Bennie England Craft (52 Ancestors)

     I'm participating in the 52 Ancestors Challenge in Ahnentafel order, and week eight is about one of my paternal great-grandfathers.

     Bennie "B. E." Craft was born 6 Feb 1896 in Hartwell, Georgia.  He was the son of George Craft and Effie Powell, a farming family.  Given B. E.'s age, I thought that there was a chance that he fought in World War I.  WWI Draft Cards are one of my go-to records for finding information on my ancestors, but I was confused when I couldn't find one for B. E.  I was using the record collection on Ancestry.com, and I don't know how many times I searched or browsed that database.  He was the right age - why was there no draft card?  Could there be a problem with this database?

     After a while, I found out (through a fellow researcher), that one of B. E.'s brothers had fought in WWI - but he didn't have a draft card either.  Of course, he could have signed up before being drafted, but I saw this as an indication that there could be a problem with the database.  I made and broke plans a few times to visit the National Archive's Atlanta branch to view the "original" microfilm.  Before I got around to that, however, FamilySearch, put up the same WWI draft cards.

     Only, they weren't quite the same.  This collection included B. E.'s card!

     So, this experience reminds me of a few things: Don't assume that one version of a record collection (especially a copy-of-a-copy) is 100% correct; follow up with plans to seek alternative access to record collections.

     In the end, B. E.'s draft card doesn't really give me any new information, but it's another piece of the puzzle, another document about my ancestor.  And I want them all.

Roy's WWII Draft Card

Ancestry.com has been adding WWII "Old Man's" Draft Cards to their collection for a little while now. With most of my ancestors having lived in the south, I was disappointed to learn that I would not have access to their cards, as, according to ancestry.com "the original draft registration cards for the following states were destroyed several years ago and were never microfilmed before they were destroyed. Therefore, there will never be records for these states in this database." How sad!

But, the draft card that I was really interested in was my Grandfather's - and he didn't belong in the "Old Man" category, so, I had to go outside of ancestry.com anyway. I found this page, at the Selective Service System's website. It detailed how to apply for a copy of WWII draft cards, so I filled out the form and sent it off. For $15, the request was forwarded to the Southeast branch of the National Archives, where they searched for my Grandfather's draft card and classification. They didn't find the classification (which I really wanted! - why was he rejected?), but did find his draft card. Here it is: