Ohio County, Kentucky History: WWI Draft Registration #1 (Ab-Ac)

Wednesday, December 6, 2023

WWI Draft Registration #1 (Ab-Ac)

WWI Draft Registration:

On May 18, 1917, the Selective Service Act was passed authorizing the President to temporarily increase the military establishment of the United States. The Selective Service System, under the office of the Provost Marshal General, was responsible for the process of selecting men for induction into the military service, from the initial registration to the actual delivery of men to military training camps. Local boards were established for each county or similar subdivision in each state.

During World War I there were three different registrations. The first, on June 5, 1917, was for all men between the ages of 21 and 31. The card used for the first registration (sometimes called the Twelve-Question card because of twelve questions on the front) includes this information: name, age, address, date and place of birth, citizenship status, employer’s name and address, dependent information, marital status, race, military service, and physical appearance.

The second, on June 5, 1918, registered those who attained age 21 after June 5, 1917. (A supplemental registration was held on August 24, 1918, for those becoming 21 years old after June 5, 1918. This was included in the second registration.) The card used for the second registration (sometimes called the Ten-Question card because of ten questions on the front) includes this information: name, age, address, date and place of birth, father’s birthplace, citizenship status, occupation, employer’s name and address, dependent information, name and address of nearest relative, and physical appearance.

The third registration was held on September 12, 1918, for men aged 18 through 45. The card used for the third registration (sometimes called the Twenty-Question card because of twenty questions on the front) includes the name, address, age, date of birth, race, citizenship status, occupation, employer's name and address, name and address of nearest relative, and physical appearance.

There are approximately 24,000,000 cards of men who registered for the draft, (about 23% of the population in 1918). It is important to note that not all of the men who registered for the draft actually served in the military and not all men who served in the military registered for the draft. Moreover, these are not military service records. They contain no information about an individual's military service.

World War I began in 1914 and the USA entered the War in early 1917. The fighting ended with the Armistice of 11 November 1918, while the subsequent Paris Peace Conference imposed various settlements on the defeated powers, notably the Treaty of Versailles. The dissolution of the Russian, German, Austro-Hungarian, and Ottoman Empires resulted in the creation of new independent states, including Poland, Finland, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia. The inability to manage post-war instability contributed to the outbreak of World War II in September 1939. (Source: Wikipedia)

I have found several thousand WWI Draft Registrations from Ohio County, KY, and I will post ten (or maybe twenty) at a time. This will be a big task for me. For example, I have found 205 surnames that start with the letter A. So, if I complete this task, it will take a long time. I will attempt to post the registrations in alphabetical order, but that will not be perfect. Some of the hand-written cards are hard to read, and I am certain that I will misspell some names, but I'll do my best. Some of these men were born in Ohio County but registered in another part of Kentucky or in another state, as they had moved or were working somewhere else.

These cards contain a lot of information, such as date of birth; place of birth; current residence; where they worked; next of kin; and some physical descriptions. It appears that a good percentage of these men were illiterate, or at least had trouble filling out the form and even signing their name. The images are coming from microfilm and are not very good. Not much I can do about that.

1. Earlington Abney