Frequently Asked Questions
How long will it take?
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The entire process usually takes anywhere between 3-5 months. Various factors affect the length of time (branch of service, years served, how long it takes to get records, etc.). While this can be a lengthy process, we are certain you will find it worthwhile. I try to keep families posted directly and by providing periodic updates on social media of the clients currently in progress.
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Do you need permission to access archival records?
​It depends. The National Archives policy is that records can be released to the public 62 years after the veteran's discharge. If you want a veteran researched who was discharged sooner than 62 years, we will need the authorization from the next of kin. We will provide the form for you. Of note: if you are simply looking for a copy of their records, this is something you can do on your own here. If you are looking for records along with historical context and the story of their service, then please sign up or fill out the form on our homepage.
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Aren't military records all digitized?
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No, many military records are not digitized. These include Navy ship deck logs, Army unit operational reports, Army unit histories, Army morning reports after 1944, and military personnel records. There are some records which are digitized, such as Navy war diaries, Army morning reports up to 1944, and others. Overall, it is a mixed bag between digitized and non-digitized records held at the National Archives and other repositories.
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Can't I do all this research myself?
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Yes, you can. However, it takes considerable time, effort, and expenses to get familiar with archives, to know where to look and for which items, and to fully understand the context of each document. That is why Legacies of Service offers to do this on your behalf.
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What is factored into my cost?
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Legacies of Service is unique among independent researchers in the professional military and historical background of the founder. These skills are factored into my pricing but improve the efficiency of my research. Additionally, most clients will require my traveling to the archives (Washington, D.C., College Park, MD, St. Louis, MO, or other locations across the United States) to truly get the exact details of service. Other expenses are factored into the overall cost to the client, including ordering reproductions of records, ancestry services, and more. The personalized summary or full digital booklet that the client receives is above and beyond what is provided by most independent researchers and is part of the cost. By comparison, to hire an expert on a website such as Ancestry costs a minimum of $3,500, and you will not get the expert military knowledge as you will here. Other researchers may find the information you desire but usually do not provide context or personalized products. I do it all.
I find that most clients who think they want to simply answer one question discover a whole new set of questions that arise. My recommendation is to take a long-term view: generally it is better to get your research done completely the first time, which is what we offer. I am confident that, despite the costs, each client will be happy with their Legacies of Service experience.
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Can you tell me about the 1973 fire at the National Archives?
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One of the primary reasons we perform this research is due to the 1973 fire at the National Personnel Records Center facility in St. Louis, which destroyed over 70 percent of WWI, WWII, and Korean War-era records. Thus, if families do not already have paperwork of their loved one, they may have little to no information about their service. Read more about the tragic fire here.
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Can't AI do some of this work?
Yes, AI does help with some of this work, particularly if utilizing optical character recognition (OCR) to more quickly locate service members amongst millions of digitized pages of records. Still, the AI recognition is imperfect with outdated handwriting styles and antiquated fonts and styles on typewriters. It still requires manual work to go through additional digitized records, as well as the many undigitized records in archives. We do hope that AI will enhance the efficiency of our work for future clients, but the need for manual human functions and analysis will still exist.
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Do you research Confederate veterans?
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Yes we do, along with Union veterans of the Civil War and earlier conflicts in American history!
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