Guide to finding New York National Guard Records
If you want recent records you need to be either the veteran or a very close relative.
For soldiers discharged after 1953 you need to go through the New York National Guard’s Records Center.
The New York State Archives has the following collections:
- New York State Adjutant General's Office Organization Rosters of Military Officers, 1800-1899
- New York State Adjutant General's Office National Guard Muster Rolls, 1878-1954
- New York National Guard Service Cards, 1917-1954.
Please note that New York State residents have free access to parts of Ancestry.com.
In addition to Ancestry.com is a related site, Fold3. Fold3 is a genealogy website that specializes in military records. If you have an All Access membership to ancestry you also get membership to Fold3.
The New York State Military Museum has indexed over 1,000,000 names into our Roster database. You can search that directly or browse our collections here.
Other collections at the NYS Military Museum that may be useful:
New York State Adjutant General Reports
The New York State Adjutant General Reports are the reports given to the New York State Legislature by the head of the New York National Guard, the Adjutant General, or AG. Most years listed all of the officers in the NYNG and their unit affiliations; many years have a name index.
Register of Militia Officers who served prior to 1858
New York National Guardsman
The New York National Guardsman was a magazine published monthly from April, 1924 to August, 1940 when much of the New York National Guard was federalized for duty. It is a good source of photographs and biographical information on higher-ranking officers.
Charts Showing Lineage Of New York Units
New York State Awards, Decorations, and Medals
New York Guard Monthly Rosters, 1940-1946, World War Two
In addition we also have
Enlistment cards for soldiers who served in the 15th New York National Guard/369th Regiment;
Service cards for soldiers who were federalized for service in the US Army, 1940
Archival collections removed from various armories throughout the State.
Other places that may have information:
New York State Library
Cultural Education Center
222 Madison Avenue
Albany, NY 12230
(518) 474-5355
New York State Archives
New York State Education Department
Cultural Education Center
Albany, NY 12230
(518) 474-6926
To search for Images see Sources of U.S. Military Images: Major Repositories
If you cannot find information on a particular soldier after reviewing these resources, the best advice is to look for information on the unit where the soldier served. You could also try searching for the unit’s commanders, who may have written memoirs or books about the war.
In addition to the above resources, a good place to search is WorldCat, www.worldcat.org, which is a database of thousands of library catalogs. However, this is more of a discovery database since you will not be able to borrow from it directly.
You might also be able to find unit histories at The Internet Archive.
Other possible resources are the local (to the solider/unit) historical societies and public libraries. Local newspapers also had many “local interest” stories about men and women when they enlisted, were promoted, died, etc.
There are also two great newspaper databases:
NYS Historic Newspapers
Fulton History (This database also covers the whole state)
Finally, all NYS residents have access to different research databases through the NYS Library