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WW1 Navy fingerprint dog tag need help with name


Vincennes
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Here is a WW1 Navy dogtag I recently acquired. It is the "fingerprint" type. I believe it is from an enlisted sailor because it shows date of birth and date of enlistment, but no rank. The 4 extra holes were apparently added later.


A US Navy web page on dog tags says: "They were first prescribed by Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels in General Order No. 294 of 12 May 1917. These first tags were oval, of Monel metal (a patented corrosion-resistant alloy of nickel and copper, with small amounts of iron and manganese), 1.25 inches wide and 1.5 inches long. Perforated at one end, a single tag was to be worn around the neck on Monel wire "encased in a cotton sleeve." One side of the tag bore an etched print of the right index finger. The other side was stamped "U.S.N." and etched with the individual's personal information. Officers' tags bore initials and surname; rank; and date of appointment, in numerals denoting month, day and year (e.g., 1.5.16). Enlisted tags bore initials and surname, with date of enlistment and date of birth, in numerals as on officers' tags."


I have checked Fold3, FamilySearch, Social Security Death Records, and Google but can not find anything about G.W. Parker born Feb. 9, 1898. Does anyone have another source, other than the National Archives?


Paul

 

Parker DT.JPG

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Bill,

That appears to be him...WW1, Navy, enlisted, and correct birth date. I went back to Fold3 and checked with his full name and still found nothing. So Thanks for the name.

Paul

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Muddyboots,

Thanks for the card. It contains his service number which I had not yet located.

 

Paul

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muddyboots

No problem and when this crisis is over and the archives open up it will make it easier to order his records. I’m sure there’s a backup of orders going back to mid March when the archives shut down.

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zzyzzogeton

Being an AR type person, I tend to notice picky little details. 

 

With an enlistment date of 5-3-17, Recruit Parker enlisted just 9 days before the order quoted as establishing the Navy Dog Tag was signed.  He would have likely been either in Basic Training or about to report when the order came out possibly implying that this could have been 1 of the very first batch of tags made.

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Not only did he receive his dog tags very early after they were authorized, but he did not even get his service number until after he was discharged on Jan 22, 1919.


Wikipedia has a detailed explanation of US Navy service numbers through time at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service_number_(United_States_Navy) . They did not start issuing service numbers until 1920 . Parker's service number is 152 29 84. According to Wiki That means he was the 522, 984th. enlisted sailor to be alphabetically assigned a service number and received it after he was discharged.


"Navy enlisted numbers were divided into nine distinct "series" beginning with the one hundred series which was intended for retroactive presentations to those enlisted personnel who had served in World War I and the Spanish–American War. The one hundred series began at number 1,000,001 (written as 100 00 01) and extended to 1,999,999 (199 99 99); this granted the Navy nine hundred ninety nine thousand ninety hundred and ninety nine possible numbers for retroactive presentation. The Navy began issuing such numbers alphabetically through its discharged service records with number 100 00 01 (the first enlisted number) assigned to a sailor named Clayton Aab."


Paul

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have located a lot of new material on George W Parker, but I won't post it all. However the info below came from a site many people do not know about. Many states (including Indiana where Parker was a resident) have military records on file. The start page for all military records in Indiana is https://www.in.gov/iara/2521.htm

The specific page to see the Indiana WW1 Service Record Cards is https://fromthepage.com/indianaarchives/indiana-wwi-service-record-cards

 

So here is Parker's Service Record card for WW1. It has an abundance of information.

 

According to one source: "During 1918, she (USS South Dakota) escorted troop convoys from the east coast to the mid-Atlantic rendezvous point where British cruisers joined the convoy. The South Dakota fared well during the severe conditions of escorting troopships across the stormy and submarine infested waters of the Atlantic, except for one occasion where she broke a propeller shaft and had to be dry-docked for repairs."

 

Paul

Parker6.jpg

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