World War I Draft Registration Cards

In 1917 and 1918, approximately 24 million men living in the United States completed a draft registration card. This represented about 98% of men under the age of 46. This database is now online and searchable at Ancestry.com.

Note that the existence of a draft registration card does not indicate that the individual served in the military. Almost all men between the ages of 18 and 46 who were not already in the military completed registration cards, and only a small percentage of these were actually drafted.

The cards can provide valuable genealogical information, as they include residence, citizenship, employment and family status information about the registrants. They represent a "slice of time" for our family members, most of whom are long since deceased, and even include the registrants' signatures.

We have extracted images of some draft registration cards for men from our family tree. Because the registration was conducted in three phases based on the registrant's age, there were three slightly different versions of the cards. Because some of the scanned images can be difficult to read, we have included our interpretation along with some relevant notes, and a clearly legible representation of the blank forms.

• August Fingleman
• Charles Fingleman
• Rufus Fingleman
• Joe Fingleman
  
  
• Henry Louis Finkelman
• William Jefferson Finkelman
  
  
• Willie Nelson Loyd
• James Walter Loyd
• John Nelson Loyd
  
  
• Thomas William Reed
  
  
• Sam Nicholson
  
  
• George Alley Lantrip