Go To War! - Part Two

At the start of World War II the selective service was already in place. The fourth round of registrations took place on April 27, 1942. It was called the "old man's registration" in that it registered men born between April 28, 1877 and February 16, 1897 (ages 45 - 64).

The registrations have to be searched through a subscription service such as Ancestry.com. Some libraries have this service available for free at their local branches. Be sure to call to see if it is available.

We revisited Ancestry.com. After signing in, there is a SEARCH dialog box. There appear four tabs above the box - Historical Records, Family Trees, Stories and Publications, Photos and Maps. Make sure that the Historical Records tab is selected. In the Name boxes we typed George Ruth and clicked on Search.

This takes us to a page with every historical record for anyone named George Ruth. There are censuses, marriages, births deaths, etc. Scroll down to military and click on World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942. There are 23 of them.

George Herman Ruth is the eighth one listed. We selected the View Image button and the following image appears to the right. Click on it to enlarge. It is the front side of the draft card.

George Herman Ruth is living at 173 Riverside Drive. His phone number is SC4 9118 He is 47 years old born Feb. 6, 1895 in Baltimore, MD. His wife is Claire Ruth and he is self-employed. At the bottom he has given us another autograph.

The back of the card is a physical description. George is 6' 2" and is 240 pounds. He has brown eyes, brown hair and a ruddy complexion. Click on the image to the right to enlarge.

If you are tracing a male family member born between 1877 through 1897, this resource is a good census substitute. The 1940 US Census will not be made available until after 2011.


LINKS

Ancestry.com

Copyright 2008 BabeRuthGenealogy