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In honor of Veterans Day, the LDS Church has announced that it is adding three free World War I collections to its FamilySearch site, containing information on millions of American and British citizens who served in — and registered for — the military from 1914 to 1920.

These resources include the free U.S. World War I Draft Registration Cards 1917-1918, according to an LDS Church news release. "Out of those who registered, approximately 4.8 million served and 2.8 million were drafted."

This collection "acts like a national census," FamilySearch collection manager Ken Nelson said in the release, "because it includes over 24 million records representing almost half of the male population of the United States at the time."

The draft registration list includes such notables as "Babe Ruth, entertainer/musician George M. Cohan, immigrant Metropolitan tenor Enrico Caruso, and silent film star Charlie Chaplin, a British enrollee, answering the call to arms alongside our own ancestors."

These two lists add more than 43 million images to FamilySearch's growing military databases, the release said, "while allowing users a unique glimpse into their connection to "the war to end all wars."

FamilySearch is a nonprofit organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Peggy Fletcher Stack