Most draft cards list basics like height, weight, and eye color, but occasionally, the free-form section holds unique details. Our genealogists uncovered one such fascinating example above!

Genealogy isn’t just names and dates—it’s about uncovering personal details too! Draft cards, for example, provide insights like height, weight, and eye color, offering a glimpse of your ancestors beyond the family tree.

Did you know baptismal records can sometimes include a death date? While rare—especially for those who emigrated—it’s not impossible. For instance, John Meyer’s record notes, “obiit 1878 Juni 18,” providing a key detail about his life.

Missing someone in census records? They may have moved, passed away, or their name could be misspelled—like “Rigsby,” which was recorded as “Rorbgon.” Even the enumerator noted difficulty finding these names elsewhere!

On July 9, 1898, St. Louis grocer Henry Sauer left his wagon briefly while running errands at Union Station—only to return and find it gone! Curious about what happened next? Check out the full story in the picture above.

In the early 1900s, sisters Lillian and Ella Liebrecht defied their father’s disapproval by eloping—Lillian with Charles Miller in 1902 and Ella with Chas Fogerty in 1904—despite being primary caretakers for their father and brothers.

The 1900 census lists Edward Liebrecht as a widower, claiming his wife, Elizabeth, was dead. However, the 1920 census reveals Elizabeth was alive but a patient at the St. Louis Lunatic Asylum, likely misreported due to the stigma surrounding mental illness.

Early 20th-century newspapers often reported deaths with striking detail. For example, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch described William Wolfgang Hacker’s workplace accident as being “struck in the abdomen by a board that flew out of a rip saw he was operating.”

This 19th-century baptismal record of Julius Henry Vollmer notes him as “the illegitimate son of Henrietta Vollmer (nee Hensing),” a practice then used to shame unwed mothers by documenting their “sin” in church records.

A 20th-century marriage may appear in church records but not civil ones due to filing oversights. In Thomas Florence and Catherine Prelli's case, Rev. Peter Engel never returned their marriage license, likely to avoid late fees, showing the value of checking multiple sources in genealogy.

Knowledge management is an established yet evolving field, and the tools certainly reflect that range of maturity and complexity.

There are many ways you can connect to your heritage as you continue to trace it. Here are just a few ideas to get you started.

At first glance, St. Louis might seem like an odd place to find national archives for religious congregations. But dig a little deeper, and it’s not as surprising.