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Some background/context: My great-granduncle was killed in action in WWI in 1918. However, his body was not recovered until 1927 when he and six other soldiers were discovered on the battlefield, where they had presumably been buried by the Germans. I figured, knowing the government, that this fascinating story probably generated some paperwork. I started by requesting his service record from the National Personnel Records Center. I received a letter back from them that stated that they didn't find a service record (which I expected), but if I provided additional information (there was another form), they could search other records - very vague - and perhaps reconstruct pieces of his record. I provided the infomation they requested, and was rewarded by a not insubstantial stack of paper that included, among other documents: a handwritten letter from my great grandmother (his sister) indicating that their mother had died and she was now next of kin, and the response, other correspondence, a copy of what looks like an internal newsletter, and some official-looking documents generated by a handful of different War Department agencies (American Graves Registration Service, Quartermaster General, Adjutant General's Office, etc.).
So here's my question. How to cite these records? I was thinking that I should start with a basic template of a pension record naming the document:
Letter from Mrs. James Connors to War Department, 1927, in pension application no. 122,590; service of Henry Faller (Pvt., Co. H, 315th Infantry, 79th Division); Civil War and Later Pension Files; Department of Veterans Affairs, Record Group 15; National Personnel Records Center, St. Louis.
But I'm unsure what to do to with the sections in bold. I'm not even sure if the documents came from one "group" or if they were found across a series of different groups. The only way I would know that someone could re-find these documents would be by doing the exact same thing I did. I also don't know how exhaustive the search was that was completed by the people at NPRC, or if a subsequent search would turn up the same documents or not.
I'd welcome any guidance from folks who have dealt with similar issues before!
Thanks-
Laura
Laura, it sounds like you
Laura, it sounds like you have a researcher's dream and a researcher's nightmare rolled into one.
You may have already discovered--from the earlier threads in this forum on citing records from the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis--that records supplied without identification is a common problem. We are grateful to the center for the help they supply; but they serve so many people who "just need the record" for some purpose other than research, that they tend to forget the need for documentation until and unless we ask.
If you haven't yet read through the past threads here in this forum, do that first. That should give you a better idea of how to approach them to get that documentation. If the records did, indeed, come from a number of different files/collections/series/record groups, it may not now be possible for the staffer who helped you to tell you the exact source of each, without your presenting each document individually. Identification at this point might require the aid of a St. Louis based researcher experienced with those records.
If all else fails, you might turn to EE's index, look up "citing unidentified records," and follow the "note 3" format on the page to which the index entry points (EE 7.19). EE 5.6 also provides another example of citing "Correspondence with Extracts," received from an office that holds the records, which you could adapt for photocopies.