Lesson Introduction: The Veterans Legacy Memorial Website

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Finding a Veteran to Research

Once you have identified a cemetery through the NCA interactive map, you will want to find a Veteran to research who is interred at that cemetery. These lessons show you how to use the advanced search feature on the Veterans Legacy Memorial (VLM) website created by the National Cemetery Administration to honor the memory of Veterans and Service members.

Veterans Legacy Memorial

What is it? A website featuring the profiles of nearly ten million Veterans buried in VA national cemeteries, VA grant-funded cemeteries, and other sites. Each memorial page includes information about the military service of a Veteran. Most pages feature a photograph of the headstone, which can help your research.

Alvin Greenfield and other airmen in Atlantic City in March 1943. Greenfield had enlisted in the Air Corps a month earlier. (Gilder Lehrman Institute, GLC10414.1656)

Crop of black and white photograph with soldiers, including one noted to be "Al in Atlantic City, March 1943"
Black and white photograph showing flag draped over a coffin for a soldier's funeral

Share Your Findings

How: After you have completed your project, you can share your research on the Veterans Legacy Memorial on the tribute page for a Veteran. You can upload historical documents, provide biographical information, populate a timeline of the Veteran’s life, and contribute to a Word Cloud describing the Veteran. Please review the community guidelines before posting.

Funeral for First Lieutenant Leroi Shelton Williams, a Tuskegee Airman who died in a mid-air collision during training in Michigan in 1943. (Gilder Lehrman Institute, GLC09587.121)

Learning Goals

By the end of these lessons, you will know how to use the Veterans Legacy Memorial website to find a WWII Veteran interred in a specific cemetery. You will also have a deeper understanding of how to search a historical database and how to perform that search strategically.

Lessons in This Section

  • Introduction to Advanced Searches
  • Search Field Formats
  • Searching Multiple Fields