Utah, Veterans with Federal Service Buried in Utah - FamilySearch Historical Records

United States Utah

What is in the Collection?
This collection is a card file consisting of thousands of cards arranged by county, then by city, and then by the veteran’s name. Only in Salt Lake City were the records filed by cemetery and then by veteran’s name. The records cover the time period from the earliest territorial time to 1966.

These records were compiled by the Military Records Section of the Utah State Historical Society. Form letters were sent to the next of kin of deceased veterans and the information returned was transcribed onto printed cards. This process began about 1957 and continued until 1970. Beginning in 1969 the information returned was entered directly into a database and the transcribing of information onto cards was abandoned the following year. The database continued to grow and information formerly on cards was entered into the database until 1986. In 1990 the existing cards (and some form letters) were microfilmed and subsequently destroyed. The collection published here is derived from microfilming completed in 1966 and therefore excludes any of the subsequent additions to the collection. The records identify thousands of men buried in Utah who had served in the United States military.

These records were compiled to track veteran burial locations to assist veterans’ families in obtaining grave markers and help veterans’ organizations to place flags on graves on Decoration Day (later designated Memorial Day). The records are fairly reliable considering that they were compiled from responses to a form letter.

What Can these Records Tell Me?
Information found in this collection may include:


 * Name of veteran
 * Rank and Serial number
 * Military unit in which served
 * Branch
 * Date and place of enlistment
 * Date and place of discharge
 * Date and place of birth
 * Date and place of death
 * City and county of burial
 * Cemetery and plot location
 * Next of kin including name, address, and relationship (often blank)

How Do I Search the Collection?
To begin your search you need to know at least some of the following:
 * The name of the veteran.
 * The birth date of the veteran.
 * The death date of the veteran.
 * The death place of the veteran.

Fill in the requested information in the initial search page. This search will return a list of possible matches. Compare the information in the list to what you already know about your ancestor to determine if it is the correct person. You may need to compare several persons in the list before you find your ancestor.

Search by Name by visiting the Collection Page.

View images in this collection by visiting the Browse Page then: ⇒Select the "First Letter of the Surname" ⇒Select the appropriate "Surname, Given Name(s) with Death Year"

For tips about searching on-line collections see the on-line article FamilySearch Search Tips and Tricks.

What Do I Do Next?
Whenever possible, view the original records to verify the information and to find additional information that might not be reported. These pieces of information can lead you to additional records and family members.

I Found Who I was Looking for, What Now?

 * Use the age to calculate a birth date and to find other records such as birth, christening, census, land and death records.
 * Use the information to find additional family members. Witnesses or bondsmen were usually relatives.
 * Repeat this process with additional family members found, to find more generations of the family.
 * Church Records often were kept years before government records were required and are a good source for finding ancestors before 1900.

I Can’t Find Who I’m Looking for, What Now?

 * Try viewing the original record to see if there were errors in the transcription of the name, age, residence, etc. Remember that there may be more than one person in the records with the same name.
 * Collect entries for every person who has the same surname. This list can help you identify possible relations that can be verified by records.
 * If you cannot locate your ancestor in the locality in which you believe they lived, then try searching records of a nearby locality in an area search.
 * Standard spelling of names typically did not exist during the periods our ancestors lived in. Try variations of your ancestor’s name while searching the index or browsing through images.
 * Remember that sometimes individuals went by nicknames or alternated between using first and middle names. Try searching for these names as well.
 * Search the indexes and records of Utah, United States Genealogy.
 * Search in the Utah Archives and Libraries.

Citing this Collection
Citing your sources makes it easy for others to find and evaluate the records you used. When you copy information from a record, list where you found that information. Here you can find citations already created for the entire collection and for each individual record or image.

Collection Citation: Record Citation (or citation for the index entry):

Image citation: