TXBRAZOR-L Archives

From: Jim Turner <>
Subject: [TXBRAZOR-L] Lost Records
Date: Fri, 25 Jun 1999 08:35:53 -0700

Recently, there have been reports circulating around the internet about a finding
of lost military records which replace the ones destroyed in the 1973 fire in St
Louis.

This is how the story goes:

>Pension Files Found
>Over a hundred boxes of pension records that date back to the "Revolutionary
>War, War of 1812 and the Seminole War" were recently found at the National
>Archives. None of these have ever been indexed or microfilmed. They are
>arranged by account number and are being published in American Genealogy
>Magazine by Datatrace System, PO Box 1587, Stephenville, Texas 76401.
>
>Veterans Records Discovered
>Some 10 million duplicate of 20th century military records thought to
>have been destroyed in the 1973 fire have been found by the Veterans
>Administration. If you have been told the records you need were burned
>in that fire, you may want to write again to: National Personnel Records,
>GSA 9700 Page Blvd. St. Louis, MO."

It would be great if it were true. Unfortunately, at least some of this appears to be
a hoax or a misunderstanding. According to the telephone directory service for
Stephenville, TX, there is no listing for a company by the name of Datatrace System.
There is no "American Genealogy Magazine," that I can find. There is a scholarly
journal called "The American Genealogist."

In regard to the records "found by the Veterans Administration," I spoke to the Office
of the Director of the National Personnel Records Center, who told me that the story
is not true. The closest thing to it was the discovery of some computer records from a
study done by the Army Surgeon General's Office. The data is very limited and access
to it is restricted.

Here is what NPRC has said about these files:

"Medical-Related Alternate Records.
In 1988, a collection of computer tapes containing ten million hospital/treatment
facility admission records was transferred to NPRC(MPR). These records, originally
created by the U.S. Army Surgeon General's Office (SGO), were discovered by the
National Academy of Sciences and offered to the National Archives for use
by NPRC(MPR). The source records existed in a computer code format and required
extensive analysis to interpret the code into English. Between 1988-1990, NPRC(MPR)
was able to salvage 7.8 million records of individual admissions for use as a major
supplement to other smaller sources of medical information.

The subjects of the records were active duty Army and Army Air Corps personnel in
service between 1942 to 1945. In addition, active duty Army personnel who served
between 1950 and 1954 and a limited number of Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, and
military cadet personnel for the same period (about 5% of the 1950-54 file) are
included.

The admissions records are not specific or detailed medical documents, but summarized
information indexed by military service number. They contain limited medical treatment
information, but diagnosis, type of operation, and dates/places of treatment or
hospitalization are frequently included. Although no names are shown, patients are
identified by military service number and certain personal data including age, race,
sex and place of birth. THESE RECORDS ARE NOT DUPLICATES OF THE ORIGINAL MEDICAL
TREATMENT FILES LOST IN THE 1973 FIRE AT NPRC(MPR). They were created using data
sampling techniques for statistical purposes. Therefore, the listings are not complete
and many admissions were skipped during the sampling process. Nevertheless, the
information is useful as proof to support certain benefit claims."

Jim Turner

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