Tuesday's Tip - Ancestor Military service chart

I have many military veterans in my family. In order to keep them straight, and to have a "quick view" of which ancestor participated in what conflict and battles, I created a chart to track their military service.

The columns include Soldier name, relation, conflict, branch of service, unit, rank, enlistment date, separation date, known battles, references and a column for notes. I currently have the individuals arranged by family group, but they could just as easily be arranged by conflict. I have referenced this document often when I come across a new source or database that may contain information for more than one ancestor. It is so much easier to glance at this spreadsheet than to flip through my computer or binders...or worse yet my memory.