World War II Genealogy Research: 5 Key Records

The world celebrates the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in 2025. The largest, costliest and bloodiest war in human history involved dozens of nations—and some 16 million Americans who served in the U.S. armed forces.

When the attack on Pearl Harbor plunged the United States into war, the country was ill-prepared to fight what would soon be a two-front conflict. With war looming in September 1940, President Roosevelt and Congress had already instituted America’s first peacetime draft. By late 1942, all men ages 18 to 64 were required to register for the draft.

If you’re researching ancestors who served in World War II, there’s one tragic event long after the war’s end that you need to keep in mind. On 12 July 1973, fire swept through the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in St. Louis, destroying as many as 18 million military personnel files.

Read on to learn about the most-important records for documenting WWII service. Throughout, I’ll include sample records from my father (Donald Fryxell) and uncle (Art Fryxell), who served in the U.S. Army and Navy respectively.

With a little sleuthing, the generations that followed those who fought in World War II can learn about their service, add to their family trees—and maybe say “thanks.”

Service Records

In all, 80% of records for US Army personnel discharged between 1912 and 1960 and three-quarters of 1947 to 1964 US Air Force records were destroyed in the NPRC fire. Hardest hit by the 22-hour inferno were records of WWII US Army soldiers, in part because of the large numbers who were enlisted or drafted for the war.

No duplicates or microfilm of these records were ever made, nor were any indexes created prior to the fire. However, the National Archives has continued to work at reconstructing the lost information from other sources. These include Veterans Administration (VA) claims files, state records, pay vouchers, draft registrations and military hospital records.

Despite the record loss, you can still try to request Official Military Personnel Files (OMPF) and other documents from the Archives using the eVetRecs system—just be aware that your ancestor’s file may have been destroyed. In that case, the Archives’ staff will try to piece together information from other collections, which will take more time for your request.

You’ll need to include as much detail about the veteran as possible, such as:

• Full name
• Service branch
• Service dates (even just a range)
• Service number/serial number (for servicemembers prior to 1971; can be found in enlistment records—see the following section) or Social Security number

If the records may have been destroyed in the 1973 fire, it’s also helpful to supply:

• Place where veteran enlisted or entered service
• Place of discharge
• Last unit assigned

Note that only personnel files of servicemembers who were discharged more than 63 years ago are considered “archival.” More-recent records are restricted and held by the Department of Defense.

Other documents can provide clues about your ancestor’s service. Navy servicemembers were often mentioned in “cruise books,” yearbook-like publications created for a ship upon its deployment. These are available at Fold3 and Ancestry.com and include a portrait of sailors, officers, and other personnel, perhaps with candid photographs and a history of the ship. Other military yearbooks document training camps or units in other branches.

Likewise, unit histories provide often-detailed accounts of what specific battalions, regiments, divisions and Army groups did during the war. That makes them great resources if you can glean unit information for your family member.

Finally, muster rolls list all personnel assigned to a specific ship or station (for the Navy) or unit (other branches). They often include dates of enlistment, plus notes about where your ancestor was at a specific time and any transfers. Fold3 holds WWII muster rolls for the Navy, and includes WWII-era Marine Corps in its expansive collection.

Sample muster roll

My Uncle Art served in the Navy, so looking for his records was a bit different. I found his draft card, but of course he’s not listed in the Army enlistment database. The Navy muster rolls on Ancestry.com and Fold3 offered a post-by-post “where was he when?” account, placing him at a Long Beach, Calif., naval training center and on board the USS Hocking, among other postings.

Note, however, that the muster records don’t appear in chronological order, so you may have to do some scrolling and make a list to trace a sailor’s entire story. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find him in Fold3’s cruise books collection. Apparently, the Hocking didn’t have one.

Draft Registration Cards

During World War II, the Selective Service System conducted five draft registrations of young men. Subsequent registrations captured men who had come of age since the last registration (or who otherwise hadn’t previously registered) or expanded the age range, ultimately encompassing men born between 17 February 1897 and 31 December 1924. The first two, taken in the fall of 1940 and the spring of 1941, pre-date the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the United States’ entry into the war, making them the first US military drafts taken during peace time.

You can request copies of draft cards from the National Archives using the form online. You can also search and view cards on Ancestry.com, FamilySearch and Fold3. (FamilySearch has the cards grouped by state.) Nearly all states are represented; Maine’s draft cards were destroyed before they could be digitized.

Information on WWII draft cards typically included:

• Name
• Serial number
• Residence and/or mailing address
• Telephone number (if available)
• Age and place of birth
• Employer’s name and address
• Name and address of person “who will always know your address,” usually a relative or spouse
• Physical description: race, eye color, weight, complexion and hair color
• Date of registration

Even if your ancestor was too old to fight in World War II, you might learn more about him from draft records of the time. An additional registration, known as the “Old Man’s Draft,” was taken 27 April 1942. This asked for information of men ages 45 to 65 (those born between 28 April 1877 and 16 February 1897), meant to inventory manpower that could be deployed on the home front.

You can search “Old Man’s Draft” cards on FamilySearch and Ancestry.com. These contain similar information to that found in the “young” men’s registrations. Records for some states were destroyed before they could be digitized: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Maine, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.

Sample draft card

A quick search of the draft cards at the Access to Archives Databases website produced my father’s record in text form. To view the actual draft card, I turned to Ancestry.com. (Note that these cards have a front and back; click the arrows to view the other side.)

Here I learned that he registered while teaching in New Mexico, not in his native Illinois. (That explains why I couldn’t find his card in FamilySearch’s Illinois collection.) A typed annotation at the top of the card gives his Army discharge date—a fact that might otherwise have been lost in the fire. The reverse side lists him as blue-eyed (his actual green eye color not being an option), brown-haired, 6-foot-tall, and 150 pounds.

Enlistment Records

Fortunately for genealogists, more than 9 million records for WWII enlistments (including draftees) in the Army, Enlisted Reserve Corps and Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps have not only survived but are searchable online.

Find them through the Archives’ Access to Archival Databases website. (Reserve Corps records are in a separate collection.) These 1938 to 1946 records are also available on FamilySearch and subscription sites Ancestry.com, Fold3, MyHeritage and Findmypast.

In general, the records contain:

• Name
• Serial number
• State and county of residence
• Place and date of enlistment
• Grade
• Branch
• Term (e.g., rough dates) of enlistment
• Year and place of birth
• Race
• Education level
• Occupation
• Marital status

Some also contain height and weight and (later) occupational specialty.

A veteran’s serial number is usually the fastest way to find him, helping you avoid spurious hits from same-named individuals. Note that name-searches are not case-sensitive. Names that have prefixes (Mac Afee, de Soto, etc.) have a space between them when both parts are capitalized; names with apostrophes usually don’t (e.g., “Obrien” for O’Brien). Use an asterisk (*) as a wildcard representing one or more letters.

Sample enlistment record transcription

Enlistment records, whether in the Archives’ database or a genealogy site, are text-only. I found my father at this point (enlisted 16 June 1942) in Alabama, still single though he would have already met my mother by then. A VA death file also recorded his enlistment and discharge dates, as well as his birth and death dates and other notes about his Army service.

Casualty and POW Records

Other records online at the National Archives cover more specific WWII events and military service. You can find a summary with links here. Two collections there contain records of WWII casualties: one for Army and Air Force (“Army Air Forces”), and a second for the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard.

If your ancestor was a prisoner of war (POW), you can search the archives’ Record Group 389. Both Ancestry.com and MyHeritage also have collections of WWII POWs’ records, and you learn more about POWs and their experiences at the National WWII Museum’s site and that of the National Museum of the United States Air Force.

At the National Archives site, you’ll also find links to photos from the war, a special collection on African Americans during the war, and an online exhibit “A People at War.” A link to finding aids will help you get the most out of your research.

Fold3 has additional resources, including various casualty indexes as well as a roster of WWII dead. Entries include the name, rank, service number, religion and race of the fallen, plus notes about temporary and permanent interment sites.

Burial Records

Subscription sites including Fold3 also have some veterans’ burial records, including lose who fought in World War II. But it’s worth clicking to the original sites from which the data was derived.

The Nationwide Gravesite Locator from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs searches burial locations in VA National Cemeteries, state veterans cemeteries, or other US locations. (You can also search cemeteries on Ancestry.com or Find a Grave.)

The handsome site from the American Battle Monuments Commission lets you find the gravesites and memorials and explore the stories of more than 200,000 Americans who died in one of the World Wars and are buried overseas. It also features multimedia and virtual 360-degree tours, plus information on the commission’s cemeteries and monuments.

Another site, the WWII Memorial Registry, associated with the WWII Memorial in Washington, DC, combines two databases:

• The names of Americans listed on War and Navy Department Killed in Service rosters held by NARA
• An unofficial and developing compilation of “public acknowledgements honoring US citizens who helped to win the Second World War”

Sample burial record

Because Uncle Art was buried in a national cemetery, the VA’s Nationwide Gravesite Locator site was able to identify not only the cemetery (Rock Island National Cemetery) but also the exact plot (Section N, site 1301). There was even a link to a cemetery map.

Other Resources

These resources are only the beginning. You can also check for records held by each state where your ancestors may have lived; see the links at FamilySearch.

Other records cover specific groups of individuals in the US military. If your ancestor deserted, there’s even a collection of “WWII Army Deserters Pay Cards, 1943–1945” on Ancestry.com. Another collection covers more than 100,000 Jewish-American servicemen.

Personnel who were at Pearl Harbor when it was attacked are represented in several memorial collections, including a guide to muster rolls from naval ships.

Long after their service, servicemembers were tracked by the Department of Veterans Affairs. The agency’s BIRLS (Beneficiary Identification Records Locater Subsystem) created a Death File that logged deceased veterans who died through 2010. Cross-referenced with the Social Security Death Index, it lists the veteran’s name; cause of death; birth and death dates; branch(es) of service; and dates of enlistment and release.

Many WWII veterans opted not to discuss their experiences. But several oral history projects can give you a feel for your ancestor’s experiences:

• Atlanta History Center: Veterans History Project
• Library of Congress: Veterans History Project
• National Guard Militia Museum of New Jersey: Center for U.S. War Veterans’ Oral Histories
• Southeastern Oklahoma State University: Veteran Oral History Project
• Stories Behind the Stars
• University of Maine, Maine Folklife Center: Veterans Oral History Project

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These members of the “Greatest Generation,” from my family and millions of others, likely never imagined that a testimony to their service would live on in “cyberspace.” In fact, my father passed away five years before the World Wide Web was unveiled to the public.

But with a little sleuthing, the generations that followed those who fought in World War II can learn about their service, add to their family trees—and maybe say “thanks.”

Timeline: WWII History

• 18 September 1931: Japan invades Manchuria, China
• 25 November 1936: Japan and Germany sign a pact; Italy later joins, forming the Axis Powers
• 1 September 1939: Germany invades Poland, widely regarded as the first act of World War II in Europe; though sympathetic to the Allies, the United States officially remains neutral
• 22 June 1940: France is overrun by Germany and surrenders
• 16 September 1940: The U.S. Congress authorizes the first peacetime draft registration program; by 1945, some 50 million men had registered
• 31 October 1940: The Battle of Britain (“the Blitz”) ends after months of German air raids against the United Kingdom
• 11 March 1941: The United States enacts the Lend-Lease Act that provides materials to the Allies
• 22 June 1941: Germany invades the Soviet Union, its former ally
• 7 December 1941: Pearl Harbor is bombed by Japan; the United States enters the war the next day
• 20 January 1942: Nazi officers approve the “Final Solution,” a plan for murdering Jews en masse across Europe
• 19 February 1942: Franklin D. Roosevelt issues Executive Order 9066, which authorizes the incarceration of Japanese-Americans; the Supreme Court upholds the order on three separate occasions
• 7 June 1942: Japan fails to capture the island of Midway, halting its expansion across the Pacific
• 8 November 1942: US and British troops land in North Africa
• 12 May 1943: The Axis surrender in North Africa
• 3 September 1943: Italy surrenders; a German puppet state there continues fighting
• 6 June 1944: The Allies land in Normandy on “D-Day,” opening a new front against the Axis Powers
• 16 December 1944: The Battle of the Bulge (Germany’s last offensive action in the west) begins
• 8 May 1945: Germany surrenders (“Victory in Europe Day” or V-E Day)
• 6 and 9 August 1945: The United States detonates atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
• 15 August 1945: Japan surrenders, ending the war (“Victory over Japan Day” or V-J Day)

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A version of this article appeared in the May/June 2025 issue of Family Tree Magazine.