To find an individual's age 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 an individual's age, or

read the paragraph below for 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.

Genealogy.com, Inc. also has Family Archives containing military records indexes. The FamilyFinder Index, a feature of Family Tree Maker software and also available for searching at FamilyTreeMaker.com, is an index of over 220 million names from census records, marriage records, military records, actual family trees, and more. This feature can help you by telling you if your ancestor's name is actually listed on one of the military CDs Genealogy.com sells. Using the FamilyFinder Index couldn't be easier -- all you need to do is enter the names of your ancestors right into your own computer. If the FamilyFinder Index tells you that your ancestors are listed, then it's simple to locate your ancestor's record. For more information about FamilyFinder, or for information about purchasing CD-ROM indexes, see the topic All about FamilyFinder.

Finding an age

If the individual was a veteran who served and was killed in the Korean or Vietnam War, you may be able to find the age at death 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.

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.

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