Ancestry.com Offers Free Public Access to Nearly 60 Million Historical World War II Records in Remembrance of the 70th Annive...
December 02 2011 - 7:00AM
Marketwired
In remembrance of the 70th anniversary of the attack on Pearl
Harbor, which marked the United States' entrance into World War II,
Ancestry.com (NASDAQ: ACOM), the world's
largest online family history resource, today announced it is
offering six days (December 2-7) of free access to its entire World
War II Collection. One in five Americans is a direct descendant of
a WWII veteran, with four out of five having a WWII veteran in
their families, according to research done by Ancestry.com(1). The
Pearl Harbor attack spurred millions of Americans into military
action. By the end of the war, nearly 16 million Americans had
served in the U.S. Armed Forces -- more than a quarter in the U.S.
Navy.
Highlighting the World War II Collection is the release of the
World War II Navy Muster Rolls (1939-1949),
which includes more than 33 million records detailing nearly all
enlisted personnel who served aboard a U.S. Navy ship between
January 1939 and January 1949, including more than 2,400 Americans
who were killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor. Muster Rolls
provided quarterly reports of personnel assigned to a ship, duty
station or other activity. These reports noted sailors who
experienced significant changes in status, such as promotions,
transfers, leave or time in the infirmary. In addition to all
enlisted men, the Navy Muster Rolls also include selected officers,
female officers of the Army and Navy Nurse Corps, wives and
daughters of Navy personnel and civilians. Nearly anyone searching
for a family member who was enlisted in the Navy during this time
period should be able to find their records in this collection.
These new U.S. Navy Muster Rolls and the entire World War II
collections can be found at www.ancestry.com/pearlharbor
Carol Horner-Iacona of San Marcos, Texas has utilized the U.S.
Navy Muster Rolls to create a book of memory honoring her father
who served as a Seaman First Class V-6 aboard the U.S.S. Helena,
which was torpedoed on the morning of December 7th in Pearl Harbor.
Charles Horner, now 91, was unable to speak of his experience in
the war until recently. The records Carol has uncovered have helped
fill in the gaps to a family story she hopes is never forgotten,
including more than a dozen records of his service during WWII,
including the Muster Rolls detailing his post on that fateful day
at Pearl Harbor.
"The attack on Pearl Harbor pulled the United States into the
deadliest conflict in world history," said Donald
L. Miller, critically acclaimed author of The Story of World
War II and host and associate-producer of the new HBO documentary,
He Has Seen War. "Only 11 percent of World War II veterans are
still alive today, and as many of these veterans continue to pass
on, our connection to these historic events is being lost. By
making these records available, Ancestry.com is helping to keep the
stories of these brave men and women alive."
Ancestry.com is further expanding the World War
II collection by making these new records available as part of the
free access promotion:
- National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific
(Punchbowl Cemetery) Database -- This collection contains more
than 120,000 records from 1949 to 1976, including headstone images
and photos of names on war memorials. Seven hundred veterans who
died in the attack on Pearl Harbor are buried at the Cemetery. This
is the second largest final resting place for crewmen who lost
their lives on December 7, 1941, the primary resting place being
the USS Arizona Memorial. Together these two locations comprise the
majority of the 2,402 Americans who died in the attack on Pearl
Harbor. Also buried at Punchbowl Cemetery are veterans of the
battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. This unique collection is
available only on Ancestry.com and offers families the opportunity
to pay their respects and discover information about their
ancestor's final resting place.
- U.S. WWII Young Men's Draft Cards -- This
collection includes draft cards from the seven draft registrations
held between November 1940 and December 1942. Because of privacy
laws, information on most of these registrations was not previously
available to the public. The first installment of these cards
includes almost two million filled out by men living in North
Carolina who were born between 1897 and 1929.
"World War II impacted millions of American families and we felt
this was an appropriate time to make our collection available at no
cost to provide the public an opportunity to explore through
records, how the War may have touched their families," said Josh
Hanna, Executive Vice President, Ancestry.com. "Ancestry.com hosts the largest online
collection of historical military records and these new additions
to our World War II catalog add further depth to this important
collection."
About Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com)
Ancestry.com Inc. (NASDAQ: ACOM) is the world's largest online
family history resource, with more than 1.7 million paying
subscribers. More than 7 billion records have been added to the
site in the past 15 years. Ancestry users have created more than 28
million family trees containing over 2.8 billion profiles.
Ancestry.com has local Web sites directed at nine countries that
help people discover, preserve and share their family history,
including its flagship Web site at www.ancestry.com.
Forward-Looking Statements This press
release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and
uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially
from those anticipated by these forward-looking statements. Such
risks and uncertainties include our continuing ability to acquire,
digitize and make desired content conveniently available to our
subscribers. Information concerning additional factors that could
cause events or results to differ materially from those projected
in the forward-looking statements is contained under the caption
"Risk Factors" in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter
ended September 30, 2011, and in discussions in other of our
Securities and Exchange Commission filings. These forward-looking
statements should not be relied upon as representing our views as
of any subsequent date and we assume no obligation to publicly
update or revise these forward-looking statements.
(1) Descendent/relative estimates were made by constructing a
population growth model from 1940-2011, factoring in birth and
death rates as well as immigration/emigration rates. This model
shows how a specific population (in this case WWII veterans) will
have multiplied over the period and what proportion of today's
population is made up of their ancestors. Statistics on servicemen
numbers was sourced from the Department of Veteran Affairs
America's Wars Fact Sheet November 2011. Casualty rates were
sourced from the Pacific War Online Encyclopedia.
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Media Contact: Jennifer Barlow 781-684-6639
jbarlow@schwartzmsl.com
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