Genealogy Military Records

Military records often outlast everything else: pensions yield biographical detail and family proof; draft registrations capture aliens and naturalized citizens; muster rolls place an ancestor at a date and place. Pair with Genealogy Cemetery & Burial Records for war-grave specifics, Genealogy Wills, Probate & Land for bounty-land warrants, and Genealogy Newspaper Archives for casualty reports.

US — free

• ★ ★ NARA Military Records — free indexes, paid copies. The official source for federal military service records: Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Mexican War, Civil War, WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, etc. Copies are paid (~$25–$80) but the index is free. Many WWI/WWII records destroyed in the 1973 St. Louis fire — flag for those years.
• ★ FamilySearch Military — free; large indexes for US Civil War (Union + Confederate), WWI/WWII Draft Registrations, pension indexes, muster rolls.
• ★ WWI Draft Registration Cards — free at FamilySearch / paid at Ancestry; ~24M registrants 1917–1918. Required of all men 18–45 regardless of citizenship — captures immigrants.
• ★ WWII "Old Man's Draft" / Fourth Registration — free; ~6M registrants 1942 (men 45–64). Names + birthdates of ancestors who never showed up in WWI registration.
• WWII Draft Registration (Young Men) — free at FamilySearch / paid at Ancestry.
• Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System (NPS) — free; index of ~6.3M Union + Confederate soldiers.
• DAR Genealogical Research System — free; Daughters of the American Revolution patriot index — proves Revolutionary War service.
• SAR Patriot Records — free; Sons of the American Revolution.

US — paid

• ★ ★ Fold3 — paid (~$8/mo or $80/yr standalone, included in Ancestry All Access). Ancestry-owned military specialty: Civil War service files, pension files, WWI/WWII/Korea/Vietnam, Naval records, court martial records. Image-rich; the deepest US military image collection. Some collections have free preview / open-access months.
  • https://www.fold3.com/
• Ancestry US Military — paid; cross-referenced with other Ancestry collections.
• MyHeritage Military — paid; smaller US coverage but global.
• HeritageQuest (via libraries) — free for many library cardholders; Revolutionary War pension files included.

UK & Commonwealth

• ★ CWGC (Commonwealth War Graves Commission) — free; meticulous WWI/WWII war dead from UK / Canada / AUS / NZ / SA / India. Each entry includes parents' names + age + unit + grave location.
  • https://www.cwgc.org/
• ★ Findmypast Military — paid; deep UK military: WWI service records, pensions, RAF, Royal Navy.
• Forces War Records — paid (~$15/mo); UK military specialist; ~25M records.
• TheGenealogist — paid; UK military rolls + Casualty rolls.
• Ancestry UK Military — paid; competitive coverage.
• Imperial War Museum — free indexes + research guides.
• Veterans UK — free; modern UK service-record requests by next of kin.

US war dead overseas

• ABMC (American Battle Monuments Commission) — free; US war dead buried overseas (WWI/WWII).
• HonorStates — free volunteer-driven WWII US casualty database.
• Together We Served — free + paid; modern US/UK veterans' service-record sharing.

Other countries

• Library and Archives Canada Military — free; Canadian Expeditionary Force, WWII, Korean War.
• National Archives of Australia Military — free + paid; AIF service records WWI free.
• Archives New Zealand — free; NZEF WWI service records.
• Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge — free; German war dead WWI / WWII.
• Mémoires des Hommes (France) — free; French war dead 1914+.
• Memoria del Holocausto / Yad Vashem — free; Holocaust victims and survivors.
• OBD-Memorial (Russia) — free; Soviet WWII military casualties + POWs.

Specialty topics

• Bounty-land warrants (US) — free at NARA + FamilySearch; granted to Revolutionary War / War of 1812 / Mexican War veterans. Genealogically rich.
• Civil War widows' pensions — free index, paid copies; the gold mine of biographical detail (proof of marriage, children's birthdates, parents' names).
• Confederate pension applications — applied for through the state, not federal. Free at state archives + FamilySearch.
• Loyalist records (American Revolution) — paid at Library and Archives Canada + free / paid mixed.
• Pension lists 1840 / 1883 etc. — published rolls of Revolutionary War survivors + widows.

Workflow / methodology

• Identify the war + service period — narrows record sets dramatically.
• Pension files often beat service files for genealogy: pensions had to prove dependents.
• The 1973 St. Louis fire destroyed ~80% of US Army records 1912–1960; some reconstructed from morning reports / hospital admissions / payroll. NARA "B-File" reconstruction process.
• Cluster — neighbors enlisted together, especially in early wars; companies were often county-based.
• Compiled service records are summaries; the file is what you want.
• Forces War Records Premium sometimes offers month-free; plan a research week.

What's changing in 2024–2026

• Vietnam / Korea records moving online as 50-year confidentiality expires.
• AI transcription of muster rolls improving searchability of pre-1900 records.
• Russian / Ukrainian conflict — modern casualty record availability uncertain; archives access disrupted.
• Fold3 redesign rolled out 2024; UI updated, but deep links from old citations still resolve.
• CWGC has full-text search of cemetery / memorial records; reverse-lookup by graveyard works.

Pick this if…

• Default US starting point: FamilySearch + NARA index; pull files from NARA by mail/email.
• Best US image collection: Fold3 (or via Ancestry All Access bundle).
• Civil War pension files (the genealogical gold mine): Fold3 or order from NARA.
• WWI/WWII draft registrations to find immigrant ancestors: FamilySearch.
• Commonwealth war dead: CWGC, free.
• UK military deep dive: Findmypast or Forces War Records.
• France WWI: Mémoires des Hommes, free.
• Holocaust research: Yad Vashem + JewishGen, free; see Genealogy By Country (Jewish/African/Asian).