Thursday, July 9, 2026

11 Overlooked Records for Children Sent to Reform Schools.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 22, 1907

 "If you think you had it bad, think about the boys sent to the Missouri Reform School in Boonville."

Originally established to educate, train, and reform juvenile offenders, the Missouri Reform School for Boys instead, like many other Reform Schools across the nation, became known for overcrowding, violence, poor living conditions, and repeated criticism from investigators. For many boys, the institution became a place of survival rather than rehabilitation.

Abuse Always An Issue
The first known juvenile reformatory in the U.S was the private  New York House of Refuge in Manhattan, NY.  It was established in 1825. The first publicly funded reform school was the State Reform School for Boys, later known as the Lyman School for Boys in Westborough, Massachusetts. It was opened in Nov. 1848. Both institutions have extensive records of severe inmate abuse spanning from the 19th century into modern history:

  • Excessive Corporal Punishment: Severe physical beatings for minor behavioral infractions 
  • Labor Exploitation: Inmates are used as a source of cheap, forced labor for outside commercial contractors. Boys manufactured items like brushes and shoes, while girls performed endless domestic work. 
  • Lack of actual reform: Virtually no meaningful classroom or vocational instruction. 

Where Are the Records
These institutional records are often preserved at the state level.  The New York House of Refuge records are held in the New York State Archives in Albany, NY. There are over 350 volumes of data holding the Board of Managers' meeting minutes, daily logs, committee reports, and internal investigative documents regarding staff misconduct.

Possible Finds in Records

  1. Inmates Are Named: These records are a century old, so juvenile privacy laws no longer apply.
  2. Workers and Perpetrators Are Named. Legislative and state investigation records name superintendents, guards, and contractors accused of cruelty or financial exploitation. 
    Check out the records, like the New York State Assembly committee reports from 1872 and 1924
Records for More Recent Reform Schools
If looking for a more recent ancestor, inmate, or worker, you must expand your research.
In researching the Glen Mills Schools, established in 1826, later named the Philadelphia House of Refuge, which closed in 2019, you will want to look at the following archival sources: 
  1. Government Investigative Reports: The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services (DHS) and the Pennsylvania Auditor General hold the extensive licensing violation and emergency closure reports from 2019.
  2. Legal Archives: Extensive complaints, depositions, and testimonies are filed under mass tort litigation in the Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas (Philadelphia County) and federal district courts.
  3. Journalistic Archives: The Philadelphia Inquirer, and local / state newspaper collections.
True or False?
This article, which may have been sensationalized by a zealous journalist, suggests that girls, in this case an Indian girl, also resided at the Missouri Reform School in 1909. More than once, I have seen these cases. When the girls are sentenced, they are often housed and must labor as servants for the warden, governor, or other local dignitary. They were often sexually abused. Read: Penitentiary Records: Part I Women in Prison

Newspapers often preserve names, circumstances, escapes, court proceedings, and family connections that never appear in official reform school files. For genealogists, they are often the bridge that makes it possible to identify and reconstruct an ancestor's experience.

Inmates Protected, Perpetrators / Abusers Named
Inmates: Most inmate names are protected because many victims were minors when the abuse happened, or because of ongoing privacy concerns in modern sexual abuse cases. Victims are widely listed as "John Doe" or by initials in class-action lawsuits.
However, some adult survivors waive their anonymity

Abusers: Public civil lawsuits and state reports include the names of administrators who failed to protect students and fostered a cover-up culture.
Counselors or guards who physically beat children are named in internal employment records, police reports, and court depositions. 

Why The Confusion?
It was a common practice to change the name of reform schools, especially after negative publicity. The infamous Booneville Reformatory, also known as the Missouri Training School for Boys, was established in 1887 in Boonville, Missouri. The original mission emphasized education, vocational training, discipline, and giving young offenders a second chance. However, this goal failed to reach reality.

6 Name Changes
Their name changes reflect their effort to bury their reputation and to change its purpose: 

Feature 

Missouri Reformatory (1915–1933)

Boonville Correctional Center (1983–Present)

Legal Status

Juvenile / Young Adult Reform School

Adult State Prison

Inmate Age

Boys as young as 7 up to young men aged 21 (sometimes 25).

Adult men (aged 18+ or minors certified as adults).

Philosophy

"Rehabilitation" via forced farm labor, trade learning, and military drill.

Punishment, containment, and state-level adult rehabilitation.

Target Crime

Truancy, incorrigibility, petty theft, up to early felony convictions.

State felony convictions (adult crimes).

The Names Of One Institution

  1. Missouri Reform School for Boys (1887–1903) – Original name
  2. Missouri Training School for Boys (1903–1915) – Attempt to shift the institutional focus from strict punishment toward education and vocational training.
  3. Missouri Reformatory (1915–1933) - Overlapping of 7-year-old truant boys that co-mingled on campus with 21- to 25-year-old convicted felons. They were assigned separate dorm cottages, but records suggest nefarious behaviors. In 1948, older inmates beat two young boys to death
  4. Missouri Training School for Boys (1933–1983)
  5. Boonville Correctional Center on July 1, 1983. Adult men aged 18+; no children

Their reprehensible reputation has been detailed: inadequate food, assaults among inmates, escapes, chronic understaffing, and deteriorating facilities. Although intended for juveniles, the institution eventually held offenders well into adulthood. One of the most troubling practices were men approaching thirty years of age were confined alongside children as young as seven.

As security concerns increased, the campus became less like a school and more like a prison. In 1983, the facility closed as a reform school and was converted into the Boonville Correctional Center. It was used as State-level punishment, containment, and adult rehabilitation maximum security infrastructure with armed guards, high security fencing, razor wire, and reinforced cell blocks.

First Step to Researching
Knowing the name changes helps the researchers: 


If your subject was a child learning a trade in an open-campus environment, look under Missouri Training School for Boys.

  • If your subject was in a highly dangerous environment where kids and adult felons were mixed, look under the Missouri Reformatory.
  • If your subject was a convicted adult criminal in a secure prison with razor wire, look under Boonville Correctional Center.
After the disastrous "Reformatory" era, where adults and kids were mixed, the state built a separate prison for older youths elsewhere (Algoa Farms).

Older Records' Holding
Historical records for the "Booneville Reformatory" are held at the Missouri Secretary of State's Archives Division, Record Group 213 (Department of Corrections). Again, older records hold the boy's name. Ledger entries indicate the boy's name, age, race, specific offense, and the length of their sentence. It even tracks historical "firsts".

Perpetrators/Staff are also named

Across the Nation, Same Fate
During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, reform schools across America developed similar reputations. Many began with progressive intentions but struggled with overcrowding, inadequate funding, harsh discipline, and abuse.

Among the better-known institutions were:

  • New York House of Refuge (New York City) – America's first juvenile reformatory, opened in 1825.
  • Illinois State Training School for Boys (St. Charles, Illinois) – criticized for overcrowding and corporal punishment.
  • Ohio Boys' Industrial School (Lancaster, Ohio) – investigations documented poor conditions and abuse.
  • Pennsylvania Reform School at Morganza – frequently criticized for harsh discipline.
  • Whittier State School (California) – originally promoted as progressive but later faced investigations into abuse and neglect.
  • Florida School for Boys at Marianna – perhaps the most infamous, where decades of documented abuse eventually led to state investigations and archaeological searches for unmarked graves.

For family historians, these institutions represent more than dark chapters in history. They often explain why a child disappeared from the census, why a family became separated, or why later records describe an individual as having been "raised by the state."

Finding Reform School Records
Missouri State Archives

Researching children placed in reform schools requires looking beyond traditional genealogy sources. A boy may have spent only a year at Boonville, but that year could generate records in four or five different repositories. 

Valuable records may be found in:

  1. Juvenile court commitment
  2. Sheriff's transport records
  3. Admission register
  4. Biennial reports
  5. State Board inspections
  6. Superintendent correspondence
  7. Apprenticeship records
  8. Newspaper accounts
  9. Census records
  10. Military draft registrations
  11. Death certificates

Research Notes:
Many nineteenth-century annual reports include lists of inmates, ages, counties of commitment, reasons for confinement, occupations, and outcomes after release.
Because juvenile records often remain restricted, researchers should also search newspapers, legislative reports, county histories, and state government publications. These sources frequently identify children by name while documenting investigations or institutional reforms.

Institutional records represent a real-life interruption for children who are often overlooked.

Wednesday, July 1, 2026

From Records to Stories: Learn From Denise Kiernan

Why Every Soldier Has a Story

This past week I had the pleasure of attending an author event unlike most book signings. Held in the beautifully restored Grandel Theatre in St. Louis and hosted by Missouri Humanities, the evening celebrated the release of Obstinate Daughters by historian and bestselling author Denise Kiernan.

The event carried special meaning for me because it was sponsored by the Missouri Humanities, the same organization that awarded a grant supporting the Tracing Ancestors upcoming military research guidebook authored by me, Behind the Uniform: Every Soldier Has a Story (release date Oct 2026)

As Denise spoke about her years of research, I found myself smiling more than once. Her process sounded remarkably familiar. She described spending years immersed in archives, personal papers, government documents, historical societies, libraries, and manuscript collections. She followed tiny clues, reconstructed forgotten lives, verified evidence, and patiently assembled a narrative from scattered historical fragments.

In other words...|
She researches exactly the way genealogists do. The difference is not in the research. It is in the final product. Genealogists often stop after identifying the records. Historians like Denise transform those records into compelling narratives that allow readers to experience the past through the lives of real people.

That realization struck me because it echoes the final message of Behind the Uniform.

Throughout the book I encourage researchers to think beyond simply collecting military records. Service records, pensions, newspapers, congressional documents, local histories, cemetery records, manuscript collections, and family papers all contain pieces of a person's life. Individually they are valuable. Together they tell a story. Every soldier has one.

Military genealogy is not simply about documenting enlistments, battles, or pensions. It is about understanding who that soldier was before the war, what happened during the conflict, and how military service shaped the rest of his or her life.

The records provide the evidence.
The researcher provides the interpretation.
The story preserves the history.

Listening to Denise explain the years behind Obstinate Daughters reminded me that great historical writing is built upon careful documentation. Readers often see the finished narrative but rarely appreciate the thousands of documents, false leads, courthouse visits, archival discoveries, and countless hours of analysis that made the book possible.

As genealogists, we perform many of those same research tasks every day. Whether we are searching military service records, pension files, county histories, Congressional documents, newspapers, or manuscript collections, we are uncovering the evidence needed to reconstruct lives that might otherwise be forgotten.

Not every family historian will write a published history. But every family historian has the opportunity to preserve a story before it disappears. That, ultimately, is why we research.

I left St. Louis inspired, not because I wanted to become a historical novelist, but because I was reminded that evidence without interpretation is simply information. Research becomes meaningful when it connects people to the human stories behind the documents.

This October 24, I hope to continue that conversation during the launch of Behind the Uniform: Every Soldier Has a Story. My goal is not simply to teach researchers where military records are located, but to show how those records can be transformed into the stories that preserve our shared history.

After all, records may survive for centuries.
Stories are what ensure they continue to matter.

My sincere thanks to Missouri Humanities for supporting both ends of the historical journey - research and storytelling. Their grant to Tracing Ancestors for Behind the Uniform: Every Soldier Has a Story is helping preserve the stories of America's veterans, while their sponsorship of Denise Kiernan's Obstinate Daughters reminds us how powerful those stories become when careful research is transformed into compelling history.

Organizations like Missouri Humanities ensure that our shared past is not only preserved in archives, but also brought to life for future generations. For that, I am deeply grateful.









Sunday, June 28, 2026

How Genealogists Use the 1926 Free State Census

 
 The Features


One hundred years after it was taken, the first census of the Irish Free State is fully digitized, freely accessible, and packed with details that genealogists have been waiting decades to see.

This 1926 Census covers 26 counties of the Irish Free State. The National Archives of Ireland released the 1926 Census to the public. It is online, free to search, and accessible to all with an internet connection. There is no subscription, and no paywall. 



For genealogists trying to connect families across generations, or identify a great-grandparent's village of origin, or understand the working lives of their ancestors, this census provides the answers. Researchers will find digitized and indexed handwritten household forms that ancestors filled out. 

For example, little was known about Elizabeth Murphy of Donegal until her Uncle was identified. It is known she is not Catholic but Church of Ireland, but it was the 1926 Census that attached her to her uncle, Robert Chambers. It also tells the researcher that she was not born in Cullinean as her Uncle, but in Tullynavinn, a rural townland located on the Inishowen Peninsula in County Donegal, Ireland 

          
Even though more information is needed, we have now connected two generations. 

A Census Unlike Any Before It!

The 1926 Census wasn't just a head count. It was the first census conducted by an independent Irish government, taken a decade after the War of Independence and the Civil War. This 1926 Census was the result of a new nation taking "stock, an enumeration of itself.
This was the first Irish census to exclude Northern Ireland, covering only the 26 counties of the Free State. Some forms were completed in Irish.

Questions:
  • employers by name
  • duration of current marriages
  • number of children born 
  • language recognition: forms could be completed entirely in Irish, reflecting the new state's commitment to the language's revival. Previously, many used anglicized English equivalents required by the British Colonial rule.
    Instructions on Form A, Census of the Irish Free State, 1926  
• Full name, relationship to the head of household, and exact age in years and months
• Specific birthplace down to the townland level, and whether the person could speak Irish 
• Occupation and the specific name of their employer or workplace
• For married women: duration of the current marriage and the number of living children

A Snapshot of a Nation in Transition
The data proves these 26 counties are not exclusively Catholic. Roman Catholics made up 92.6% of the Free State's nearly 3 million people. The remaining 7.4%, over 220,000 individuals, belonged to other faiths: 
Religion, Church of Ireland, Protestant Episcopalians
  • Protestant Episcopalians (Church of Ireland); primarily 
  • Presbyterians concentrated in Donegal
  • Methodists in Dublin and Cork
  • Jewish and Baptist communities in Dublin.

Name: Russia; Religion:Hebrew; Occupation: House Furniture Shop Keeper

 How to Access the Record
The digitized household returns are available through the National Archives of Ireland's 1926 Census Search platform. Researchers can search by county, townland, street, or directly by first name and surname. 

Since many forms were completed in Irish or used traditional Gaelic spellings, be sure to try multiple versions of your ancestor's name. An interactive map also lets you browse households by location.




Friday, June 19, 2026

Congressional Serial Set

Using Serial Set to Research
The U.S. Congressional Serial Set, filled with genealogical tips, hints, and treasures, is not getting its fair share of attention by genealogists or other historical researchers. I can’t think of one reason why this free-resource is not being perused on a regular basis. It’s full of what we love – gossip, scandal, court cases and names of both supportive and vile neighbors. It covers topics on women, African Americans, Native Americans, students, soldiers, sailors, pensioners, landowners, and inventors. Is this not the genealogists’ dream?  And,  it’s free (with a library card).
Family researchers with enslaved ancestors or those descendants from their enslavers will want to peruse the Congressional Serial Set Records. This collections hold a great part of the US history; much from the "everyday " citizen.

Accessing the U.S. Congressional Serial Set
If you aren’t familiar with the Serial Set, be sure to read U.S. Congressional Serial Set for Genealogists, Part I. The Serial Set is an online resource available via your local library that subscribes to HeritageQuest Online; and, it’s accessible remotely using your home computer with a library card.

Tied to Juneteenth?

If you use the keyword  “slaves,” there are 659 occurrences. Some of these documents give us social history and legal proceedings void of ancestors’ names and may be deemed less than helpful to the researcher. But the collection also includes claims for slaves killed in the military – especially useful if you are stuck in the War of 1812 era, pension appeals, land disputes, and even emancipation information like that of  Jane Hall (above).
Emancipation Papers: Francis Hall and Others.
Maryland slave Jane Hall, born 1799 ran away from her master in 1820 and subsequently was manumitted (as were her heirs) by Alexander Claxton in 1821. (Francis Hall, 55th Congress, 1st Session, Senate, Rpt No. 123).
Pension: Richard Jackson 22 Jul 1890 
Many pensions were settled at the congressional level and the US Serial Set has detailed accounts of the requests, proposals and appeals.  Richard Jackson, a slave and teamster for the Union Army was shot, captured and imprisoned, attempted an escape, shot again. The account is pretty detailed, and it also gives his slave master’s name as Dr. Charles J. Manning. (Serial Set-ID:2815 House of Representatives, Report No 2784, 51st Congress, 1st Session).
Land: On the Application of a Cherokee Indian Woman to Sell a Reservation of Land Which Was Made to Her Husband, Who was Adjudged to be a Runaway Slave. 
 A difficult research project is the intermarrying of Native Americans and African Americans residing in the southeast. A report dated 8 Feb 1831 documents Sally Johnson, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation in Jackson County, Alabama married a runaway slave Peter Johnson. Peter was “reclaimed by his master.” The legality of selling of Peter’s 650 acres of reservation land was in question. (Serial Set: A3P033 Publ. land No. 892, 21st Congress, 2nd Session). 
Runaway Slave Names: Benjamin Oden; 7 April 1834. 
Slave Frederick ran away from his master, Benjamin Oden in Maryland,1814. He enlisted in the military as alias William Williams. Military men were entitled to bounty land and the master wanted to claim the bounty land that would have been given to William Williams, as if he were a free man. This one report gave us the name of slave, freeman alias and master. (Serial Set-ID 262; Benjamin Oden, Rep No 392, 23rd Congress, 1st Session, House of Representative). 

 In Honor of Juneteenth 2026, this excerpt is from Jan 2013 blogpost: Using U. S. Congressional Serial Set, Part II. 




Saturday, June 6, 2026

Draw A Direct Line: Virginia Revolutionary War Land Records to Ancestors


Virginia Bounty Lands 

Virginia Revolutionary War land records are among the most important genealogical resources for tracing early American families. One reason is simple: Virginia controlled one of the largest military bounty land reserves in the new nation.

After the American Revolutionary War, Virginia rewarded veterans with bounty land for military service. Much of this land was located in what later became Kentucky and the Ohio Valley frontier. Because Virginia’s military land reserve was so vast, thousands of veterans, heirs, speculators, and migrating families became connected through these records.

For genealogists, that created an extraordinary paper trail.

Virginia bounty land records often contain far more than acreage descriptions. Researchers may discover:
• Military service references
• Names of heirs and widows
• Assignments and transfers of land rights
• Survey maps and plats
• Frontier settlement locations
• Evidence of family relationships not found elsewhere

The importance of Virginia’s land system extends well beyond the state itself.

For many researchers, these records become the missing bridge between generations. Frontier families who later appeared in Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri can often be traced first through Virginia military land claims. In many cases, the records help explain where a family went after disappearing from eastern county records.

Researchers should remember that Revolutionary War bounty land rights were frequently sold, inherited, reassigned, or claimed decades after the war itself. Because of this, a single land file may preserve multiple generations of family history within one chain of records.

Researchers should not stop with a single warrant or patent. The strongest genealogical evidence often appears across the full chain of records:
• Treasury warrants
• Surveys and plats
• Assignments and transfers
• Land patents
• County deed books
• Tax records

Within these records, researchers may uncover heirs, widows, neighboring families, migration routes, estate settlements, or evidence showing when a family moved westward. Survey plats may identify nearby relatives or longtime associates, while assignments and transfers can reveal inheritance patterns, financial hardship, or multiple generations connected to the same claim.

In some cases, Virginia bounty land records provide the only surviving paper trail linking a Revolutionary War veteran to descendants who later settled across the expanding American frontier.

This is why we are excited about the digitizing Virginia bounty land records, driven by VA250 (250th anniversary of American independence): Virginia Revolutionary War Service Records: Bounty Land

Read more at Journal of the American Revolution



Wednesday, May 6, 2026

Ethiopians Who Traced Jewish Roots via Israel, Spain & USA

 

It is Ethiopian Patriots' Victory Day (also known as Arbegnoch Qen or Liberation Day).
From 1993-1994, a span of about 18 months or so, I traveled back and forth to Tel Aviv, Israel, working at Bezeq, an Israeli communications company. It is there that I met and befriended my Ethiopian friends who lived on the outskirts of Tel Aviv and frequented the large market (my Israeli playground). My living accommodations faced the Mediterranean sea, where I enjoyed the beach, but I played in the dusty city market, learning foods, history, customs, and a few vital words in Hebrew, which I’ve long since forgotten. 

Ethiopian Jews are primarily known as Beta Israel (House of Israel). They are an ancient Jewish community from Ethiopia's Amhara and Tigray regions who practiced a traditional form of Judaism for centuries before immigrating to Israel in large numbers beginning in the late 1970s. Historically, they were sometimes called Falasha, a term now considered derogatory.


Although I loved the Israeli dishes, especially the spicy ones with a touch of Northern African influence, I also fell in love with Ethiopian food in Israel. The Beta Israel community (they all seemed to live together in 1993-1994) didn’t appear to really blend into the Israeli culture; many did not have much more of a working knowledge of Hebrew than I. But with the help of young ones translating into English, I would sit at their communal gathering, following customs, and falling in love with berbere, the use of turmeric, the feel of injera, and homemade Tej (a honey wine, but milder than that found in the American-Ethiopian restaurants). 
A recent homemade (KBrandt) dinner

I often make Ethiopian dishes, but I never learned how to make injera. I buy it at the local Ethiopian market/restaurants. But still, I give tribute to the "Ethiopian Jews" whom I met over thirty years ago.

My experience with the Ethiopian Jews became vital in some genealogical research of a few Mediterranean-tanned friends who discovered their Ethiopian roots. In America, they claimed to be Sephardic Jews. But family folklore and history confirmed them to be a distinct group of Jewish persons. 

There are records of generational names (similar to Genesis, who begat whom), and the elders could recite them without referring to the written word. The last few generations, however, only recognized it as family folklore, for they were born in the USA and had embraced all that is American. It appears their ancestors, who had left Ethiopia many generations before, also left their generational customs behind as they traveled through northern Africa and Europe, finally landing in the USA on working boats or through some form of trade, intermarrying with other cultures, slowly sending for family members to join them. These American-born, mostly claiming to be descendants of Moors from southern Spain, did not quite believe in the folklore until they uncovered genealogical data given to them by a dying elder.

As I was asked to verify the accuracy and probability and to extinguish some of their doubts, I printed off historical information for them to read. a3Genealogy reviewed their DNA results.

Last I heard, they continued to claim Judeo-Españoles (Jewish Spaniards), but they sprinkled Ethiopian artifacts throughout their home to remind them of their ancestry, and are dedicated to passing the family stories to their children. They were also looking for relatives amongst the Israeli-resident Ethiopian Jews who were airlifted between 1980 and 1990, those who were part of "Operation Solomon," including the ones I met in 1993. Photo: (Operation Solomon: The Daring Rescue of the Ehtiopian Jews, book). However, according to recent data, some Ethiopian Jews were forced to convert to Christianity in Ethiopia but quietly continued their Jewish customs and remained in Ethiopia while awaiting permission to enter Israel.

Maybe if they searched a bit more, they would not only find their Israeli relatives in Ethiopia and/or Israel, but also a link to their family claim on Spanish or Moorish heritage.

In the meantime, I need to get back to the kitchen and make some Doro Wat for today's Ethiopian meal.

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Sunday, May 3, 2026

Research Ancestors in the Civilian Conservation Corp

Did you know there was a National Youth Administration, the Works Progress Administration (WPA), through the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)? 

Your ancestor may have been reported as a “student” at any age. We've seen as late as 28, but the age was "fudged." Look for that also. Be sure to cross-reference your ancestor using multiple documents.
This program included a “Division of Negro Affairs” and was in existence until 1943; in later years, the program fell under the Federal Security Agency.


Where to start? 
>Census records
Most census records, especially those from 1940, include an embedded double-check process code denoting occupation. In our client's case, the ancestor worked in the nursing field as a “first aid” assistant in the forestry industry (not logging). This is one doc that agreed that 1) he was a worker in “Govt”. (1940 census). 2) he was “not employed for pay” but worked in the Public Emergency Work Program (received a stipend). 3) he worked for the C.C.C.
>Later military service papers confirmed this early CCC work history. 

Where are the records?
Personnel records are kept at the National Archives at St. Louis. You can request a search for an enrollee’s file to uncover their personal journey through the program.
Researchers can often find:
  • Service records: Enrollment dates, discharge papers, and camp assignments.
  • Camp life: Inspection reports and project descriptions.
  • Personal details: Medical exams, pay records, and conduct reports.
  • Visuals: Historic photographs of camp structures and daily work.
  • Pay: The pay was creative. Participants in these programs were to send home $22 of their $30 monthly pay.
To dig deeper
1) Look into Record Group 35 at the National Archives in College Park (Archives II) for administrative files, or ...
2) Check state archives for local camp newspapers and maps.