To find an individual's place of foreign birth in a military pension record, you must at least know the veteran's name, the branch of service, such as Army, Navy, or Marine Corps, the state from which the veteran entered the service, and the war in which the veteran served. If the period of service was after 1916, you must also know entry and release dates, military ID number, Social Security number, whether an officer or enlisted, and date of birth. If you do not have the minimum information to find a military record, you can either:

Get help finding some of the minimum information by selecting the following item,

Name

click the Back button on your browser to return to the list of other places where you can find a place of foreign birth, or

read the paragraphs below for a few additional tips.

Finding military records

If you aren't sure of the military branch or of the approximate time when the veteran served, look for military memorabilia an photos taken in uniform. These items can give you the information you need.

Finding a country of foreign birth

If the individual was a veteran who served and was killed in the Korean or Vietnam War, you may be able to find a place of foreign birth through the death records in the Military Index on the FamilySearch computer at your local Family History Center of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Family History Library has all other wars indexed on microfiche. You only need to know the war and the veteran's name. Local community and genealogy libraries may also have war indexes. Contact individual libraries for their holdings.

Try finding out where the individual's parents were married. The mother may have given birth in the same town.

Make sure to check photo albums, scrapbooks, diaries, and family Bibles at home. See the topic Finding information at home for more information. Also check for local histories. See the topic Finding previous research.

Return to the Main Menu of the Genealogy "How-To" Guide