Veterans in the Sanchez Family

Since we are going to have the get-together at the Little Manatee State Park on Veterans Day (11/11/13), it would be good to remember and honor at all the veterans in the family tree that we might find know of.

There were a few in every war this country has had since Florida became part of the U.S.

Many of the ancestors were in the Indian Wars.  There are records of many of there enlistments some received bounty land grants (some were converted to cash and some were settled on), a few lived to receive pensions,

There were Sanchezes in the Mexican War.  Roman B. Sanchez, who was in Livingston's Independent Comp., received a pension.  There were likely more.

There were Sanchez on both sides of the Civil War.  There is a databases of Soldiers and Sailor on both sides are listed in a National Park Service database.  The pension files in the Florida Memory Project are more than indexes but show the forms filed by the soldiers and their widows.

Were there Sanchez descendants in the Spanish American War?

For World War I there are the draft card files men of military age were required to file.  There are also service files of Florida soldiers and sailors in the Florida Memory Project.  Many of these servicemen returned with disabilities.

For World War II the free access files are few.  The Draft Registration Cards don't include Florida.  There is a list of Army Enlistments that is faulty.  There are commercial listings in Ancestry.com and 3fold.com that might be better. However we are in the range of recent memory.  Many of us can remember or remember what our parents told us about this war..

This summer list from the Korean War and Vietnam War have been published: Korean War POWs, Korean War dead and wounded for the Army, Vietnam War Casualties, and Vietnam War Deaths.  You might know of other databases with additional information you might share with us.

I don't have information on databases of service members in the recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. We have many of these veterans among us now.  Let us plan to honor their service when we gather at Little Manatee State Park to discuss much lighter matters of who is descendant from whom and eat some potluck goodies.

All of the off-color (blue or violet) are clickable Internet links to the mentioned databases.  Many public libraries have free access to commercial websites of  Ancestry.com and some to 3fold.com as well.