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Search More Than 9 Million NARA World War II Army Enlistment Records Online at WorldVitalRecords.com Provo, UT, April 04, 2007 --(PR.com)-- More than 9 million World War II army enlistment records are now searchable online at WorldVitalRecords.com through a shipment provided by National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), one of the largest archives in the US.“The National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, DC, preserves and provides access to billions of genealogical and historical records, photographs, and computerized resources. I am pleased that WorldVitalRecords.com is including these NARA records on its site,” said Kip Sperry, Professor of Family History, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.NARA created the database in 2002 in conjunction with the Bureau of the Census. The World War II Army Enlistment database contains the majority of the Army enlistments during World War II from 1938-1946. "I am very grateful that the government went to such great lengths to track all of the valuable details of each individual's life over time. I am very excited to include that depth of detail for our members at WorldVitalRecords.com," said David Lifferth, President, WorldVitalRecords.com.The World War II database contains the serial number, name, state and county of residence, place of enlistment, date of enlistment, race, grade, Army branch, term of enlistment, longevity, nativity (place of birth), year of birth, civilian occupation, marital status, education, military occupational specialty (1945 and later), height and weight (before 1943), component, and box and reel number of the microfilmed punch cards."The World War II generation brought us out of the Great Depression and established much of the American modern infrastructure we enjoy today. We celebrate their lives with the inclusion of these records," said Yvette Arts, Director, Content Acquisition, WorldVitalRecords.com.At WorldVitalRecords.com, these NARA databases are part of a global search, allowing users to search all of the databases at one time. These records will also be enhanced with geomapping and the Google Book search features.“This new database at WorldVitalRecords.com adds a wealth of material from the rich resources of NARA. With this addition, the records of millions of veterans have been made available to researchers,” said Robert Freeman, Director of the Saints at War Project at Brigham Young University.About WorldVitalRecords.comFinding your ancestors can be overwhelming, and expensive. At WorldVitalRecords.com, they’ve made it easy and affordable for individuals to connect to their families and find answers to their genealogical questions. WorldVitalRecords.com was founded by Paul Allen, who also founded Ancestry.com, one of the leading genealogy companies. WorldVitalRecords.com aims to be a top player in the genealogy industry and will offer users international record databases, references to top genealogical resources, including Everton’s Online Genealogical Helper and Family Group Sheets and Pedigree Files, a blog planet, podcasts, videocasts, Webinars, expert advice, training, and user-generated content###

Baylor University has announced that a small archive of Civil War letters has been digitized and is now available at the Baylor University Library Digital Collections site. The collection consists of thirty-two letters, mostly between a soldier and his sweetheart. The letters have been both digitized and transcribed; from the front page of the collection you can browse the letters in chronological order. The next-to-last item is the burial receipt for John Coleman, who wrote most of the letters (he died in 1880) and the last item — a really nice touch — is a chronological transcription of all the letters, presented in a PDF file. Click on a letter and you’ll get a good-sized picture; a lot of them are tough to read however (especially the ones written on blue paper.) On the left nav you’ll have the option to view the document description (the letter itself), the page description, or the page and text. Choose the page and text option; you’ll get a good copy of the letter to browse but also a transcription in a popup window. The transcriptions aren’t perfect, but they’re very good. John Coleman is an interesting man. Melancholy, frustrated, worried about his girlfriend and family, occasionally bored, he mixes home and war news equally. His girlfriend writes back patiently, their letters often missing each other. The good transcriptions and the focus on two people make this a fascinating read. Well done Baylor.

$2 Million Sloan Foundation Grant To Help Digitize Thousands of Books Librarian of Congress James H. Billington today announced that the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has awarded the Library of Congress a $2 million grant for a program to digitize thousands of public-domain works, with a major focus on at-risk "brittle books" and U.S. history volumes. The project, "Digitizing American Imprints at the Library of Congress," will include not only the scanning of volumes, but also the development of suitable page-turner display technology, capability to scan and display foldouts, and a pilot program to capture high-level metadata, such as table of contents, chapters/sections and index. Past digitization projects have shied away from brittle books because of the condition of the materials, but "Digitizing American Imprints" intends to serve as a demonstration project of best practices for the handling and scanning of such vulnerable works.