by Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak
If you’re like me, there are certain sets of records that get you more excited than others. It mostly depends on your own roots, I suppose. And maybe that’s why I love the so-called “old man’s draft” of 1942. It happens to be a handy resource for my family, and depending on the specifics of yours, you might have cause to add it to your favorites as well.

The Basics
The notes on the U.S. World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942 collection include more details than you’ll probably need, so I’ll just cover the fundamentals. This registration was conducted on 27 April 1942. All men who were born on or between 28 April 1877 and 16 February 1897 (men who were between forty-five and sixty-four years of age at the time) were required to register, provided they weren’t already in the military.

And if there’s an entry for your granddad or other male relative, here’s a list of all the juicy details you’ll obtain:

• Name
• Age
• Birth date
• Birthplace
• Residence
• Employer information
• Name and address of person who would always know the registrant’s whereabouts
• Physical description

Good News, Bad News
Before I go any further, I need to explain that the collection falls shy of full-country coverage. At present, the following states are included (those with an asterisk are partially completed):

• Arkansas
• Connecticut
• Delaware
• Indiana
• Maryland
• New Hampshire
• New Jersey*
• New York*
•  Pennsylvania
• Puerto Rico
• Rhode Island
• Vermont
• Virginia
• West Virginia

Unfortunately, records for the following states were destroyed before they were copied, so sadly, those with roots in these states will not have the opportunity to search this collection:

• Alabama
• Florida
• Georgia
• Kentucky
• Mississippi
• North Carolina
• South Carolina
• Tennessee

Records of other states have not been filmed yet, so there isn’t a timeline for when they’ll be available online.

What’s To Love?
So why does this collection rate so high with me? The demographics of my family are such that there are a fair number of men–some of them immigrants–who were conveniently born in that twenty-year time frame. It also provides a frame of comparison for the World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917–1918 collection, which includes men born between 1873 and 1900.

This means that I can easily access two sets of records that might provide an exact birth date or birthplace. For instance, searching on my husband’s grandfather, Anthony Marino, in the WWII records reveals that he was born on 26 October 1890 in Roseto, Italy. This happens to match exactly with the information provided on his WWI draft registration card. But the WWI record also notes that he was the primary support for his father and allows me to conclude that his father must have also emigrated and still been alive in June 1917.

Of course, the two sets of records won’t always correspond so perfectly. My own great-grandfather was born with the colorful name of Yurko Sydorko, but went by George in the U.S. He appears in the WWI records as Geo Sidor, born on 15 April 1882. By the WWII registration, he appears as George Sadorka, born on 29 September 1883. So there are conflicting details that I can weigh against still other sources, but I pick up additional useful snippets of information, such as street addresses, the fact that he was illiterate, and the interesting tidbit that my great-grandmother went by the nickname of Baranka.

I can also use the assorted fields to surface specific groups of people, such as men who were born in Mosty Wielkie or Irish-born Nelligans. I love functionality like this because it occasionally pops up a previously unknown relative–maybe that brother of your grandfather’s who supposedly moved to another city way back in the 1920s.

A Temporary Workaround
I’d like to offer one last tip for working with these WWII draft registration records–and it pertains particularly to those searching in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Vermont, and Delaware. According to the notes of the collection:

“These four states were scanned at the National Archives facility in such a way that the back of one person’s draft card appears on the same image as the front of the next individual. The result is that when you click to view the original image, you will see the correct front side of the draft card, but the back of the previous soldier’s card. Ancestry is aware of this problem, and is working to correct this issue.”

These records were all scanned in individually, so you can’t just use the forward arrow to get to the next page, but there is something you can do to get to this page while a permanent solution is being worked out. It might be easiest to follow along by clicking here to my great-grandfather’s record.

Take a look up at the Web address at the top of your browser. See the portion of the URL that says “PA-2139686-2666?” This is the code for this particular record. If I want to see the back of my great-grandfather’s record, all I have to do is put the cursor at the end of the code and add one to the last digit, so that it’s now PA-2139686-2667. Hit the Enter key, scroll down, and ta-da!–there’s the back of his record. Happy hunting!

Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak, co-author (with Ann Turner) of Trace Your Roots with DNA: Using Genetic Tests to Explore Your Family Tree (as well as In Search of Our Ancestors, Honoring Our Ancestors and They Came to America), can be contacted through megansrootsworld.blogspot.com/, www.honoringourancestors.com, and www.genetealogy.com.

Upcoming Events Where Megan Will Be Speaking

• 2006 Genealogy Conference and Cruise (hosted by Wholly Genes Software)
  (11-18 November 2006 – Mexican Riviera)
• Haddon Fortnightly 

Details and links to upcoming events

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