By: Bill Burchfield, MSLS, Kentucky Historical Society Librarian
At a recent Tea & Sympathy, we discussed military records in genealogy research. This video expands this discussion. In it we will examine various types of military records available from the National Archives and Records Administration and the National Personnel Records Center. Along with the brief overview of available records, we also demonstrate how to complete the form necessary to request most of these veteran records. Thank you for watching!
About the Author: 
Bill Burchfield, MSLS, is a Librarian for the Martin F. Schmidt Research Library at the Kentucky Historical Society. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Organizational Leadership from Northern Kentucky University and a Master of Science in Library Science from the University of Kentucky. Bill is a member of the Kentucky Library Association and the American Library Association. He has written and lectured on research and information seeking and his academic research work has seen international attention. Bill also interned at the National Library of Medicine while completing his MSLS degree.
Dear Mr. Burchfield, My ancestor, James Markwell, was a private in the 17 Regiment (Francesco’s) militia in the War of 1812. Can you direct me to a record of the military action in which they participated? I live in Oregon so I cannot visit your library. Thanks very much. Kristine Markwell
Hello Kristine! Unfortunately, not all of the War of 1812 records have been digitized at this time so to get access to service records for him you would simply follow the records request process I outlined above. In your specific case it sounds like you are looking more for unit level records rather than individual personnel records. If this is truly the case I would recommend you contact the Military Records Branch with the Kentucky National Guard. They would have unit records of Kentucky Militia units from the time period. Call 502-607-6046 and they should be able to help you.