Finding the Patriot: Spanish American War and Records

• Spanish American War (1898) History
• Spanish American War Genealogy

The Spanish American War which resulted in the United States' base in Guantanamo Bay Cuba and the Philippines becoming an American Territory up until 1946.

In genealogy, besides censuses and obituaries, few things are as useful as military records to genealogy.

Given that the 1890 census burned in 1921(interesting article!) , and that many many of your recruits and draftees for a military campaign are between the ages of 16 (if they tell the truth about their age) and mid-thirties, military records of the Spanish American war - newspaper announcements, draft records, discharge papers, company movement announcements, stories of valor, etc., - will have a lot of men and families in them who were recorded on the burned 1890 census who are otherwise missing!

While war is a terrible enterprise in terms of cost (though oftentimes the cost of not going to war or losing is even higher) it provides a lot of records for genealogy, the Spanish American War is another instance!