Can You Help with a Mystery?

The holidays are upon us, and we were just going to wish all of you a fun week of celebrating and take off to attend our own family festivities, when our resident photo matchmaker, Shirley Waddell, sent us the following plea. What a great Christmas we might make for the family of a deceased soldier if we could find a relative and return the items that were donated some time ago to St. Louis Genealogical Society. Here are the details . . .

Veterans Day and Genealogy

Happy Veterans Day! If you, your children, or other living family members have served in the military, we thank you so much for your service. If your parents, grandparents, or any other relatives in the past have served, this day commemorates them as well, and this holiday Monday, we are reminded of their commitment to our country and everything it stands for. Veterans Day, once called Armistice Day, is often confused with Memorial Day. The latter honors our fallen heroes, whereas Veterans Day was created as a way to say thank you and to honor living veterans. It is a fairly new holiday which began early in the twentieth century, when President Woodrow Wilson called on Americans to “remember the armistice,” signed on 11 November 1918, that ended World War I. His intention was to emphasize peace and to honor thousands of men who served in the war.

StLGS Office Update AND July Meetings and Classes

Happy Fourth of July! As we mentioned a few weeks ago, the StLGS office in Maplewood is getting a much-needed facelift, and work is in full swing. The painters have finished applying a double coat of a soft grayish-white paint on all the walls, a big improvement over the dull pink that was previously there. This last week, the carpet installers removed the old, faded pinkish/gray-blue carpet in the more traveled areas of the office and replaced it with a bright navy/mauve textured one. The next step will be a thorough top to bottom cleaning by a professional crew. This is, of course, taking time and hard work. Read on for more details!

Free Genealogy Webinars Offered by the National Archives

Now that the weather has warmed up and spending hours outside might not be an attractive alternative if you live in a steamy summer climate like St. Louis, you may be looking for some online genealogy classes. Of course, we hope you will take advantage of the classes StLGS is offering this summer, and you can check them out on the “Classes” page on the StLGS website.  But if you are looking for more, we want to tell you about a free series of lectures sponsored by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

StLGS Office News AND June Meetings and Classes

Happy Memorial Day! The St. Louis Genealogical Society office in Maplewood has been our home for almost a quarter of a century. Its original pink walls and blue/pink/grey carpet have held up remarkably well, but the years have marched on, and our office is in much need of an update. With our landlord's approval, we have chosen paint to brighten the walls and carpet to replace torn and battered spots, and we have recently received word from our landlord that our long-awaited facelift has been approved and is about to begin. Please read on for details . . .

StLGS April Genealogy Meetings AND Remember to Register for the Family History Conference!

As the weather warms and spring gets underway, we know you are thinking about getting outside and enjoying more activities with others. So why not join your genealogy friends at St. Louis Genealogical Society for some new and interesting meetings and classes? We have lots going on during the next few weeks, and whether you attend in person or via Zoom, we look forward to seeing you. That said, here's what is coming up . . .

Replacing Military Records Lost in the NPRC Fire in 1973

Friday the 13th of July was an extremely unlucky day for the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) on Page Avenue in St. Louis County. On Thursday evening, a fire broke out just after midnight, and within hours, a good part of the sixth floor was blazing. Throughout the next day, the fire appeared to be under control, but by that night, it actually had spread to parts of the fourth and fifth floors. Unfortunately, the building had no fire walls and no sprinkler system on the upper floors. With millions of paper military records inside to feed the fire, it took the whole weekend to fully extinguish the flames, which covered the mid-county area with billows of dark smoke and were visible for miles.

The sixth floor had contained twentieth-century military records of Army and Air Force personnel: about five million World War I service records, nine million World War II records, and an additional six million records from the wars in Korea and Vietnam War. Some Air Force records were stored elsewhere in the building, so they were spared.

But what if you have copies of some of those records? Is there any way you can help supplement what is left or help rebuild a ruined file? Nancy Schuster from the National Archives-St. Louis offers the following guidelines to those who may have copies of military records that might replace what was destroyed.

• NARA-St. Louis will accept photocopies of papers but NOT original documents. 
• NARA will NOT accept photographs or anything other than paper. 
• They are NOT equipped to handle digital copies nor will they take medals or other memorabilia.

Nancy says that "photocopies will be stamped 'Received from an unofficial source' and they will be kept on file to be viewed by future researchers. These documents, however, will NOT be used to verify service for any official government purpose, such as determining eligibility for veterans' benefits."

If you have copies of discharge papers, certificates, or any other relevant papers for your veteran that you would like to donate, you can mail your copies to:

The National Archives-St. Louis

Attn: Military Documents

PO Box 38757

St. Louis, MO 63138

If you have further questions, you can contact NARA-St. Louis at stl.archives@nara.gov

You can check out the genealogy page of their website here.

More information about the fire? An interesting article is available here.