Author: Mark W. Swarthout
Published on: March 17, 2002
I received an email from a fellow genealogist who mentioned having been in the home of one of his friends that shared my last name. It had been many years ago, but he recalled seeing a framed Congressional Medal of Honor citation hanging on the wall in the home. Well, this got me to thinking, surely some of my ancestors must have been heros!
So I went looking! And service records, particularly some of the earlier ones don't necessarily list some of the awards given to soldiers. Citations, the official description of what the individual did to earn the award, provide a pretty detailed summary of a military action.
Here are some of the sites I have found where you can look for the brave ancestors and relations in your family:
United States
This is the big one! The full listing of all the Congressional Medals of Honor ever awarded in the United States can be found at this U.S. Army site
To see pictures of all the Medals awarded by the United States over the last century, this Vietnam Veterans site provides lots of information and photos.
Here is a partial listing of Purple Heart recipients, as well as many great links to other medal related web sites. http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~sebring/i...
This site has a great set of links to listings of award recipients from a wide variety of units and locations. http://members.aol.com/veterans/warlib6h...
Did your ancestors get all of the medals they should have? Have they been lost or misplaced over the years? Medals that may have been lost can be replaced through the National Archives and Records Administration.
A couple of years ago the United States government recognized the importance of the Cold War and the part the US Military played in it. It offers a Cold War Recognition Certificate to any veteran who served from Sept. 2, 1945, to Dec. 26, 1991. I've got mine! This site provides the instructions for ordering. http://www.nara.gov/regional/mprawr.html
Canada
A complete listing of the types of medals that have been awarded to Canadians can be found here: http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/general/sub.cfm...
Canadian Archives has information on their experiences.
These sites provide partial listings of medals:
48th Highlanders of Canada http://www.geocities.com/CdnHeroes/Vetco...
This is a great listing of books on Canadian Military history.
Did I find a Swarthout in the listing of Medal of Honor recipients? No such luck! Unfortunately the citation must have been for one of the friend's maternal ancestors, because there are no Swarthout's (or any of the variations of the spelling!) listed on the official roles. But there are over 3,400 others listed, perhaps one was awarded to one of your relatives!