Draft Registration Card, 1914-1918

Draft Registration Card, 1914-1918

World War I Draft Registration Card

World War, 1914-1918

Veterans--Florida

The draft registration card for Willie Roberts (1892-1992), who enlisted in the United States military during World War I. The card contains the demographic information for the soldier including name, age, home address, date of birth, place of birth, race, citizenship, trade or occupation, number of dependents, whether tall, medium, or short, slender, medium, or stout, eye and hair color, whether bald, and disabilities. World War I draft registration cards were completed by approximately 24 million men living in the U.S. in 1917 and 1918.

Willie Roberts enlisted in his hometown of Starke, Florida, on April 26, 1918. He served in the United States Reserve Labor Battalion, Quartermaster Corps till his discharge with rank of private on April 11, 1919. Born on March 25, 1892 in Starke, Florida, Willie Roberts spent his entire life in the state of Florida. He served in the United States Army during World War I. After the war, he married Ruth Plessley he had a daughter named Geneve. Roberts worked in the railroad industry, eventually moving to Jacksonville working as a train porter. Roberts died on February 29, 1992 in Lake City, Florida and is buried in the Bushnell National Cemetery in Bushnell, Florida.

In 2017, the University of Central Florida was one of three universities selected to launch the National Cemetery Administration’s Veterans Legacy Program. The program engaged a team of scholars to make the life stories of veterans buried in the Florida National Cemetery available to the public. The project engages UCF students in research and writing and fosters collaboration between students, faculty and local Central Florida schools to produce interactive curriculum for k-12 students. The corresponding website exhibit uses RICHES Mosaic Interface to create a digital archive of related data. The public can use the project-developed augmented-reality app at more than 100 gravesites at the Florida National Cemetery, where they can access the UCF student-authored biographies of veterans.

Brownlee, J.M.

War Department, Office of Provost Marshal General, Selective Service System

Digital reproduction of original draft registration card.

War Department, Office of Provost Marshal General, Selective Service System

1917-06-05

Roberts, Willie

image/jpg

161 KB

1 draft registration card

eng

Text

Starke, Florida

Donation

History Teacher

Civics/Government Teacher

Originally created by J.M. Brownlee and published by War Department, Office of Provost Marshal General, Selective Service System.

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Connolly, Lehman

Abney, Barb. "VA Selects UCF Historians to Archive Stories of Deceased Veterans Veterans." UCF Today, March 13, 2017. Accessed August 9, 2017. https://today.ucf.edu/va-selects-ucf-historians-archive-stories-deceased-veterans/.

Tuchman, Barbara W., and Robert K. Massie. The Guns of August: The Outbreak of World War I. 2014.