About My Veteran Family

This website is not about us. It is about the men and women that have served our country. My Veteran Family has been 40 years in the making and the project continues to this day. We have information on every war dating back to the Revolutionary War. I would love to say that we have everything, but the truth is that nobody has everything. Our dearest hope is to work with family and friends to make sure no one is forgotten. We want to create a home for all our veterans so their sacrifice is never forgotten. This is how I got started:

My Great Uncle Jim began researching our family history 40 years ago. He wrote letters, visited communities, searched public records, and went to libraries and historical societies; all the while writing his notes on a large roll of paper that fax machines used in those days. He wanted more than just a Family History containing accurate names, dates and places. He wanted to know who their family actually was, what they believed, what they valued and how they lived out those values. Great Uncle Jim sought out family stories and anecdotes whenever and wherever he could in order to give life and personality to their family history.

Eventually I became interested in what my Great Uncle Jim was doing. He was delighted and took me under his wing, teaching me how to do research, and showing me ways of ordering and assembling the data and stories I collected.

One of the things that fascinated me was the fact that a member of my family had fought in every war the United States has been involved in since the Revolutionary War. In pursuing this unique aspect of my family’s history, I became quite adept at locating, accessing and understanding complicated military records with their many abbreviations and classification codes… Through travel, letter writing, phone calls and research, I gathered and compiled records, reports, pictures and stories of all United States wars and the people who fought in them until my collection is now one of the finest available. All the while I have assisted others seeking information on their own loved ones.

With the advent of the home computer we began to build data bases and develop spreadsheets to organize our data. Today, after thousands of hours of research, and tens of thousands of dollars in expenses, we are sharing our astounding military personnel data collection with the world through the My Veteran Family.

Our vision for My Veteran Family makes it unique among other military research websites.

First, we wanted My Veteran Family to be more than just raw data. We wanted My Veteran Family to tell the stories beyond the facts. Consequently, this is an interactive website where visitors both gather data and share their stories and remembrances of soldiers they knew, creating Living Memorials that will benefit generations to come. It is our hope that veterans who served would tell their stories about what it was like and what they went through so that it would never be forgotten.

Secondly, we wanted My Veteran to be user friendly making it a valuable tool for researchers of all skill levels. To this end, My Veteran Family draws together information from a wide variety of sources and locations and makes it accessible in a simple and straightforward fashion that anyone can use.

Finally, we wanted our data and stories to be totally accessible for ONE upfront fee. After years of working with websites and data bases requiring numerous hidden fees and an additional charge every time you sought more data, we demanded that every part of this website be totally and completely accessible for one upfront fee.

My Veteran Family is your connection to those who served and those who remember them. We hope you will contribute in whatever way you choose and join us in making this THE central data base for military personnel history.