>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Date: Fri, 7 May 1999 11:38:41 -0500 From: "Frank Sloan" <franks@eecradar.com> In case you ever wondered why a large number of your ancestors disappeared during a certain period in history, this might help. Epidemics have always had a great influence on people - and thus influencing, as well, the genealogists trying to trace them. Many cases of people disappearing from records can be traced to dying during an epidemic or moving away from the affected area. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Sloan Clan, Your ancestor's records may have disappeared too; especially if your Sloan was a U.S. WW I veteran. I recently sent to the National Personnel Records Center to get records on my Great Uncle George Britton, son of O. Wilber Britton & Angelia Sloan. Uncle George was killed in the fighting in the Argonne Forest in France just a few weeks before the Armistice. The Record Center has no records of my Uncle George Britton. It is most likely his records were among those destroyed by a July 1973 fire that.. "..destroyed millions of records here at the National Personnel Records Center." The reply from the Record Center indicated that among those records suffering the most damage from the fire were those of: "Army veterans discharged or deceased between November 1, 1912 and December 31, 1959" There is also mention that a number of Air Force veteran records were also destroyed. I do have hope that a cousin has copies of some of Uncle George's military records, and I can get copies. My point in mentioning this is, if you have veterans in your family lines who are in that catagory, your best bet is to make copies of what records you have and see that they are liberally distributed around the family. Uncle George Britton died at a young age, unmarried, leaving no children. Who else is there to see that he and his comrades do not fall through the cracks of history? Regards, Bill Newcomer Great-grandson of O. Wilber Britton and Angelia Sloan