In a message dated 12/27/2003 1:42:31 PM Central Standard Time,
sprinkle73448(a)yahoo.com writes:
Yes I wrote and call st louis they said the orginal veterian paper
was
burned in a fire and they only had a roster ? number but they never sent me
anything else on him and he went to germany and france in ww1 to fight, so he was
on ground fight is all i know dont have alot of military info and the paper
obit and the headstone has two differant date of birth so the head stone has
just cap cavins but the federal cenus has albert the paper has alfred, so im
lost I even went to the funeral home that did his funeral and looked at the
book records the va hosipital in mc kinny texas closed down so i tryed to
contacted ft worth branch and oklahoma branch and call the court house and one can
give me a number or address for texas or oklahoma that could help i would be
greatful im lost until someone helps
sandy hembree
I had trouble finding my grandfather's WWI records, too. I contacted the VFW
post he had been a member of in hopes they had copies of his original
application, but, alas, no one knew where they were.
The person who contacted me regarding my VFW request, however, told me about
STATE records that were kept on veterans in the states they were discharged
to. Every state has such records. Your local veterans organizations or perhaps
organizations such as Paralyzed Veterans of America or Disabled Veterans
might be able to tell you how to find them in the state your grandfather was
discharged to. Delaware had records on my father (WWII whose records were also
burned) and on my grandfather.
In addition, when I telephoned the folks in St. Louis where I found a person
who was able to tell me where records from their VA hospitial admissions had
been stored (regional storage areas nearest the hospitals). They then told me
where to find the closest VA center from which to apply for copies of the
records in storage using the Freedom of Information Act. (I'm still awaiting
those records, but since the Louisville folks were able to give me VA numbers,
dates they entered service and left service, and dates the files were transferred
to storage, it seems likely that I should get something.) Maybe you could
call them back!
Perhaps you might try some of these other steps to get information as well.
Karen
Minnesota