The Records Center in St. Louis did suffer a catastrophic fire - however - about half the records were "lost". I had a friend [now gone] who worked there and was able to recover a few of the records that began with "Le...". But any records I wanted earlier in the alphabet were "poof". Even to get what she did - only because she worked there - was difficult. Everything was encased in plastic and she had to wear white "darkroom gloves" to handle the remaining pieces. I NEVER would have gotten the few bits of info I did if she hadn't helped. Some pieces were too small and charred to handle - think of piecing the Dead Sea Scrolls.    On the other hand, when did the military EVER do anything that wasn't in triplicate - those copies had to go somewhere. Any ideas anyone? Toni H. St. Peters, MO ________________________________ From: Eliz Hanebury <elizhgene@gmail.com> To: Linda Brown <lb608@sbcglobal.net> Cc: COOK-CO-IL@rootsweb.com Sent: Sat, March 17, 2012 8:54:48 AM Subject: Re: [COOK-CO-IL] Form 86 Military Service Records Try again later, my mother tried to get my fathers records and was told about the fire. When I sent for them, years later, they found them. Eliz On Sat, Mar 17, 2012 at 8:50 AM, Linda Brown <lb608@sbcglobal.net> wrote: > I sent the form for service records and received a reply with the box checked >-  No. Unabel to locate the file requested.  I know that there should be a >record.  Is there any way to find these service records besides the NARA?  Any >suggestions?  Linda in North  Aurora > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >COOK-CO-IL-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes >in the subject and the body of the message ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to COOK-CO-IL-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message