welcome back to the ancestral findings podcast a source of military records that is unorthodox
but interesting and potentially extremely rewarding is old newspaper records it was
not uncommon during times of war for local newspapers to publish articles about what
the hometown boys were doing on the front soldiers sometimes wrote home to the local papers as well
this is what you can find on your military ancestor in digitized old newspaper records online
one other place where you can find military records may be rather unorthodox but it can yield
extremely useful results once you've looked through all of the official military records
that exist on a particular ancestor you can turn to old newspaper records to potentially find out
more about their service local papers especially often published news about the boys from home
when they were away in various wars letting the hometown readers know what they were doing in
the far-off places they were serving occasionally your ancestor may have even done some remarkable
or unusual feat that landed them in national newspapers this is where you will find detailed
stories about an ancestors war service these are not just bits of data recorded in official records
or secondhand stories or sometimes firsthand ones in pension applications they are detailed
war stories exploits of your military ancestor as told by a reporter who was either there or who
received a wire from a reporter who was there the information in pension applications is fascinating
but it is usually told from a period of years or even decades from when the events being described
happened military stories found in old newspapers are usually told either while they are happening
or immediately thereafter so the memory of the event is still sharp and clear and the recounting
of events is about as accurate as it can be these are excellent resources occasionally you might
even find a letter home that is published in an old newspaper this is a letter from a hometown
soldier written either to a relative who gives it to the paper to publish or written directly
to the paper with the purpose of giving news from the front to the people at home news that
wasn't officially censored anyway there are even instances of soldiers writing poetry in the field
and sending it home for the local newspaper to publish the poems are about a variety of
topics but usually about memories of home or poetic recounting of their experiences overseas
if you can find anything like this that came directly from your military ancestor it is a
bit of genealogical gold that you and the rest of your contemporary family will undoubtedly treasure
it does not get much more personal than this kind of writing straight from the horse's mouth as the
saying goes old newspaper records can also be sources of photographs of your military ancestor
in their uniform local and national newspapers often published these photos either as individuals
or as regiments whatever the type of article required it is quite exciting to see your
ancestor in their uniform and or with their fellow soldiers this is especially true if you
don't have a photo of them or if you only have photos of them when they were older
in fact old newspaper records are excellent sources for photos of civil war soldiers and
are often the only photos ever taken of the men who served in that conflict as you can see old
newspapers are sources you should definitely be using in your military record search
thanks for listening to the ancestral findings podcast it is greatly appreciated be sure to
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