Genealogical Research, Personnel Records & Muster Rolls
Military Personnel Records (U.S. Coast Guard
officers separated after 1928 and enlisted personnel separated after 1914).
If you would like to obtain copies of your own or a
relative's Coast Guard service record (and they served in the Coast Guard
sometime between 1914 to the present if they were enlisted or 1928 if they
were a commissioned officer), which contains dates of service, station and
cutter assignments, as well as medals and awards earned, you will need to
contact the National Personnel Records Center. Please see their
website at the following URL:
http://www.archives.gov/st-louis/military-personnel/
Or write to them directly at:
National Personnel Records Center
Military Records Facility
9700 Page Avenue
St. Louis, MO 63132-5100
Civilian Personnel
If the person you are researching served as a civilian in the Coast Guard or any of its predecessor agencies, you will need to contact the Civilian Records facility of the National Personnel Records Center:
National Personnel Records Center
Civilian Records Facility
111 Winnebago Street
St. Louis, MO 63118-4199
Service prior to 1920
If they served prior to 1928 or were keepers in the U.S. Lighthouse Service prior to 1919, the records will be in the headquarters branch of the National Archives. Please visit their website for further information:
www.archives.gov
Or write to them directly at:
National Archives and Records Administration
7th & Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20408
Crew Lists
If you are looking for the names of the crew of a particular cutter or those of a Coast Guard station, you will need to send a request, in writing, to the following office in the Coast Guard's personnel command. Please indicate in the letter which cutter or station and the date (month and year) you are interested in:
Records Branch, CGPC-adm-3
U.S. Coast Guard Personnel Command
4200 Wilson Blvd., Suite 1100
Arlington, VA 22203-1804
Lighthouse Keepers' Documentation
Researching the careers of anyone who served with the Lighthouse Service or the Coast Guard entails accessing documentation available at a number of different locations. Our office does not have any information on individual keepers. Personnel records for those who served in lighthouses prior to the Lighthouse Service's merger with the Coast Guard in 1939 need to contact the National Archives, which is the primary repository for all records concerning the Lighthouse Establishment & Service:
Please visit their website for further information:
www.archives.gov
Or write to them:
National Archives and Records Administration
Textual Records
7th & Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20408
If the individual(s) served with the U.S. Coast Guard, you will need to contact the National Personnel Records Center. Please be advised that privacy restrictions apply to these records:
National Personnel Records Center
9700 Page Avenue
Saint Louis, MO 63132
Locating a Coast Guard Retiree:
You will need to contact the Coast Guard Pay and Personnel Center. Due to the Privacy Act, however, they cannot provide home addresses. Nevertheless, if you would like to contact a Coast Guard retiree, send an envelope addressed to:
COMMANDING OFFICER (RPD)
U.S. Coast Guard Pay & Personnel Center
444 SE Quincy
Topeka, KS 66683-3591
Enclose in this envelope your correspondence (your letter to the retiree you wish to contact) inside another stamped envelope with the retiree's full name on it. The Pay and Personnel Center will look through their files, add the retiree's address, and forward your correspondence on to the retiree. Please include a telephone number where you may be reached--since there may be more than one retiree by the name you are seeking, they may need to contact you.
There are a number of books and search engines on the Internet that are useful references to utilize when attempting to locate someone who served in the Coast Guard, such as:
Richard S. Johnson. How to Locate Anyone Who Is Or Has Been in the Military: Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard: Active, Retired, Reserve, National Guard, Veterans and Others: Unit Reunion and Veterans Organization Information. Fort Sam Houston, TX: Military Information Enterprises, 1988.