Question in regards to Military Roster sheets

jamesleeskinner1

On military muster rolls such as the one I am working on currently, I am unsure what info goes into the fields that is "Military service number" and "Military Unit". I also don't see any info for "Military Service Branch" on most roster sheets so far, so I assume I leave that blank. All other info I can fill in. As for these other fields mentioned, would someone please provide some adequate info on this? I have looked at the "help" notes for the project and examples, but they seem to be a little vague to me. Thank you.

LarryClark43

I agree sometimes the instructions seem a bit vague but there are so many variations possible with all the forms that writing instructions that would cover everything is very difficult!!

Are you working on US, Missouri, St. Louis—Military Records, 1916–1939?

if so :

1- The service number is not found on all batches but is normally the number close to the name or in-between the first and last name. Some times it will be in the remarks column. It can be just a number or can start with a letter most often R or R- The instructions say: Include any hyphens, apostrophes, commas, or periods that were written with the number.

2- The unit is normally found in the upper right hand side of the roster and will look something like this: Company "H", 5th Infantry

Type the entire name of the military unit as it was recorded, including the company, regiment, battalion, and so on if they were included. Do not correct misspellings or expand abbreviations.

Include any hyphens or apostrophes that were written with the unit name.

3- You are correct, the Branch is not mentioned on many batches. If it is not mentioned Don't leave it blank. Use the drop down menu on that field and mark it as Not Given

If all of the information is not on the page of the roster you are looking at check the first page or last page of that particular roster by using the reference images.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for working on these records.

John Empoliti

Larry - if I could give you two likes, I would.