pages of history
Burial Records
The VA has partnered with
Ancestry.com to electronically index about 113,000 hand-written burial records spanning from the Civil War to the mid-20th century.
Searching through 150 years’ worth of historic burial records will be easier for historians, researchers, and family genealogists, thanks to a partnership between the VA and
Ancestry.com.
From the Civil War through the mid-20th century, servicemembers interred in national cemeteries were tracked in handwritten registers. In an effort to preserve the delicate documents and expand public access to ledger contents, the VA’s National Cemetery Administration (NCA) used a high-resolution scanner to duplicate about 60 hand-written registers from 36 national cemeteries. The effort totaled more than 9,300 pages and 113,000 individual records.
The original ledgers, most from the Civil War era, then were transferred to the National Archives and Records Administration for preservation.
In 2011, the NCA entered into a partnership with
Ancestry.com to index its cemetery ledgers and make the information available to the public. The records include the name, rank, company/regiment, date of death, age at death, date of burial, and grave number of the deceased.
The burial information is available free to VA personnel and employees of other federal agencies that maintain national cemeteries.
Ancestry.com charges a subscription fee for public access.
“We are excited to be able to share this wealth of primary documentation,” said Steve L. Muro, VA undersecretary for Memorial Affairs, in a statement. “With the help of
Ancestry.com, we have opened the doors to thousands of servicemembers’ histories through the information contained in these burial ledgers.”
Secret Tsunami Bomb?
The U.S. and New Zealand joined forces to create a “tsunami bomb” during World War II, says Ray Waru in his book Secrets and Treasures (Random House, 2012).
The collaboration, named Project Seal, involved detonating large amounts of explosives to create a wave large enough to engulf a small city. The concept was tested in New Caledonia, an archipelago in the southwest Pacific Ocean, and later at Whangaparaoa Peninsula, near Auckland, New Zealand. A total of 3,700 bombs were set off during the experiments, which did not affect actual cities.
The tests demonstrated underwater explosions were capable of creating a suitably destructive tsunami, but the effect required nearly 1 million pounds of explosives, placed in a line about five miles offshore. Project Seal was canceled in 1945.
MO
— Don Vaughan, a North Carolina-based freelance writer, authors this monthly column.
History Lesson On April 21, 1918, the Red Baron, Manfred von Richthofen, who was credited with 80 kills in less than two years, died when his plane was shot down in the Battle of the Somme in France.
APRIL 2013 MILITARY OFFICER 81
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