United States Index to Service Records, War with Spain - FamilySearch Historical Records

Collection Time Period
This index covers records for 1898.

Record Description
This is an index to the compiled military service records of volunteer soldiers who served during the War with Spain. The service files are located in the National Archives and have not been filmed with the exception of Florida. The index is in alphabetical order.

Record Content


A typical record gives the following information:


 * Soldier's name
 * Rank
 * Military unit
 * Dates of entry into the service
 * Separation by discharge, desertion, or death
 * Film number
 * Digital image numbers
 * Surname range

Service Records may also state:


 * Age
 * Place of birth
 * Residence at time of enlistment

Entries that refer to miscellaneous personal papers have no corresponding compiled service records. The papers themselves follow the jacket envelopes for most units. See the Family History Library Catalog for complete information on film numbers.

How to Use the Record
Use this index to help you learn more about your ancestors, whether war achievements or previously unknown biological information. To search for your ancestors in the index, you will need to know their full names.

If you are having difficulty finding your ancestor, look for variations in the spelling of the name. If your ancestor used an alias or a nickname, be sure to check for those alternate names. Remember that these indexes may contain inaccuracies, such as altered spellings, misinterpretations, and optical character recognition errors if the information was scanned.

Compare the information in the record to what you already know about your ancestors to determine if this is the correct person. You may need to compare the information of more than one person to make this determination.

When you have located your ancestor’s record, carefully evaluate each piece of information given. These pieces of information may give you new biographical details that can lead you to other records about your ancestors. Add this new information to your records of each family; it will often lead you to other records.

For example:


 * Death dates may lead to death certificates, mortuary, or cemetery records.
 * Use the age to calculate an approximate birth date.
 * Use the birth date or age along with the residence or place of birth of the deceased to locate census, church, and land records.

You may also find these search tips helpful:


 * Compile the entries for every person who has the same surname as the deceased; this is especially helpful in rural areas or if the surname is unusual.
 * Continue to search the records to identify children, siblings, parents, and other relatives who may have been seeking the pension.
 * When looking for a person who had a common name, look at all the entries for the name before deciding which is correct.

Record History
Interest in the Spanish-American War is increasing. The number of participants was small compared to the number who served in the Civil War and World War II. The smaller numbers are in part due to the short length of the Spanish-American War, which ended before many soldiers had even been transported to the war zone. But for the many Americans whose families came to the United States during the mass immigrations of the 1880s and 1890s, the Spanish-American War records are the first military records they can research.

Pension records were carefully compiled on grounds of injury, illness, or disability (and later on age) and often included:


 * Application forms
 * Branch of service
 * Rank
 * Military organization
 * Proof of marriage
 * Proof of children's births
 * Summary of military service
 * Death certificates

Why the Record Was Created
Service records document an individual’s involvement with the military and can be used for proving military service, or as a valuable tool in genealogical research.

Record Reliability
Records from the Spanish-American War are generally much more descriptive, complete, and accurate than those from earlier wars. Name spelling became more uniform and literacy more common. These improvements make it easier to locate birth dates, family members, and other important genealogical information.

Related Websites

 * Military Records: Guide to Genealogical Matters
 * Sailors, Soldiers, and Marines of the Spanish-American War: The Legacy of USS Maine

Related Wiki Articles

 * United States, National Homes For Disabled Volunteer Soldiers (FamilySearch Historical Records)
 * Spanish-American War, 1898

Citing FamilySearch Historical Collections
When you copy information from a record, you should list where you found the information; this will help you or others to find the record again. It is also good to keep track of records where you did not find information, including the names of the people you looked for in the records.

A suggested format for citing FamilySearch Historical Collections, including how to cite individual archives, is found in the following link: How to Cite FamilySearch Collections.

Examples of Source Citations for a Record in This Collection

 * United States. Bureau of the Census. 12th census, 1900, digital images, From FamilySearch Internet (www.familysearch.org: September 29, 2006), Arizona Territory, Maricopa, Township 1, East Gila, Salt River Base and Meridian; sheet 9B, line 71
 * Mexico, Distrito Federal, Catholic Church Records, 1886-1933, digital images, from FamilySearch Internet (www.familysearch.org: April 22, 2010), Baptism of Adolfo Fernandez Jimenez, 1 Feb. 1910, San Pedro Apóstol, Cuahimalpa, Distrito Federal, Mexico, film number 0227023

Citation for This Collection
United States. Index to Service Records of Volunteer Soldiers in the War with Spain, 1898. NARA publication M871. Federal Archives and Records Center. Washington D.C.