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11 page PDF research guide includes:
Guide for WWI Draft Cards: Physical Descriptions
Two men can share the exact same name, in the same county, in the same decade, and sit on top of each other in a research problem until a WWI draft card pulls them apart. One card describes a tall man with light eyes and dark hair; the next describes a short, heavyset man with black hair and black eyes. Ten minutes earlier those looked like the same person. Now they are two different men, and the Registrar’s Report on the back of the card, the section most researchers never think to pull up, is what separated them. For Appalachian families working through repeating names, scattered records, and courthouses that burned, that description section can be the one document that describes what an ancestor actually looked like: height, build, eye color, hair color, and any injury or condition a registrar was required to note before he ever left home. This companion moves through the four-part worksheet built to make use of that description: transcription, term-by-term interpretation, a side-by-side tracker for separating same-name men, and a cross-reference guide for following each field into the next record.
What's Inside
- Draft Card Transcription and Analysis Worksheet with a full card identification block, personal details block, physical description block, and a source-and-image-notes field for citation tracking
- Physical Description Field Reference covering height, build, eye color, and hair color terminology, plus a table of common registrar abbreviations
- Physical Peculiarities and Disabilities table linking common notations to the accident and pension records they point toward
- Same-Name Comparison Tracker for laying up to four cards side by side across nineteen fields, including precinct number
- Determination Notes worksheet with prompts for supporting evidence, contrary evidence, records still to check, sources consulted, and a dated conclusion
- Draft Card Field Cross-Reference Guide connecting every card field to the records it should send you to next
- Migration Tracker for following a residence from birthplace through post-war records, including city directory and pension leads
- Two ruled notes pages