Source: website bigpigeon.us, webpage WW II Dead > Roster Background.
© 2021 by Robert A. Christiansen, last update 21 Apr 2021.
Why the WW II Dead project:
In 2018, while researching on-line the Avoca, Iowa war dead, I noticed that WW II dead were sometimes missing from family histories or family trees. It pained me that anyone who died in the service of their country, usually in misery, filth, pain or terror, might be forgotten. Most did not even have children to preserve their memory; some were as young as 18. This I began this on-line roster to preserve key information about these men (and several women).
Few counties in the United States have the on-line resources sufficient to build a roster like this. 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 the late Sharon R. 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:
I've cast my net widely as to who I've included in my roster:
Special thanks:
To keep in mind:
The WW II Dead - Roster Background webpage header:
© 2021 by Robert A. Christiansen, last update 21 Apr 2021.
Why the WW II Dead project:
In 2018, while researching on-line the Avoca, Iowa war dead, I noticed that WW II dead were sometimes missing from family histories or family trees. It pained me that anyone who died in the service of their country, usually in misery, filth, pain or terror, might be forgotten. Most did not even have children to preserve their memory; some were as young as 18. This I began this on-line roster to preserve key information about these men (and several women).
Few counties in the United States have the on-line resources sufficient to build a roster like this. 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 the late Sharon R. Becker.
Major Resources for the WW II Dead roster: (see WW II Dead > Links for a much longer list of sources)
- Most of my roster names came from the Pottawattamie County Roll of Honor, compiled by Sharon R. Becker in 2013 and on-line at http://iagenweb.org/wwii/WWIIRollofHonor/PottawattamieRollofHonor.html. I believe Ms. Becker used lists from various Council Bluffs Nonpareil issues from 1943-1945, as well as 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 State of Iowa's bonus paid to surviving WW II veterans in the late 1940s, beneficiaries of deceased veterans, generally their mothers, were 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 non-web source.
- 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:
- I use the Reunion for Mac genealogical data management software.
- My private St. Paul’s community database, which now holds most of my WW II Dead roster data, contains information for over 44,000 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 not in my St. Paul's database, I have built small private family databases in my Mac folder Bob Docs > _Reunion Databases > R11NotInSt.Paul's.
I've cast my net widely as to who I've included in my roster:
- I've included almost all known WW II deaths of those who lived in Pottawattamie County at one time, or had a spouse from Pottawattamie County. The few known exceptions are listed elsewhere,
- I also included all WW II deaths found in my Reunion for Mac databases. Thus a few WW II Dead roster members never lived in or near Pottawattamie County.
- I've included those who died after the cessation of hostilities but while still in service; these were mostly accidental deaths.
- I've included Pottawattamie County area veterans who served in WW II and then died in the first few years after being released from service; these were mostly in hospitals or from accidents. I usually have no way of knowing if these deaths were service-connected.
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.
The WW II Dead - Roster Background webpage header:
- During WW II, the 7th Service Command performed numerous rear-echelon US Army tasks over a nine-state area including Iowa. Headquarters was in the 1933 art deco Federal Building at 15th and Dodge in Omaha, which still survives as a hotel. Iowa's presence in 7th Service Command territory is the reason that the second digit of the service number assigned to me in 1954 was 7. Enlistees numbers started with 17, draftees with 37.