My Trails into the Past

This is my second year working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow . I will write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or at My Trails Into the Past . I have enjoyed writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways. The first hint that my paternal grandfather, William C. Hork, worked for the Works Progress Administration (WPA) was the entry for him in the 1940 Federal Census. He stated he was a laborer for the WPA. [1] The WPA was a New Deal agency that helped employ millions of out-of-work men and women, mostly unskilled. It was established on 6 May 1935 and dissolved on 30 June 1943. [2] The second piece of information that gave reference to the WPA was his World War II draft registration, conducted on 16 February 1942. He stated he worked on the WPA. project #12322-S at the Ontario Municipal Airport in Ontario, San Bernardino Co, Calif. [3] So he worked for the WPA. How can I get these records? In checking w...

Everything is not online and I recently received from the National Archives the World War II Draft Registrations for my two grandfathers and for my husband’s father. During World War II, there were six draft registrations. The registrations are in two different groups at the National Archives. One group is the 4th registration, known as the “Old Man’s Draft” which registered all the men who were born between April 28, 1877 to February 16, 1897. [1] Images of this draft can be found on FamilySearch.org and Ancestry.com as “United States World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942.” The other group are the rest, those men who were born between February 17, 1897 to July 31, 1927. These records are not available online and I had to order the records from the National Archives in St. Louis. Information about it is here . There is a special form you fill out for the registrant you’re seeking and when the archives personnel find the record, you’ll receive a letter with an invoic...