Since the beginning of modern time, hardly a year has gone by without some type of military activity, battle, conflict, or war. This sad history has a positive side for family historians, however, due to the wealth of records created as a result of these conflicts. It also means that most of us have at least a few military-serving ancestors in our family tree.

With wars and other military conflicts playing such a big part in our world's history, an often worthwhile strategy is to assume that male (and sometimes female) ancestors participated in the military in some capacity - at least until you can prove otherwise. Begin by placing your family's history on a timeline of their country's wars and conflicts to determine which specific military engagement each male ancestor could have participated in due to his age. Most people who were in the military were between 18 and 30 years of age, although it is not uncommon to find men both younger and older. Once you have determined the war in which he may have served, you then need to establish the location in which he lived at the time. This will assist you in locating evidence to support your hypothesis in census records, naturalization records, cemetery records, family stories, biographies or even records of veterans' organizations. Narrowing your research to a particular area and time period can then be complemented by familiarizing yourself with the available military records which meet your criteria.