 Welcome to the National Archives and Records Administration's genealogy series. I'm Andrea Matney, the program's coordinator, and pleased to bring you our next and last session. These lectures demonstrate how to use federal records and other resources for genealogical research for beginning to experienced family historians. Our presenters include experts from the National Archives nationwide. During the premier broadcast, we invite you to join the conversation. Please participate by using YouTube's chat and Twitter. This is number six out of six sessions broadcast over two months. This was our May schedule, and please know that the recorded sessions are still available on YouTube. And here is our June schedule. Like our previous sessions, the video will remain available as a recording for later viewing. As you can see from this slide, chat is available as a video plays. We invite you to participate. First, log in to YouTube and then type your questions about today's topic. Keep your eye on the chat during the broadcast because the speaker will answer your questions there. You don't have to wait until the end. Please type your questions in at any time. And under the video box, you can access live captioning, handouts, and an evaluation. Click on the words show more to see their links. Now onto our session. Merchant Marine Records at the National Archives at St. Louis with Teresa Fitzgerald. The core collection of the Merchant Marine licensing files are now open to the public for the first time at the National Archives at St. Louis. Teresa will discuss these holdings as well as other complex and closely connected auxiliary collections. Teresa Fitzgerald joined the National Archives in 2007 as a temporary student employee with the National Archives at St. Louis for position then transition to the student career program. She then became a permanent archives technician upon completion of her education. Teresa was selected as an archivist under the Archivist Development Program in 2010. She then became the reference supervisor for the National Archives in St. Louis in 2015 and was selected as the chief of archival operations and director of the National Archives at St. Louis in 2018. I am now turning the broadcast over to Teresa. Thank you, Andrea. It's a pleasure to be here today. As you stated, we have recently accessioned the core collection of Merchant Marine Records, the Merchant Mariner licensing files at the National Archives at St. Louis. We are receiving these in large blocks and we have received the first collection. These are accessed using a finding aid. But first, in order to understand these records, I will go through a brief history. This history is very rich and very complex. So in order to get it right, I will be reading the slides. Not the most exciting thing, but it is necessary to do due diligence to these collections. The Shipping Act of 1916 established the US Shipping Board, the first federal agency tasked with promoting a US Merchant Marine and regulating US commercial shipping. This was enacted in part because of the severe disruptions in shipping caused by World War I. It specifically established the shipping board for the purpose of encouraging, developing, and creating a naval auxiliary and naval reserve and a merchant marine to meet the requirements of the commerce of the United States with its territories and possessions and with foreign countries to regulate carriers by water engaged in the foreign and interstate commerce of the United States. Much of this history came from this handy website that is noted at the bottom of this slide. Please feel free to go to that website in order to obtain further information about the National Maritime Center. On August 10th, 1933, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt abolished the USSB and created the Interim United States Shipping Board Bureau within the Department of Commerce. Roosevelt preferred that the regulation of US shipping remain under partial control of a cabinet department. The Merchant Marine Act of 1936 replaced the USSBB with the Independent Regulatory Body, the US Maritime Commission, referred to as the Magna Carta of American Shipping as part of the new deal and intended to revitalize US merchant shipping and strengthen the nation's national defense. It's created the United States Maritime Service, the organization responsible for mariner training. On February 7th, 1942, President Roosevelt created the War Shipping Administration to handle the operational demands the World War II placed upon the Maritime Commission. Between 1939 and 1945, the Maritime Commission built 5,171 ships, over 2,000 registered tons. They oversaw the construction of the more modern victory type cargo ships, tankers, combination passenger cargo ships, tugs, barges, and military auxiliary vessels. The Maritime Commission used a variety of training programs to produce 262,474 mariners. In 1946, Congress abolished the WSA and its responsibilities reverted to the commission. May 24th, 1950, Congress created the Maritime Administration and Federal Maritime Board to replace the Maritime Commission. MARAD maintained all US merchant shipping promotional programs and the NDRF. FMB took on a regulatory role. In 1961, Congress implemented reorganization plan number seven. FMB was renamed the Federal Maritime Commission and was responsible for regulating US international maritime shipping. So the main collection is the Merchant Marine Licensing Files, part of Record Group 26. This series consists of individual files that document the service merchant seamen licensed by the United States in 1967 or prior. They come in a folder. They are the equivalent to the official military personnel file, but they are not a military personnel file. The Merchant Marine Service is not considered a military service. It's considered civilian with one exception of the World War II time period. These files consist of the seamen's name and address, their place and date of birth, and licensing numbers. You may also find information on the vessels they served on, the seamen status, a certification of identification number, which is the Z number, a continuous discharge book number, the date and place it was issued, dates of any renewals and other certifications. You may also find any applications to service, certifications, licenses, correspondence, many photographs, birth certificates, and documents related to union memberships. The Merchant Marine Licensing file is one of the record groups that may be used to obtain benefits, in addition to the deceased Merchant Marine Licensing file and the officer licenses. The Coast Guard National Maritime Center is the approving official for World War II Merchant Marine Separation documents. United States Merchant Mariners who served in ocean-going service during December 7th, 1941 to December 31st, 1946 were considered active duty under the provisions of Public Laws 95202 and 105368. To determine eligibility for a certificate of release or discharge from active duty, DD Form 214 or a report of casualty, DD Form 1300, we will refer you to the National Maritime Center website and I will provide more information. Here's a sample of one of the applications you might find in the Merchant Marine Licensing files. As I said, there are many photographs, often multiple different photographs taken over the years depending on how long they served. This is the back of that application. You may find many fingerprints as well. This is one of the certificates of discharge. They're small squares that you could find several of them. This is the back of that, another fingerprint. And this is the main folder that they come in. It can vary depending on the length of service. If there were any disciplinary actions, death in service, the deceased were casually Siemens records are actually, this might be confusing, the Merchant Marine Licensing file only because of the time period World War II and the heavy casualties, they were kept in a separate transfer but they're not too much different. So the series consists of individual files that document the service of merchant Siemens licensed by the US who died during the period 1937 to 1950, many as a result of enemy action during World War II. The files consist of much of the same information that's in the Merchant Marine Licensing files, only it also includes the date of death. If the loss was due to war casualty, the name of the vessel is provided, the date loss and the Siemens status missing or deceased is noted. It also contains the Z number and the discharge book number, date and plates issued, dates of any renewals as well as other certifications and the record may also contain photographs and documents related to union membership. As I said before, the Coast Guard National Maritime Center is the approving official for World War II Merchant Marine Separation Documents. In addition to this, section 401 of Public Law 95202, the GI Bill Improvement Act of 1977 authorized the Secretary of Defense to determine whether the service of members of civilian or contractual groups should be considered active duty for the purposes of all laws administered by the Veterans Affairs. I was going through the history. I'm not sure if you noticed, the Merchant Marines fell under several different government agencies over the years as they developed. This is, this can include the Department of the Navy. So the Navy Transport Corps for these purposes, the Department of the Army, the Army Transport Corps for the section 401 service, the Coast Guard and several others. If you write into us, we will check the main group of Merchant Marine Licensing files first. And if you do believe they did have service, we will then check our other civilian collections to see if we can locate a record for you. So this is an example of the deceased were casualty Siemens records. As you can see, it looks just like the Merchant Marine Licensing file. Only there's a little square at the top that says missing. So it will say either missing or deceased. And normally a serviceman or service woman is considered deceased if they are not located a year after the date they went missing. We also have the records of licenses issued to Merchant Marine officers. Somewhat different collection, but documents look somewhat similar. They contain the Siemens name, the place and date of birth and the date the license was issued. If they were naturalized, it will show the date and place and the court of naturalization. It also provides the type of license. So if they were a first assistant engineer or a chief engineer, second mate, first mate, master pilot or motor vessel operator and the type of waters for which the license is valid. So lakes, bays, sounds, rivers or the ocean. The card may also contain license renewals or increases in rank, as well as photographs. And here's a sample. The Merchant Marine Enrollee files are actually a collection that we had for quite some time. They are part of record group 146 which is the Civil Service Commission. So this was developed in 1940. It was a training division created within the US Maritime Commission. On February 28th, 1942, the division was transferred to the Coast Guard. On July 11th, 1942, the training functions were transferred to the training organization of the Worshiping Administration. So as I was saying before, the Merchant Marines and the Enrollee files fell under several different departments in the US government over the years, depending on the timeframe. This was done with the increased need for experienced human training for both licensed and unlicensed semen. There were three types of schools that were operated, the Merchant Marine Cadet Corps Division, the Merchant Marine Service Division and the State Maritime Academies Division. In 1946, with the termination of the Worshiping Administration, the Division of Training was re-established in the US Maritime Commission. It later became the Division of Maritime Training and Office of Maritime Training. Currently, all maritime training is under the US Merchant Marine Academy. The National Archives at St. Louis holds records for the training organization, the US Maritime Commission. This is civil service employees in the various administration offices and the records date to 1952. Most of the staff at the schools, including the structures, as well as those in training, students, cadets and semen, were not civil service appointees. They were training enrollees with instructors and supervisors every personnel called administrative enrollees. Their records date to 1938 to around 1955. You might find a maritime enrollee file and not a merchant marine licensing file. And here's an example of the enrollee files. These also contain photographs. So how do you request these records? If you would just like to make a general request for records not connected to benefits, please provide us with the full name of the service member, the Z number if you know it, their dates of service and the date and place of death, especially if the death occurred while in mariners service as we will then know to look for the deceased merchant marine licensing file and not a regular merchant marine licensing file. You may send these requests to the email provided or mail them to our PO box. If you're making a request for benefits, they should be sent to the National Maritime Center. If the National Maritime Center determines St. Louis holds the record, they will contact us. We have a very, very good working relationship with them. We receive requests from them regularly. We then supply them with a watermark scan of the record and they create the separation document to obtain benefits. Once that document is made, they will send the document directly to you and they will send us a copy to interfile into the National Maritime Center merchant marine licensing file. You may send those requests to the National Maritime Center at the address provided. We do ask or recommend that you not request these records from the National Personnel Records Center with a standard form 180. These are non-official military personnel files. They're also not necessarily official personnel files. They are a collection specific to us. So if you were to send it to the Personnel Records Center, it would be entered into their backlog and they would not know to refer it to us until it comes up in their queue. Thank you so much, Teresa. Very helpful. So many different varieties and types of records. Although we are wrapping up the video portion of the broadcast, we will continue to take your questions about today's topic in the chat for another 10 minutes. Please stay if you are watching during the premier broadcast, after June 8th, submit questions to St. Louis at stl.archives.gov. As a reminder, the presentation's video recording and handout will remain available on this YouTube page. We truly value your opinion, so please take a minute to answer the short evaluation. Find the link under Show More. Please note that this event is part of the Know Your Records program, where you can find over 100 videos on how to do research with the National Archives. This is our last of six sessions, and before ending, we want to share our tremendous gratitude for all of the staff. Our presenters were Sarah Holmes, Noah Durham, Sarah Swanson, Missy McNatt, Dorothy Daugherty, Kara Moore, Le Bonac, Cody White, Claire Kluskins, and Teresa Fitzgerald. Our production staff includes myself, Andrea Matney, Vernon Smith, Amber Forrester, Jamie Atkinson, Alexis Van Dyke, Ryan Sipperly, Jason Winston, and Julie Reed. Oblicity was achieved with the help of Hilary Parkinson, Laura Sheehan, Mary Ryan, Scott Barton, Victoria Blue, and Victoria Maki. Captioning was brought to us by Tanika Jones, Brandy Kent, Time Captioning, Melissa Moore, and Tara Stromberg. Thank you all. And on behalf of the National Archives, thank you for joining us. Please stay if you have questions. Submit them in the chat.