About

By Gerald Whitcombe, military records archivist · Updated 4 June 2026

Military Data Resource is written and maintained by Gerald Whitcombe, an independent military records archivist with a simple conviction: that the past is best understood from the documents people left behind, read honestly and in context.

The author

I am Gerald Whitcombe, a military records archivist and historian. For more than two decades I have worked with service files, casualty returns and the documentation of prisoners of war and the missing — helping families trace relatives and helping researchers test the official record against primary evidence. My interest has always been the same: not the legend of a battle, but the verifiable lives of the people who fought it.

This site grew out of the questions I am asked most often. Rather than answer them one at a time, I set out the methods here — how to research a service record, how to read POW and MIA documentation, and how to approach the heavily documented conflicts such as the Civil War — so that anyone willing to do the work can find their own answers.

What this site stands for

• Primary sources first. The contemporary document outranks the later memoir, every time.
• Honest uncertainty. Where the records are silent or contradictory, I say so rather than guess.
• Independence. This is an editorial and archival resource, not affiliated with any government agency or armed force.

A note on the site's history

Military Data Resource has existed in one form or another since the late 1990s, when the early web first made it possible to share military history widely. This edition keeps faith with that origin — the same focus on records, the missing, and the long history of warfare — rebuilt for readers and researchers today.

Frequently asked questions