The Know Your Records program consists of free events with up-to-date information about our holdings. Events offer opportunities for you to learn about the National Archives’ records through ongoing lectures, monthly genealogy programs, and the annual genealogy fair. Additional resources include online reference reports for genealogical research, and the newsletter Researcher News. www.archives.gov/calendar/know-your-records The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is the nation's record keeper. Of all the documents and materials created in the course of business conducted by the United States Federal government, only 1%–3% are determined permanently valuable. Those valuable records are preserved and are available to you, whether you want to see if they contain clues about your family’s history, need to prove a veteran’s military service, or are researching an historical topic that interests you. www.archives.gov/calendar/know-your-records January 11, 2017 Ray Bottorff Jr Learn about various genealogy sources from Ray Bottorff Jr as he describes valuable information accidentally found in our records. This part two of a two-part series. Part 1 Part 2 Mr. Bottorff describes sources for Hear about records from the family history research found in Selective Service System, an our records including military independent agency of the United permissions to marry, deceased States government that maintains military personnel, and military information on those potentially personnel passenger lists. subject to military conscription. www.archives.gov/calendar/know-your-records Ray joined the National Archives in 2010 as an Archives Technician and worked in the Research and Microfilm rooms at the National Archives in Washington, DC. In 2013, he transferred to the Textual Processing Section at our building in College Park, MD and later became an Archivist in 2014. Ray's hometown is Detroit where he spent 20 years in various customer service roles for Guardian Alarm and Chrysler Financial. He graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drawing in 1990, and earned a Master of Arts in History along with a Certificate of Archival Administration in 2009 from Ray Bottorff Jr Wayne State University in Detroit. www.archives.gov/calendar/know-your-records ACCIDENTAL GENEALOGY DAY TWO Ray Bottorff Jr Archivist, Textual Processing National Archives at College Park (Archives II) SELECTIVE SERVICE SYSTEM* *Or how I learned how to stop worrying and love the draft (genealogist remix) SELECTIVE SERVICE SYSTEM • Record Group 147, Records of the Selective Service System. • "Draft Registration Cards" for the First World War. • Civil War Draft Lists. • Most genealogists have only seen the Fourth Draft Registration, also known as "The Old Man's Draft" done during April 1942. SELECTIVE SERVICE SYSTEM • Rest of the Draft Registration Cards from World War II. • Regionalized. • Long held back due to privacy concerns until recently. • Not microfilmed. • Size: approximately 35 million men registered for the draft from 1940 to 1946. • Current efforts are underway to digitize these records. It will take time to digitize and then index. • Alternate set of records is available, Draft Registration Lists. SELECTIVE SERVICE SYSTEM • Draft Registration Lists. • In 1945, the Selective Service System found itself with several warehouses full of records that needed to be taken care of. • Purged records deemed no longer necessary. • Major microfilming effort began. • In 1947, the Selective Service System became the Office of the Selective Service. It began the final processing and storage of the remaining records. • By 1948, the Cold War brought back the Selective Service System known today. SELECTIVE SERVICE SYSTEM • The microfilming and reorganizing of their records created a series that might be of interest to genealogists. • First, Second, and Third National Draft Lotteries covering 1940 to 1942. On microfilm: entries A1 17, A1 18, A1 21, and A1 24, Original textual documents: entries PI-27 8, PI-27 11, and PI-27 13, National Archives Identifiers: 1184723, 1184724, and 1184725. • Conscientious Objectors. • "Case Files for Registrants Appealing to the President, 10/1940–03/1947," entry A1 43, National Archives Identifier: 23888895. SELECTIVE SERVICE SYSTEM • Conscientious Objectors • "Docket Books of the Presidential Appeal Board, 10/1940–03/1947," entry A1 45, National Archives Identifier: 23889062. • "Records of Amnesty Board Cases, 1946–1947," entry # A1 46, National Archives Identifier: 23889063. SELECTIVE SERVICE SYSTEM SELECTIVE SERVICE SYSTEM • "Records Related to Local Board and Overseas Registration Lists, Registration Delinquencies, Appeals, Canadian Students, Foreign Nationals, Historical Files, Policy Files, and Americans Serving with Co-Belligerents, 1940–1947," entry UD­ WW 2, National Archives Identifier: 25777965. • Title is a result of series not fully processed yet . • Consists of approximately one thousand 16 and 35 millimeter microfilms that were originally photographed during the 1945 to 1947 microfilming effort. • Boxed and sent to the Federal Records Center by the Selective Service in 1971. • Accessioned to the National Archives during the 1990s. SELECTIVE SERVICE SYSTEM • Why has it been ignored since being transferred to the National Archives? • Series is a currently disorganized . • Boxes are dusty and dirty. • No duplicate copies of the reels as of yet. • Most reels are found on old 70-year-old metal microfilm reels that are very difficult to use on modern microfilm readers. • But maybe it was due to how the series was originally titled for the years it sat on the shelves… SELECTIVE SERVICE SYSTEM "Microfilm 16MM and 35MM." • Twenty boxes, 1cubic foot sized, within this series title would probably disinterest and scare anybody away . • Diamond in the rough? Could a National Archives partner someday digitize these records? SELECTIVE SERVICE SYSTEM • Vast bulk of the microfilm covers DSS Forms 3, 3A, and 3B. • Draft registration lists from thousands of local draft boards across the United States. • Forms 3 and 3B are the "List of Registrants" to the local draft board. Form 3A is entitled, "Duplicate List of Registrants.“ • DSS Form 3 lists the draft order and serial numbers, full name of registrant, registrant's permanent mailing address, and their race. • DSS Form 3A and 3B includes the same information as Form 3, and adds the registrant's date of birth. SELECTIVE SERVICE SYSTEM DSS Form 3, from the Summit County, Akron, Ohio Local Board Number 3, and dated October 24, 1940. SELECTIVE SERVICE SYSTEM From the same local board, this time dated October 30, 1940. SELECTIVE SERVICE SYSTEM This DSS Form 3A comes from Placer County, Auburn, California Local Board Number 30, and dated April 1, 1942. SELECTIVE SERVICE SYSTEM Towards the end of the Second World War, a variant of Forms 3 and 3A was also used, called DSS Form 3B. Form 3B had the exact same contents as 3A except it was entitled, "List of Registrants." This example, dated September 30, 1944, is from the local board of La Salle County, Cotulla, Texas. SELECTIVE SERVICE SYSTEM Local draft boards were also responsible for keeping the draft classification status updated. Status updated using DSS Form 100, "Local Board Action Report." Form 100 listed the order and serial number of the registrant, full name and mailing address, race, date of birth, and the change in the registrant's Selective Service Class. A local board for Fargo, North Dakota put together this action report dated January 29, 1947. SELECTIVE SERVICE SYSTEM U.S. citizens working, or vacationing aboard, had to register with the Selective Service. Two examples of draft registration cards filled out at the U.S. Embassy in Geneva, Switzerland from November 1943. George Templeton Strong Jr., is the son of American composer George Templeton Strong Sr. He is also the namesake to his grandfather, George Templeton Strong, the diarist whose work was quoted in the Ken Burns documentary "The Civil War“. Tracy Strong Jr. went to Switzerland in 1940 to join the European Student Relief Fund. With the aid of the group, Strong worked out a plan to help students displaced by the war in France to continue their studies in Switzerland. This resulted in saving dozens of Jewish children and teenagers from French concentration camps (and their eventual transportation to German extermination camps) during the early days of the Vichy French government. SELECTIVE SERVICE SYSTEM The reach of the Selective Service spanned the world as illustrated by this Registration Card DSS Form I-F. It is from December 29, 1943, and filled out at the U.S. Legation in Beirut, Lebanon. This is the front page. SELECTIVE SERVICE SYSTEM Back side of the DSS Form I-F from December 29, 1943, filled out at the U.S. Legation in Beirut, Lebanon. SELECTIVE SERVICE SYSTEM Those working in the Panama Canal Zone also registered with the Selective Service. They were tracked separately, with their own set of index cards, with information culled from their original DSS Form I-F. When the work in the zone was completed, these registrants' local draft boards would be notified of their eligibility. SELECTIVE SERVICE SYSTEM Those considered "Foreign Nationals" also registered with the Selective Service via DSS Form I-F. These men were born in the United States but were currently living in another country. Maintaining a separate card index, the Selective Service recorded the full name, date and place of birth, where they currently lived, and the location that they registered. SELECTIVE SERVICE SYSTEM Even in prison you did not escape the notice of the Selective Service. From the Special Panel of Local Board Number 2, Washtenaw County, in Milan, Michigan, dated July 9, 1945. SELECTIVE SERVICE SYSTEM The Selective Service tracked those who engaged in other non- combat services, including the American Field Service. The American Field Service operated war zone ambulance services for the evacuation of wounded individuals to hospitals. SELECTIVE SERVICE SYSTEM “Canadian Students.” Categorized as "Canadian Students" (whether they were students or not), the Selective Service maintained a summary of all such Canadians in the U.S.