United States, Veterans Administration Master Index, 1917-1940

What is in This Collection?

This collection contains a card index created by the Veterans Bureau (Veterans Administration), colloquially known as the VA Master Index. These 3" x 5" index cards contain basic information about approximately 5.7 million veterans who served in the United States military between roughly the end of the Civil War through 1939, but the majority from the Spanish-American War and World War I, and who later made (or whose heirs made) claims for benefits between 1917-1940.

This index card collection was deaccessioned from the Veterans Administration, who had microfilmed the cards several decades ago, to the National Archives (NARA) in 1985. Each of the microfilms is sorted by the first letter of the veteran's surname, with some long runs of the cards in roughly alphabetical order. However, some cards were unintentionally overlapped during the filming, making the information on any underlying card only partially readable. And some small sections of the alphabet appear to be missing entirely. The microfilms of the card index are stored at the National Archives (NARA) branch in St. Louis, but the microfilms were not widely known to the public, nor to researchers, because they were not listed in the online searchable National Archives Catalog. (It is also not clear what happened to the original paper cards.) The microfilm set was initially located and identified by a military historian serving on the board of directors of the 501(c)3 non-profit organization Reclaim The Records, which then brought the records set to the attention of FamilySearch. Here is a PDF LINK to what each of the letters mean on the card.

The two organizations worked together throughout 2018-2019 to make the records available to the public for the first time. FamilySearch had volunteers travel to St. Louis to digitize the microfilms onsite, over a period of eight weeks. They then made a copy of the newly digitized images available to Reclaim The Records, who is releasing them to the public without usage agreements or copyrights. FamilySearch also started an online transcription project to make the information on the cards text-searchable, also making the data available to both organizations. As of August 2019, Reclaim The Records is using their copy of the text data and images to develop a free standalone website for this data set, with advanced functionality for researchers to further explore the records, including features like soundalike name searches and geo-location proximity searches.

Additional information may be available at the National Archives at St. Louis. Additional indexed records will be published as they become available.

The following collections also known as the Veterans Administration Claim Files World War I Compensation Files. Deceased Veterans Compensation Files are at the National Archives at St. Louis and are related to the master index:

• Deceased Veterans Claim Files (XC Files),10.1917-ca. 1945 NAID 23904754
• Deceased Veterans Claim Files (XC Files), 10.1917-ca. 1949 NAID 12280123
• Deceased Veterans Claim Files (XC Files), 10.1917-ca. 1955 NAID 26466267
• Deceased Veterans Claims (XC Files), 10/1917-ca. 1955. NAID 28894631

Additional Resources on World War I at the National Archives at St. Louis

• World War I Records at the National Archives at St. Louis
• Finding Your World War I Veteran at the National Archives at St. Louis
• The Sick and the Dead. Veterans Administration Claim Files and World War I Burial Files
• United States, National Archives, Military Records, 1885-2004 - Collection Coverage Table
• Petitions for a World War I Soldier's Bonus Received during the 67th Congress RG 46 Washington, D.C.

Related Article

• Theresa Fitzgerald. "Auxiliary Records of World War I Veterans." NGS Magazine 43 # 4 (October-December 2017):50-55.

Additional records and/or images may be added to this collection in the future.

Image Visibility

FamilySearch provides images and indexes subject to contractual limitations and changes. Access to images and indexes may vary. Some collections may only have partial indexes without images. See Restrictions for Viewing Images for details.

What Can These Records Tell Me?

Information found in the collection are listed below:

Name of the veteran Cross-reference to the beneficiary of the veteran Rank Military Unit and Branch of Service Home address at the time of enlistment (but rarely may be the hometown or place of birth instead)

Service number Date of death Date of birth Date of enlistment Date of discharge (Event Date)

NOTES: The "Event Place" listed on the card was usually the residence of the veteran at the time of enlistment, but was occasionally the hometown or place of birth instead. The "Event Date" is the date of discharge. The military unit identified on the card is the first organization in which the veteran served.

C-Insurance Application K-Life Insurance A-Adjusted Compensation (Bonus) T-War Risk Insurance R-Rehabilitation Ct-WWI Certificate (issued with bonus) I-Permanent Disability

Collection Content

Sample Images

• 

  1919 VA Master Index Card

Digital Folder Number List

This collection was published as a DGS browse collection. The list does not contain any description of the DGS folder's content. A table listing each DGS number and its contents can be found at United States, Veterans Administration Master Index Digital Folder Number List.