Military Records at Fold3

 

by
Kathy Petras

Fold3 is a database available either with a subscription or through your local Medina County District Library. 

It provides access to U.S. military records, including the stories, photos, and personal documents of the men and women who have served in wars and conflicts since the Revolutionary War.

In 2007, when it was first created it was called Footnote and contained over 5 million records.

In 2010, Ancestry.com bought the database and it was renamed Fold3. Fold3 comes from the traditional flag folding ceremony in which the third fold is made in honor and remembrance of veterans who served in the U.S. military. 

Fold3 Library Edition is available in most Ohio public libraries. From the Medina Library site, mcdl.info, go to the Research & Learning tab and click on "F" from the alphabet list. Fold3 is the third item down.

It's a useful tool for all types of researchers:

• Historians
• Genealogists
• Teachers
• Veterans and their families.
• Genealogical Societies

While its focus and strength has always been U.S. military service people, it also covers records from the U.K., Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

The landing page has a simple search box with links to the records from different countries below it.

Beneath that are links to the most popular record groups and Featured Memorials for a few of the veterans on the site.

 The menu bar at the top of the page gives you several options.

The "HOME" button will always take you back to the Home Page, and the "SEARCH" button will always take you to the Search Box. 

"BROWSE" lets you browse the collections by:

• Conflict
• Title of the database set
• Place
• Publication Type
• Content Provider 
• Branch of Service

"WAR STORIES" provide insight to the events of the conflict. You can narrow it down by conflict, country and keyword. Since it is a new feature, they are looking for feedback.

"MEMORIALS" are dedicated to specific individuals. Anyone that Fold3 can identify has a Memorial created by the Fold3 team. But you can create Memorials to any of your ancestors. You will need to create a "MEMBER LOGIN" for that function. You can add stories, pictures and documents. 

Memorials I've created for just a few of my ancestors with military experience. I've included
photos, stories, records and even maps to help tell their stories.

The "HELP" tab lands you on Fold3's Training Center with videos explaining all of the sites many functions. I highly recommend you spend some time there. 

The easiest way to search an individual is to type a veteran's name into the search box. If it is a very common name, add the person's birth year to narrow down the search results. 

The search results page displays the most likely search results and how many results were found. On the left, a list of filters helps to narrow down your search results. 

With such a common name as Donald W. Johnson, this relative's military service nearly escaped my attention. Nothing I knew about him suggested he had served. His draft registration card even indicated he had "a short right leg" which would have disqualified him for military service. 

This "Application for Headstone or Marker" proves that he did serve. He was part of the Army's 1560th SCU. SCU stands for Service Command Unit. The 1560th was stationed at Camp Atterbury in Indiana as a Special Training Unit. They trained recruits in academic as well as military subjects that better prepared them for service elsewhere. 

The database has numerous tools to help you modify or use images of the records you find. The most important one is the Tools icon that appears above and to the right of the image.

It allows you to download or print the image, add it to an Memorial or share it via Facebook or Twitter.

Explore all these tools as you research your ancestors and relatives with military service in their background. Or honor your ancestor by creating a Memorial.