World War I Casualties: Descriptive Cards and Photographs

American corpses sprawled on the beach of Tarawa. The Marines secured the island after 76 hours of intense fighting with around 6,000 dead in total from both sides together. The Pacific War claimed the lives of more than 100,000 US military personnel.

More than 3,400 New Jersey men were killed in action or otherwise died while in United States service during World War I, 1917-1918. In late 1919, the U.S. War Department issued, to the adjutant generals of each state, sample cards for the recording of service information for deceased soldiers and sailors. This database includes 3,427 name entries, linked to an information card or photograph, or often both. The information cards provide the following data: name; service number; race; residence; place and date of enlistment; place and date of birth; organizations served in and dates of assignment/transfer; date killed or otherwise died (if not killed in action, cause of death); wounds or injuries received; and the name and address of the person notified of the death. The photographs included in the series measure 3.5″x5.5″, and contain (usually) an oval-shaped, reproduced image (frequently from a military portrait).

You can search the database by surname, first name, town and county of residence, birth state and country, cause of death and race. You can also search by Card ID# if you know the database assigned number for more direct searching.

NEW JERSEY STATE ARCHIVES SEARCHABLE DATABASE