20 November 2008

Accessing World War II Draft Cards--Old Men's Draft

My set of pages on this topic need revision, which probably will take forever. So, we'll just blog about it here.

The registration for the World War 2 draft involved "old guys" and men of a more traditional draft age. Cards from the so-called "Old Men's Draft" are available through the Freedom of Information Act. This Fourth Registration, often referred to as the "old man's registration", was conducted on 27 April 1942 and registered men who born on or between 28 April 1877 and 16 February 1897 who were not already in the military. These cards have been microfilmed and are available through the National Archives and Records Adminstration (NARA).

These cards are available online through two providers

The cards were microfilmed by state and alphabetically within a state. It is not necessary to know any registration districts to search the microfilm--just the state.