Military records Monthly Roster enlistment date & place

warnicksk

I'm indexing military records, and wondering if the enlistment date and place on a Monthly Roster is the information at the top of the page? In this case it's in Germany, March 1921. Or is that just where they are currently stationed, and the enlistment information is not on the monthly roster?

John Empoliti

Hi @warnicksk

Yes, that date at the top of the page could be the correct military date for all soldiers whose enlistment date is not given. But please read on.

For the most accurate answer, please “Share” your batch, I.e., post your Batch Code or URL This allows a potential helper to look at your batch and review the instructions. With the batch open click on Help>Share Batch. You can also find the Batch Code at the end of your batch’s name, in brackets. It starts with an M and is enclosed in brackets, e.g., MXXX-XXX.

Remember, for these Military Roll and Roster projects, you’re looking for a valid Military Date. Those are the names of the three date fields, Military Month, Day and Year. The “gold standard” is the actual enlistment date, but that often is missing, so we capture the next best military dates we can find. The project instructions give us a priority order to guide us when choosing. The instructions below are from the Field Help for Military Month field - the purple question mark that appears when you click in the field. You will find similar instructions in the “What To Remember About This Project” section of the Project Instructions. Good Luck. Please “Share Batch.”

“The date at the top of a roster or roll may be used for all entries as the military date if the entries don't contain their own individual enlistment dates.

Some lists span multiple images. You may need to use the reference images to view the first page of the record to get the military date.

When multiple dates are present on the image, please choose the military month based on the following hierarchy:

1. Enlistment date
2. Muster roll or monthly roster date
3. Any other applicable military date

If more than 1 enlistment date was given, use the earliest date.”