After quite a bit of searching, I can find no evidence that George Fell Fish served in the military. However, he still has military records. Since he was an adult male during both world wars, he was registered in both drafts. That’s true of almost all American males during that time. And, it’s why I make it a practice to check the draft cards for any male living in the US in the 1910s or 1940s.
WWI Draft Card
WWI draft cards can be found for free on FamilySearch.com. George Fell Fish’s card can be found here. From it, we learn quite a bit about my cousin, including his middle name. It is the only record of his that I’ve found so far with his middle name and not his initial. [I’m hoping to find his birth record eventually and confirm it.] Here is the abstract of the record:
Registration Card No. 32
George Fell Fish, age 30, res. Route 2, Freetown, Ind, b. 19 Mar 1887, natural born, b. Kurtz, Ind. U.S., farmer working for Keth Setser near Buffalo in Brown Co., wife with two children under 12, married, caucasian, claiming exemption due to dependent wife and children, tall, medium build, gray eyes, dark brown hair, no disabilities
Registrar: Buell Brown
Houston Precinct of Jackson County, Ind.
Date: 5 Jun 1917
WWII Draft Card
WWII draft cards are also available on FamilySearch.com. An important thing to remember is that there were multiple registrations, including the one that was done in 1942 for men who were between the ages of 45 and 65. If you are looking in individual databases, make sure you check the correct one. The one for George Fell Fish is with the latter set and can be found here. Again, we are able to gather more pieces for our puzzle. Here’s the abstract:
George F Fish, serial number U2100; residing at Freetown, jackson, IN; mailing address at RR1 Ewing, Indiana; age 55; born 19 Mar 1887 in Jackson County, Indiana; person who will always know where he is–Alta Fish, RR! Ewing, Indiana; self-employed; white, 5’10”, gray eyes and hair, ruddy complexion; 27 Apr 1942
Next on the docket are looking in directories for him and his family. I know there are a few on Ancestry. I also have access to the libraries in Columbus and Seymour. They likely have a fairly complete collection of the directories–at least for the 50s through the present.
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