Website makes WWII records available for free through Dec. 7
Carol Horner-Iacona of San Marcos, Texas, knew her father had been aboard the USS Helena on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. But it really hit home this week when she found the Navy document on the genealogy website Ancestry.com placing him there on that day.
"It's like a treasure hunt," she said of her search through the online records, digitized and indexed from paper and microfilm in the National Archives. "It's full of little nuggets of treasures."
That treasure trove, which includes 60 million World War II records of individual members of the U.S. armed forces, will be available for free over the next six days, starting Friday and running through Dec. 7, the 70th anniversary of the attack, says Josh Hanna, executive vice president of Ancestry.com.
"We think the 70th anniversary of Pearl Harbor Day is an important time for everyone to sort of pause and reflect on what really was the greatest generation and to give everyone a chance to look at these records for free," he said.
The website, based in Provo, Utah, has been adding historical records to its site for the past 15 years, accumulating more than 7 billion records, Hanna said. Members normally pay $12.95 to $20 a month, he said.
Of particular interest for those searching veterans' records are the World War II Navy Muster Rolls, which include 33 million quarterly reports filed from 1939-49, detailing the location, rank and other information about nearly all enlisted personnel who served aboard ships during those years.
Previously unreleased draft cards, cemetery records, photos, and information about various ships are also available, Hanna said.
According to Bill Muehleib, national president of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, 84,168 uniformed personnel were on the island at the time of the attack, although the organization, formed in 1958, never had more than 27,000 members. Of those, about 2,700 are still alive, he said. He estimates that about 8,000 Pearl Harbor survivors are still living.
To access the page, go to www.ancestry.com/pearlharbor.
