A few years ago, I remember searching for my great-grandfather’s World War II draft registration card.  I tried every possible combination I could think of between names, places, and date of birth.  After countless attempts, I gave up and made a note of the search in my database.

Several months after this, I was working on family in Michigan and was struggling to find the WWII draft cards for these guys.  Then it dawned on me.  My great-grandfather was also living in Michigan at the time and I was unable to find him.  Was this a coincidence?

I was sure it wasn’t a coincidence and figured there had to be a reason, so I looked at the record description that Ancestry has for their WWII draft card collection.  Lo and behold, Michigan was NOT a state that was included in their collection.  Well no wonder I couldn’t find these men…Ancestry didn’t have them!  I made a note of this in my database and added the fact that NARA has the cards in their Chicago facility.

Earlier today, I was checking to see if there were any recently added or updated collections at FamilySearch (I try to do this once a week).  And although the WWII draft cards collection wasn’t new or updated, it occurred to me, why not check to see if they have Michigan.  Ah-ha, they do!  And there was the draft card for my second great-grandfather, right were I expected it to be.

Mind you, FamilySearch has two different collections.  Both collection have images, but one is indexed and the other is not.  Following is a list of the Ancestry and FamilySearch collections and what states they each cover.

Ancestry FamilySearch (indexed) FamilySearch (image-only)
Alaska
Arkansas*
California*
Connecticut
Delaware
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana*
Maryland
Massachusetts
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New York*
Ohio*
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Puerto Rico
Rhode Island
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia		 Arkansas
California
Connecticut
Delaware
Indiana
Louisiana
Maryland
Michigan
Nevada
New Jersey
New York (NYC, all 5 boroughs)
Ohio
Oklahoma
Pennsylvania
Texas
West Virginia
Wisconsin		 Delaware
Illinois
Indiana
Maryland
Massachusetts
New Hampshire
New York (NYC, all 5 boroughs)
Ohio
Pennsylvania
Puerto Rico
Rhode Island
Vermont
West Virginia
Wisconsin

*Collection incomplete for these states

It’s also important to note that WWII draft registration cards were destroyed for the following states:

  • Alabama
  • Florida
  • Georgia
  • Kentucky
  • Mississippi
  • North Carolina
  • South Carolina
  • Tennessee

The moral of the story?  Always read the record collection description.  At a minimum it should tell you what the collection covers, the source of the original information, and why the records were created.