Source: website bigpigeon.us, webpage WW II Dead > About the Roster
© 2020 by Robert A. Christiansen, last update 20 Sep 2020
Pottawattamie County, Iowa Area WW II Dead - About the Roster
Why This Project:
In 2018, while researching a similar project confined to the Avoca, Iowa area, I noticed that World War II dead were sometimes missing from family histories or family trees on the web. I regretted that anyone who died in the service of their country, usually in misery, filth, pain or terror, might be forgotten. Most of our dead did not even have children to preserve their memory; some dead were as young as 18. This I began developing this on-line roster to preserve key information about these men (and a few women).
Because of its size, I have broken up this roster alphabetically into eleven segments. Visitors can also view roster members by death location. I have also provided lists indicating roster members homes before entering service, recognizing that they might have had multiple homes.
Pott. Co. Area WW II Summary Data provides some context as to the scope and organization of this project.
Pottawattamie County may be among the few counties in the United States blessed with the rich on-line resources adequate to support a project such as mine. These resources were developed over the years by many individuals, most of whom are both unknown and deceased. I am grateful to them all, but especially to Sharon Becker.
Major Resources for the WW II Dead roster: (see WW II Dead > Links for a much longer list of sources)
Where I Keep My Data:
Special Thanks:
To Keep in Mind:
About the Page Header Image:
© 2020 by Robert A. Christiansen, last update 20 Sep 2020
Pottawattamie County, Iowa Area WW II Dead - About the Roster
- About the history and development of the WW II Dead roster and about supporting data.
Why This Project:
In 2018, while researching a similar project confined to the Avoca, Iowa area, I noticed that World War II dead were sometimes missing from family histories or family trees on the web. I regretted that anyone who died in the service of their country, usually in misery, filth, pain or terror, might be forgotten. Most of our dead did not even have children to preserve their memory; some dead were as young as 18. This I began developing this on-line roster to preserve key information about these men (and a few women).
Because of its size, I have broken up this roster alphabetically into eleven segments. Visitors can also view roster members by death location. I have also provided lists indicating roster members homes before entering service, recognizing that they might have had multiple homes.
Pott. Co. Area WW II Summary Data provides some context as to the scope and organization of this project.
Pottawattamie County may be among the few counties in the United States blessed with the rich on-line resources adequate to support a project such as mine. These resources were developed over the years by many individuals, most of whom are both unknown and deceased. I am grateful to them all, but especially to Sharon Becker.
Major Resources for the WW II Dead roster: (see WW II Dead > Links for a much longer list of sources)
- The majority of my names came from the Pottawattamie County Roll of Honor, found on-line at http://iagenweb.org/wwii/WWIIRollofHonor/PottawattamieRollofHonor.html. This excellent document was compiled by the late Sharon R. Becker in January 2013, Ms. Becker incorporated lists from various issues of the Council Bluffs Nonpareil from 1943-1945, as well as names from military sources. Some nearby counties have similar documents, but most omit Navy and Marine veterans or are incomplete in other ways. Most of these honor lists or rolls of honor are in iagenweb.org.
- I augmented the Pottawattamie County Roll of Honor by accessing the Iowa WW II Bonus Case
Files for Beneficiaries, on-line at https://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=61186 (requires an ancestry.com subscription). In addition to the bonus that the State of Iowa paid to surviving WW II veterans in the late 1940s, mothers of deceased veterans were generally entitled to receive $500. - For my home town of Avoca, Iowa, I used a small book entitled Service Record - World War II - Avoca and Community, produced by Glen Henderson and his Avoca Boy Scout troop after World War II ended. I believe this is my only source that is not on-line.
- I used the official Iowa Army & Air Force dead list (organized alphabetically by county) - https://www.archives.gov/research/military/ww2/army-casualties/iowa.html
- I used the official Iowa Navy & Marine Corps dead list (organized alphabetically statewide, includes next of kin) - https://www.naval-history.net/WW2UScasStateIowa.htm
Where I Keep My Data:
- My private St. Paul’s community database, which now holds most of my WW II Dead roster data, contains information for over 43,000 individuals with family connections, often tenuous, to rural Pottawattamie County, Iowa. St. Paul's focuses on the Boomer/Hazel Township area, in which St. Paul’s Lutheran Church is located. My St. Paul's database is in my Mac folder Bob Docs > _Reunion Databases.
- For WW II Dead roster members who aren't in my St. Paul's database, I have built small private family databases in my Mac folder Bob Docs > _Reunion Databases > R11NotInSt.Paul's.
Special Thanks:
- My WW II Dead roster utilizes the work done by hundreds of others over the years. as stated earlier, I am grateful to all of them for making this project possible.
- In particular, thanks to all of those who developed the Pottawattamie County Veteran's Plaza in Council Bluffs during the years 1999-2003.
To Keep in Mind:
- Beware - My WW II Dead roster has voluminous amounts of data and is bound to contain errors. Please feel free to report errors or suggest changes via the Contact Form at the end of the Home > Usage Hints webpage.
- I try to use only publicly available information. I believe that all individuals named, such as spouses, are deceased. However, in a few cases my information might be embarassing to surviving family members. If this is the case, please contact me and we will work out an alternative.
- After the cessation of hostilities but while still in service, mostly from accidents.
- Soon after being released from service, mostly in hospitals or from accidents.
About the Page Header Image:
- The webpage header photo, All Gave Some, Some Gave All, is courtesy of aaronfairbairn.com.
