New records become available every day. Always be checking online for records relating to your ancestors. They may not be available now, but they might be later. I ran into this myself recently.
Fold 3 has their free access over Memorial Weekend, so I decided to check out if there was anything new available. Doing a quick search on William Ilg, my 2nd Great Uncle (Read his story here: William Ilg, the gone but not forgotten Uncle) a new collection popped up: U.S. WWI Burial Cards. What are these??
"WWI Burial Cards documents the death and burial information of over 78,000 American soldiers in World War I. Each card contains the name of the individual who died, the unit they were assigned to, the nature of their death, and the burial location(s) of the soldier, up to and including their final resting place." Source: Fold 3
How exciting! This collection was recently added to Fold 3 (May 21, 2021) so that's why I had never seen these before. And one for William Ilg popped right now. This card contains information I already had for William thanks to his Burial Case File. I got a copy of his Burial Case File when I visited the National Archives in St. Louis. I will tell you, there is no other feeling in the world like holding your ancestor's original documents. This file was a treasure trove of information about his death.
Exciting news though. As of 2018, the National Archives is in the process of digitizing these Case Files to put online. They will be located here: Correspondence, Reports, Telegrams, Applications, and Other Papers Relating to Burials of Service Personnel, 1/1/1915-12/31/1939 aka as “Burial Case Files” in RG 92 (NAID 595318). Right now they are only up to the "A" names. I'm sure Covid has slowed the process down a bit. You can still contact the Archives and ask them about your ancestor's specific Burial Case File.
There is one section on the Burial Card I am very curious about though. The section labeled "Photograph No." What does that mean? Was there a photograph in his original military file? Unfortunately, this file was destroyed in the 1973 fire at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis. So it's possible, if there was a photo, it was destroyed.While doing a search online to learn more about the Burial Cards, the National Archives blog popped up. Apparently, the cards have been available since 2018 but were only recently indexed and made available to Fold 3 as of May 21, 2021. The blog talking about the Burial Cards led me to another blog post that mentioned "Initial Burial Plats for WWI American Soldiers". Since my 2nd Great Uncle was Killed in Action and buried on the battlefield, this caught my attention. I already got paperwork describing the location of where William was initially buried, but to have a map to go with it? I was intrigued.
According to the blog post, once you go to the National Archives website where the collection is located, you can view the Plat books. But how do you know which Plat book to look in? Well, there is a spreadsheet you can download to see if your ancestor's name is listed. And if it is, it gives you the Plat Book and Map number. So head over to the blog post listed above and following the instructions. By doing this, I found the Map of where William was originally laid to rest on the battlefield.
So you see, you never know what new record collections may become available in the future. So don't give up hope. Check often on your favorite sites and follow blogs. Records are being digitized every day. Good luck!
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