Honorable Discharge

I have two questions related to some privately held military records.

1. I have several records that I inherited related to my father's military service in the USMC. I realize that they are to be cited as a privately held artifact but I am unsure if I have all the pieces in the correct order. Would appreciate your feedback.

“Honorable Discharge from the Armed Forces of the United States” for Private First Class (E-2) [Father's Name], United States Marine Corps, 27 July 1967; privately held by [My Name, Address].


2. My cousin forwarded me some digitized images of my great-uncles supposed WW1 discharge and enlistment records that were passed down to her. I'm not sure what to make of them since they are handwritten and and are not on letterhead. It's obvious to me that both documents were written by the same person, (even the supposed signatures look the same) so I assume that my great-uncle made a handwritten copy of his service records and this is what I am looking at. Given that, I am unsure how to cite them or at the very least what to call them. 

 

Submitted byEEon Sun, 04/11/2021 - 08:30

Hello, TheCount,

Interesting situations.  With regard to Q1, the order of your elements is fine; the one thing EE would be sure to add is his service number. 

With regard to Q2, if this were my problem, I would assign a "descriptive title" to each document, one that incorporates your conclusion about the nature of the records—say,

WWI Discharge Record of Jesse John Jones: Handwritten Notes

I would not put quotation marks around the title, because I'm not quoting anything. (EE 2.22, last para.) Then after creating a citation similar to your draft at Q1, with added ID of provenance, I would add a sentence to describe the handwritten, apparently unofficial nature of the documents, similar to the description you've given us.