by Tim Pinnick , originally published in the NGS magazine (July/August/September 2006) at http://www.blackcoalminerheritage.net/pdfs/NGS_coalminer_article.pdf.

Farmer
Agricultural Schedules, part of the non-population schedules to the U.S. Federal Census, provide an example of a county and what farming and other activities happened there. For an explanation of the non-population schedules, consult the National Archives at http://www.archives.gov/genealogy/census/nonpopulation/.

You can read these Agricultural census reports at http://www.agcensus.usda.gov/Publications/Historical_Publications/index.asp, beginning with 1840 and ending with 1950.  Just as a side note, this website has the 1840 report that includes the list of Revolutionary War pensioners, listed by name and state.

Resources for researching an occupation are so vast, they could fill a book. To learn more about researching business records consult the book,  The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy  by Loretta Dennis Szucs and Sandra Hargreaves Luebking . If you do not own a copy, you can read the chapter on business records, starting on page 99 at Google Books, http://tinyurl.com/ykouwfe.

by Gena Philibert Ortega

A lot of confusion exists around the subject of cousins. Everyone knows that a cousin (or also known as a first cousin) is the daughter or son of their parent’s siblings. But after that, the confusion begins for most people. When thinking of cousins just remember that they are relatives for whom you share a set of grandparents, great-grandparents, etc. So a second cousin would be someone related to you with whom you share a great-grandparent with.

Second cousins are often mistaken as the children of your first cousin but in actuality, that person would be your first cousin once removed. The term “removed” indicates that you and that person are not of the same generation. You and your first cousin are of the same generation; you are both two generations from your grandparents. But your cousin’s daughter is a 3rd generation away from your grandparents (her great-grandparents.). In this instance the word generation has nothing to do with how old you are but instead it indicates how far generationally you are from a couple, like your grandparents or great-grandparents.

I know this is confusing and for some it may be easier to “see” it then to understand it by just reading it. A clear concise chart can be found on About.com at http://genealogy.about.com/library/nrelationshipchart.htm. This can assist you as you pick up new cousins and want to know exactly how you are related.

By Gena Philibert Ortega

Consistency in spelling is a more modern concern, and when searching for ancestors, it is not unusual to have an ancestor whose name is spelled a variety of ways by himself and by others.
So how do you find someone whose name seems to change every time they write it? How do you even figure out what the variations are?

• Think like a 3rd grader. One way to figure out some possible spelling variations is to get help from someone who sounds everything out phonetically, a 3rd grader. Ask a child how they would spell a certain name. You may be surprised at some of the ways they think it is spelled. Kids don’t have our adult brain that tells us that a certain spelling is wrong. If you don’t have a child handy to help you, just sit down with a piece of paper and start playing with ideas about how a surname could have been spelled. Consider different vowel combination and extra consonants that may have been thrown in.

• Try using wildcards to catch additional spellings of a surname. Most search engines, including WorldVitalRecords, allow for wildcard searches. How this works, is it allows you to substitute a symbol (usually an asterisk *) for a letter or letters. On WorldVitalRecords, you can type in the first 3 letters of a first name or a surname and then place a *. This will help you add more results than just typing the name as you “know” it should be spelled. An example would be my surname of Philibert. When searching in WorldVitalRecords you could type in Phi*, this could help you to get hits that would spell my surname as Philbert or Philabert. In using the wildcard for a first name it may help in picking up different versions of a first name like Mar* would look for Maria, Mary, Marie, Marisol, etc. One way you can use a wildcard when you search Google is by placing a wildcard in the middle of the name like John * Jones. This tells Google that you want to find results that may include something in the middle of John and Jones, like an initial or a middle name.

• Consider the way a surname could have been indexed. Many problems exist when you take a document and ask people (or even computers) to index them. One problem that can come up is how the person interprets the last name. I’ve seen times when a surname has a prefix of Van that the Van part of the surname is indexed as a middle name. So the surname is indexed as only the part that comes after Van. This can also happen with names that start with Mc or Mac. This is why it’s important to be open to lots of ways a name could be interpreted not just when it was originally written but years later when it is indexed onto a genealogical database.

• If a Soundex search is available, use it. A Soundex feature allows you to search surnames that sound like the surname that you are searching. This is especially helpful in looking through lists where a surname might be spelled a number of ways. Soundex doesn’t rely on how the name is spelled, it’s a system that codes names based on how they sound. In the case of Johnson, it doesn’t matter whether it is spelled Johnsen, Johnson, or Johnsan, you will be able to find it. In the case of WorldVitalRecords you can use a Soundex search and a Double Metaphone search. For more information about these two search methods, click here .

In honor of Thanksgiving, through November 30, 2009, we have over 200 early American databases available to the public for FREE. This free access include vital records, court and land records, and military records.

Click here to see the databases.

This a great opportunity to try WorldVitalRecords!

Abstract of Early Kentucky Wills and Inventories, abstracted by Junie Estelle Stewart King, is a collection consisting of the wills and inventories of 38 Kentucky counties from 1780-1840.

Mrs. King abstracted the earliest wills of 38 Kentucky counties formed between the years 1780 and 1842 (with the exception of Crittenden County) and representing the state as a whole. The information given includes dates of instrument and probate, names of wife and children, and names of witnesses. The arrangement is county by county, each with its own index, with a general index at the rear of the book containing all the names mentioned in the text. The following Kentucky counties are within the scope of the work: Barren, Bourbon, Bullitt, Caldwell, Christian, Clark, Crittenden, Daviess, Fayette, Franklin, Gallatin, Garrard, Greene, Hardin, Harrison, Henderson, Henry, Hopkins, Jefferson, Jessamine, Knox, Lincoln, Livingston, Logan, Madison, McCracken, Mercer, Muhlenberg, Nelson, Nicholas, Ohio, Scott, Shelby, Spencer, Todd, Warren, Washington, and Woodford.

To start searching this collection click here. You will need a membership to WorldVitalRecords.

Happy Veterans Day! The following list is of WorldVitalRecords military databases that are FREE for November 11-13, 2009. It’s a great time to research your veteran ancestor!

Australian Contingents to South Africa

Bergen County Historical Society Papers: Revolutionary War Round Table Papers

British Military Officers

Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps, January 1, 1930

Connecticut Soldiers in the French and Indian War: Bills, Receipts and Documents

Cross-Border Warriors: Canadian in American Forces, Americans in Canadian Forces

Education Department War Service 1914-17

Fragments of War: Stories from Survivors of World War II

Georges Vanier: Soldier, The Wartime Letters and Diaries, 1915 – 1919

Grant and his Campaigns: A Military History

History of the 27th Regiment New York Vols. : Being a Record of Its More Than Two Years of Service in the War for the Union, From May 21st, 1861 to May 31st, 1863

How to be a Spy: The World War II SOE Training Manual

The Invisible War: The Untold Secret Story of Number One Canadian Special Wireless Group

Korean War Casualties

The Last Invasion of Canada: The Fenian Raids, 1866 -1870

The Making of Billy Bishop: The First World War Exploits of Billy Bishop, VC

McGill University at War, 1914 – 1916, 1939 – 1945

Michigan in the War

Military History of Wayne County, N.Y. the County in the Civil War

Muster Rolls of the Soldiers of the War of 1812: Detached from the Militia of North Carolina in 1812 and 1814

New Zealand Wars: Maori Campaigns

New Zealanders and the Boer War

Notes and Observations Made During Four Years of Service with the Ninety-Eighth New York Volunteers in the War of 1861

Nova Scotia’s Part in the Great War, 1920

Official History of the Canadian Forces in the Great War, 1914 – 1919, Volume 1

Official History of the Canadian Forces in the Great War, 1914 – 1919, Volume 1, Part 2

The Official History of the Canadian Forces in the Great War, 1914 – 1919, Volume 1, Maps

Official History of the Canadian Forces in the Great War, 1914 – 1919: The Medical Services

Official Military History of Kansas Regiments: During the War for the Suppression of the Great Rebellion

Paras Versus the Reich: Canada’s Paratroopers at war, 1942-45

The Plattsburg Movement: A Chapter of America’s Participation in the World War

Queenslanders Who Fought in Great War

Record of the Services of Illinois Soldiers in the Black Hawk War, 1831-32, and in the Mexican War, 1846 -1848

Records About Japanese Americans Relocated During World War II

Records of Officers and Men of New Jersey in Wars 1791 – 1815

Regimental Losses in the American Civil War , 1861 – 1865

Register of the Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Marine Corps Reserve, January 1, 1931

Register of the Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps, January 1, 1929

Reminiscences, Incidents, Battles, Marches and Camp Life of the Old 4th Michigan Infantry in War of Rebellion, 1861 – 1864

Revised Register of the Soldiers and Sailors of New Hampshire in the War of the Rebellion, 1861 – 1866

Revolutionary War Pensions of Soldiers Who Settled in Fayette County, Kentucky

Roster of Confederate Soldiers in the War Between the States, Furnished by Lincoln County, North Carolina, 1861 – 1865

Roster of North Carolina Troops in the War Between the States, Volume 1

Roster of Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines of the War of 1812, the Mexican War, and the War of the Rebellion, Residing in Nebraska, December 1, 1897

Roster of the North Carolina Volunteers in the Spanish-American War, 1898 – 1899

A Sergeant’s Diary in the World War: The Diary of an Enlisted Member of the 150th Field Artillery, Forty-Second (Rainbow) Division, October 27, 1917 – August 7, 1919

Soldiers of King Philip’s War

1898 Spanish American War – Texas

1898 Spanish American War Volunteers – Colorado

Tasmanians in the Transvaal War

Tasmanians War Record 1914-1918

Tennessee in the War 1861-1865

USA World War II Army Enlistment

Vietnam Casualties 1956 – 1998

The War Book of Upper Canada College, 1923

The War of 1812: The War That Both Sides Won

War Services Old Melburnians

World War II Prisoners of Japanese

World War II Prisoners of War 1941 – 1946

by Gena Philibert Ortega

I think Veterans Day is one of the most important holidays we have. My own family has seen one or more ancestors serve in the military from the time of the United States Revolutionary War to Vietnam. Veteran’s Day is a great time to thank those who have served and those who are serving. Without them we would not have the freedoms we enjoy today.

When we think of veterans we often think of men who have served our country selflessly. It is a mistake to think that women rarely served in the military or that women’s military service is a recent phenomena. Women have pretty much always served during war time. Examples abound from earlier wars like the Revolutionary War and the American Civil War. Unlike modern times, these earlier women had to often disguise themselves as men in order to serve their country. The topic of researching women veterans is vast and cannot be adequately covered in this short article, but some of these resources should help you in searching for information on the history of women veterans and the history of your ancestress.

Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America’s Independence by Carol Berkin provides a glimpse of women who affected the war through their boycotts of English goods, raised money for the war effort and served as spies and soldiers. Don’t forget to use the bibliography to search for other works on women in the Revolutionary War. Google Books can also be a great source for digitized books. The 1856 work, The Women of the American Revolutionary War by Elizabeth F. Ellet can be found there, and provides even more stories of women’s heroism during the war.

For information about women who served in the Civil War, consider the book, They Fought Like Demons by DeAnne Blanton and Lauren Cook. This work chronicles women who dressed as men during the Civil War so that they could fight for their country. These early women, especially those whose secret was uncovered, were rarely given the respect and admiration they deserved. The web site Women of the American Civil War, includes a history of women Civil War soldiers and books available on the topic.

World War I saw an increase in women’s role in the military as nurses. According to Women Veterans: Past, Present and Future , by the end of World War I over 34,000 women were serving as nurses in the military. By the end of World War II, some 350,000 women had served out of a military force of 12 million.

Researching a female ancestor who served in the military covertly may be difficult. These women used aliases and may or may not have been discovered. While you could try accessing military records for Revolutionary War or Civil War service the standard way, it may be more prudent to start by researching family legends and history books about women who served in these wars.

Researching women who served during more modern times, World War I through the present should include the same type of research done for male veterans. Techniques include accessing military records, histories of units, and other resources such as obituaries, family histories and stories, local histories, etc.

When researching any ancestor it is vital to learn about the time period and what life was like in that period and under those circumstances. Some websites that might give you a perspective about women’s service include: Military Women Veterans: Yesterday-Today-Tomorrow, includes information on stories of women who have served from Revolutionary War to the present. Also included is a memorial for women who have been killed in the war in Iraq. Experiencing War: Women at War, is a project of the Veteran’s History Project. Twelve women’s stories are available on video and audio to download and listen to. You must have Real Player to listen and view the films, which is a free download with a link available at the site. These 12 interviews represent civilian and military women serving during World War II to the Persian Gulf. A link on the site provides a comprehensive list, by surname or theme of all veterans’ stories that are part of the project.

Similarly, the Idaho State Historical Society has a Women in World War II Veteran’s History Project online. This collection includes 48 interviews with women who served or were somehow affected by the War. Interviews include a Japanese American woman who was interred at Camp Minidoka; a woman who was in the British Royal Air Force; women who were in various branches of the military; and a woman who was part of the underground in the Netherlands. These stories bring alive the experience of women during this time period and can provide those of us who were not part of this era with some ideas about what life was like and women’s contributions during this time.

Idaho is not the only state that has or is currently capturing the stories of women veterans. Maine and North Carolina have similar projects. “What did you do in the War Grandma” is a project that chronicles Rhode Island women’s experience.

Some general military web sites that may help you research military ancestors include, Military Record Request, U. S. Department of Veteran Affairs Nationwide Gravesite Locator, American Battle Monuments Commission, and How to Trace Your US Military Ancestors.