Treasure Chest Thursday -- 1940 U.S. Draft Registration Card of Frederick Walton Seaver, Jr.

It's Treasure Chest Thursday - an opportunity to look in my digital image files to see what treasures I can find for my family history research and genealogy musings.

The treasure today is the 1940 World War II draft registration card of my father, Frederick Walton Seaver, Jr. (1911-1983):

The front:

The back:

The transcribed information:

• Serial number:  1128
• Name:  Frederick Walton Seaver Jr.
• Order number:  2835
• Address:  918 Main St, Leominster, Worcester Mass.  4601 Terrace Dr., San Diego, California.  1904 Granada Ave, San Diego, Calif.   2114 Fern St, San Diego, Calif.
• Telephone:  1204
• Exchange:  Leominster
• Age:  29
• Date of birth:  Oct. 15, 1911
• Place of Birth:  Fitchburg, Mass
• Citizenship:  U.S.A.
• Name of person who will always know your address:  Mrs. Frederick Seaver
• Relationship of that person:  Mother
• Address of that person:  90 Main St., Leminster, Worcester, Mass.
• Employee's name:  Personal Finance Co.
• Employee's address:  371 Moody St., Waltham, Mass.
• Registrant's signature:  Frederick W. Seaver Jr.

• Race:  White
• Height:  6-1 1/2
• Weight:  178
• Eyes:  Blue
• Hair:  Brown
• Complexion:  Light
• Signature of Registrar:  H.S. Counehan
• Registrar for:  Ward 1, Leominster, Mass. Local Board 83
• Date of registration:  Oct. 16, 1940

Note that the address was changed three times.  At the time of registration, he resided with his sister at 918 Main St. in Leominster, Mass.  In December 1940, Frederick moved to San Diego, and stayed with his aunt at 4601 Terrace Drive.  In early 1942, he moved to 1904 Granada Avenue in San Diego.  In 1946, he moved to 2114 Fern Street. 

The source citation for this record is:

"U.S. WWII Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947," imaged, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/2238/records/195584547 : accessed 3 March 2020), Massachusetts > Rue-Sinclair > Seaman, Henry-Seddon, William (image 1309 of 2099), draft registration card for Frederick Walton Seaver, Jr., serial number 1128, Leominster, Mass. Local Board No. 83; citing Draft Registration Cards for all states (except Maine), 1940-1947: Records of the Selective Service System, 1926-1975, National Archives, Record Group 147; Original records at The National Archives in St. Louis, Missouri; St. Louis, Missouri.

Frederick Walton Seaver Jr. was born 15 October 1911 in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, the son of Frederick Walton and Alma Bessie (Richmond) Seaver.  He died 26 May 1983 in San Diego, California.  He married Betty Virginia Carringer (1919-2002) on 12 July 1942 in San Diego, California. 

Frederick Walton and Betty Virginia (Carringer) Seaver are my parents. 

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Disclosure:  I have a paid All-Access subscription to Ancestry.com now.  Ancestry.com has provided a complimentary subscription and material considerations for travel expenses to meetings, and has hosted events and meals that I have attended in Salt Lake City, in past years.

The URL for this post is:  https://www.geneamusings.com/2025/02/treasure-chest-thursday-1940-us-draft.html

Copyright (c) 2025, Randall J. Seaver

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Treasure Chest Thursday - 1940 U.S. Draft Registration Card for Frederick Walton Seaver, Jr. (1911-1983)

It's Treasure Chest Thursday - a chance to look in my digital image files to see what treasures I can find for my family history and genealogy musings.

The treasure today is the 1940 U.S. Draft Registration card for my father, Frederick Walton Seaver, Jr. (1911-1983):

The back of the card:

The extracted information on this card is:

[on front of card]

*  Serial Number:  1128
1.  Name (Print):  Frederick Walton Seaver, Jr. 
*  Order Number:  2835
2.  Address (Print):  918 Main St. Leominster, Worcester, Mass. [crossed out]
                                4601 Terrace Drive, San Diego, California [above former address, crossed out]
                                1904 Granada Ave., San Diego, Calif. [on left margin, crossed out]
                                 2114 Fern St., San Diego, Calif. [in top margin]
3.  Telephone:  1204   Exchange:  Leominster
4.  Age in Years:  29  Date of birth:  Oct. 15, 1911
5.  Place of birth:  Fitchburg, Mass.
6.  Country of Citizenship:  U.S.A.
7..  Name of Person Who Will Always Know Your Address:  Mrs. Frederick Seaver
8.  Relationship of That Person:  Mother
9.  Address of That Person:  90 Main St., Leominster, Worcester, Mass.
10.  Employer's Name:  Personal Finance Co.
11.  Place of Employment:  371 Moody St., Waltham, Mass.

*  Signature:  Frederick W. Seaver Jr.

[on back of card]:

*  Race:  White

*  Height:  6-1-1/2

*  Weight:  178

*  Complexion:  Light

*  Eyes:  Blue

*  Hair:  Brown

*  Signature of Registrar:  K.A. Coumhan

*  Registrar for:     Ward 1, Leominster, Mass.

*  Date of Registration:  Oct. 16 1940

*  Local Board 83, District Court Building, Leominster, Worcester County, Massachusetts.

The source citation for this record is:

"U.S. WWII Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947," digital image, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 3 March 2020), Massachusetts > Rue-Sinclair > Seaman, Henry-Seddon, William (image 1309 of 2099), card for Frederick Walton Seaver, Jr., serial number 1128, Leominster, Mass. Board No. 83; citing Draft Registration Cards for Massachusetts, 10/16/1940-03/31/1947: Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 147; Box: 876; Original records at The National Archives in St. Louis, Missouri; St. Louis, Missouri.

This record is an Original Source with Primary Information and Direct Evidence of the name, residence, employer and signature on the date of registration.  The birth date and birth place are Secondary Information and Direct Evidence.  

I did not know the residence address or the name of my father's employer in October 1940.  He left Leominster for San Diego in early December, and would up for several months at the home of his aunt and uncle, George and Emily (Richmond) Taylor (Emily was his mother's sister).  In about early 1942, he lived at 1904 Granada Street just five blocks away from my mother's home.  After they married in July 1942, they lived at 577 Twin Oaks in Chula Vista.  When he went into the U.S. Navy in August 1944, my mother and I lived with her parents at 2130 Fern Street.  When he returned from the service in late 1945, we moved into the next door apartment at 2114 Fern Street, which is the last address at the top of the registration card.  

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The URL for this post is: https://www.geneamusings.com/2020/03/treasure-chest-thursday-1940-us-draft.html

Copyright (c) 2020, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Share it on Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

Tuesday's Tip: Research in World War II Young Men's Draft Registration Cards

The record collection for U.S. WWII Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947 is one of my favorite record collections.  It is online at Ancestry.com with over 36 million draft registration cards with 53,716,458 name indexed entries.  I think that the index includes the names of the person being registered and his contact person (usually a parent or a spouse).  

The original source for this online collection is the set of draft registration cards for all states between 10/16/1940 and 3/31/1947, plus territories, DC, Puerto Rico, and U.S. Virgin Islands.  Each set is in boxes in Records of the Selective Service System, 1926–1975, Record Group 147. National Archives and Records Administration, St Louis, Missouri.

On Ancestry.com, the user will find this collection search page in the Card Catalog:

The description of the information in this record collection is (from the Ancestry.com collection page):

This database contains World War II draft registration cards from multiple registrations filled out by men in select states aged 18–44.

Historical Background

The U.S. officially entered World War II on 8 December 1941 following an attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. About a year before, in October 1940, President Roosevelt had signed into law the first peacetime selective service draft in U.S. history because of rising world conflicts. Multiple registrations held between November 1940 and October 1946 signed up more than 50 million American men aged 18–45 for the draft.

Cards in This Database

This database contains images and indexes for registration cards filled out by men born between the years of 1898 and 1929 from for all states with the exception of Maine. The draft cards from the state of Maine were destroyed before they could be digitized.

The cards are potentially valuable sources of genealogical and family information, with details that can include:

• Name
• Serial Number
• Address and/or Mailing Address
• Telephone
• Age
• Place of Birth
• Country of Citizenship
• Employer’s Name
• Place of Employment (address)
• Name and Address of Person who will always know Registrant’s Address, Relationship to Registrant
• Description: race, eyes, weight, complexion, hair
• Year of Registration

The collection includes some replacement cards for registration cards that were destroyed. These cards list a name.

The record summary for my father, Frederick Walton Seaver looks like this:

Clicking for the record image on the screen above shows the face of the actual draft registration card:

If you advance to the next image using the right carat to the right of the screen with the above image, you can see the back of the draft registration card:

The "prizes" on these records are the full name, the birth date, the birth place, the citizenship, the employer, the residence(s), the next-of-kin, the signature and the physical description (on the back of the card).

For my key surnames, this collection has these numbers of exact records:

*  Seaver:    558
*  Seavers:   141
*  Seever:      93
*  Seevers:   243
*  Sever:      285
*  Severs:    265
*  Sevier:     419

*  Carringer: 122
*  Caringer:    12

*  Auble:     112

*  Vaux:      120

The Ancestry "database number" for this collection is 2238.  I have over 420 profiles in my Ancestry Family Tree with a pending Hint in this collection.   I have accepted and rejected a number of Hints from this collection.

Fold3.com (now owned by Ancestry) digitized these draft registrations cards over the past few years, and they can be accessed there also.  

FamilySearch had these draft registrations cards in collections for each state for the years 1940-1945, but has removed many of them recently.  These collections used record images from Ancestry.com.  Perhaps they are adding the cards up to 1947 to their collections and will add them back to their historical record collections.

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NOTE:  Tuesday's Tips is a genealogy blog meme intended to provide information about a resource helpful to genealogists and family historians, especially in the U.S. online genea-world.

The URL for this post is:  https://www.geneamusings.com/2020/03/tuesdays-tip-research-in-world-war-ii.html

Copyright (c) 2020, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Share it on Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

Tuesday's Tip: U.S. World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947

The record collection for the U.S. World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947  is one of my favorite collections.  This collection is available on:

*  Ancestry.com ($$):   35,600,493 entries ( https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/ymdraftcardswwii/ )

*  Fold3 ($$): 27,595,350 entries  ( https://www.fold3.com/title/816/wwii_draft_registration_cards )

The description of the collection on the Ancestry collection page says:

This database contains World War II draft registration cards from multiple registrations filled out by men in select states aged 18–44.

Historical Background

The U.S. officially entered World War II on 8 December 1941 following an attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. About a year before, in October 1940, President Roosevelt had signed into law the first peacetime selective service draft in U.S. history because of rising world conflicts. Multiple registrations held between November 1940 and October 1946 signed up more than 50 million American men aged 18–45 for the draft.

Cards in This Database
This database contains images and indexes for registration cards filled out by men born between the years of 1898 and 1929 from Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, and North Carolina. The following states are also found in the index with a link to the images available on Fold3:

• Alabama
• Alaska
• Arizona
• California
• Colorado
• Connecticut
• Delaware
• Florida
• Hawaii
• Idaho
• Illinois - Additional records to be added soon
• Indiana
• Iowa
• Kansas
• Kentucky - Additional records to be added soon
• Maryland
• Michigan
• Minnesota
• Mississippi
• Missouri
• Montana
• Nebraska
• Nevada
• New Hampshire - Additional records to be added soon
• New Mexico
• Oklahoma
• Oregon
• Pennsylvania
• Rhode Island
• Texas
• Utah
• Virginia
• Washington
• West Virginia
• Wyoming
• District of Columbia
• Virgin Islands

More cards will be added from other states as they become available. The cards are potentially valuable sources of genealogical and family information, with details that can include:

• Name
• Serial Number
• Address and/or Mailing Address
• Telephone
• Age
• Place of Birth
• Country of Citizenship
• Employer’s Name
• Place of Employment (address)
• Name and Address of Person who will always know Registrant’s Address, Relationship to Registrant
• Description: race, eyes, weight, complexion, hair
• Year of Registration

The collection includes some replacement cards for registration cards that were destroyed. These cards list a name.

This Ancestry record collection currently has 35,600,493 entries.  It is an indexed collection with links to some record images on Fold3.

I entered several exact surnames in the "Last Name" search field and found (on Ancestry):

*  285 for "Seaver"       
*  91 for "Seavers"
*  67 for "Seever"
*  150 for "Seevers"
*  238 for "Sever"
*  227 for "Severs"

*  105 for "Carringer"
*  15 for "Caringer"

*  99 for "Vaux"

*  53 for "Auble"

*  288,467 for "Smith"

Here is an example of a record summary from this collection on Ancestry:

Ancestry provides only a record summary from the actual draft registration card.  If a user has a Fold3 subscription, they can click on the link "View Original image on Fold3" below the place holder image on the screen above.

The front of the draft registration card on Fold3 looks like this:

By clicking on the right-facing carat below the image, the user can see the back side of the draft registration card:

It is important to understand what this collection represents and includes.  Only males born between 1900 and 1927 should be in this collection.  However, not all males were registered, including those already in the Armed Services.  There may be indexed entries for females who are nearest relatives in some of the collections.

Note that there are records in the Ancestry collection for 39 of the 50 states, plus DC and Virgin Islands.  Fold3 claims 45 states plus DC and Virgin Islands.  More may be added in the future to both collections.

This is strictly a 20th century record, and as such can be very useful to find birth names, birth dates, address and employment in 1940-1947 and a physical description for men born between 1900 and 1927.  The person listed on the draft registration card usually filled out the form and signed it In some cases, this may be the only record with a birth date of a person born between those dates.

These draft registration cards are Original Sources, but the birth name and date information is Secondary Information and Direct Evidence of those items.  The home address, employment information, nearest relative and physical description are Primary Information and Direct Evidence.

For those interested in mining this record collection for Hints of persons in their Ancestry Member Tree, the Ancestry.com database number is 2238.  Currently, I have over 380 Hints for persons in my Ancestry Member Tree who are indexed in this record collection.  I work on them occasionally, adding content and source citations to this record collection to my RootsMagic family tree.  Of course, I have many more accepted Hints for this collection in my Ancestry Member Tree.

I typically source the person's name, birth date, address and occupation, and in some instances the physical description and nearest relative, in my RootsMagic family tree.

                              =============================================

NOTE:  Tuesday's Tips is a genealogy blog meme intended to provide information about a resource helpful to genealogists and family historians, especially in the online genea-world.

The URL for this post is: https://www.geneamusings.com/2019/11/tuesdays-tip-us-world-war-ii-draft.html

Copyright (c) 2019, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Share it on Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.