Press Releases

PROVO, Utah, July 10 /PRNewswire/ -- MyFamily.com, Inc., a leading online subscription business and the leading network for connecting families, today announced the launch of an immense project to make available fully indexed, digitized images of more than 24 million World War I (WWI) draft registration cards. Ancestry.com, part of the MyFamily.com network of Web sites, becomes the only place to search and view digitized images of actual WWI draft registration cards online.

Beginning today, the first images of original WWI draft registration cards have been posted to the site, enabling Ancestry.com subscribers to browse through more than 100,000 WWI draft registration cards. Subsequent weekly postings will bring millions of images to the site throughout the year. Upon completion, the collection will be fully searchable by name, state, county and birth date with search results linking directly to images. The WWI draft registration cards are part of the U.S. and Canada Records Collection at Ancestry.com, and are available as an annual subscription for $79.95 or $29.95 quarterly.

"This collection is of tremendous value for Americans trying to discover more about where they came from. These draft registration cards provide detailed information about our fathers and grandfathers that answered the call to serve their country," said Tom Stockham, President and CEO of MyFamily.com.  "The personal details on citizenship, employment, family, and physical appearance make this an especially rich resource for learning about what makes us who we are today."

In 1917 the U.S. teetered on the brink of global warfare. President Wilson proposed the American draft to help generate the large number of men needed and the first draft registration date was set for June 5, 1917. Two subsequent registration days were held in June of 1918 and September of 1918 for a total of three registration days. The display of patriotism and dedication to country is astounding, as registration of eligible men was close to 100%. Over 24 million eligible citizens and aliens born between 1873 and 1900 completed a draft registration card.

This civilian registration is often confused with induction into the military; however, only a small percentage of these men were actually called up for military service. Draft registration cards were completed during 1917 -- 1918 by approximately 25 percent of the total U.S. population at that time providing a unique record set for many of our ancestors.

The draft registration cards provide a wealth of personal information including:  full name, age, home address, date of birth, citizenship status, birthplace, occupation, whether married and how many children under age 12, any reason to claim exemption from the draft, height, build, eye color, hair color, whether bald, physical impairments or disabilities, and an actual signature of the draftee.

This exclusive online WWI Draft Registration Card Collection can be accessed at Ancestry.com, part of the MyFamily.com, Inc. network of web sites and the leading resource for family history online. To view a sample image and learn more about this exclusive collection, visit http://www.ancestry.com/landing/ww1/intro.html.

About MyFamily.com, Inc.
MyFamily.com, Inc. is among the largest online subscription businesses, with over 750,000 paid subscriptions and more that 7.5 million people using its Web resources every month. A next-generation media company, MyFamily is focused on connecting families with their histories and one another. The company provides both free and paid subscription services through it's network of Internet properties, which include:  Ancestry.com, the number one source for tracing family history online; RootsWeb.com, recognized as one of the Top 50 Web Sites by Time Magazine and Yahoo! Internet Life, and the oldest and largest genealogy community; and MyFamily.com, the foremost provider of private family web sites. The Company also publishes Ancestry Magazine, Genealogical Computing Magazine, Ancestry Family Tree software, over 50 book titles, and databases on CD-ROM.