WWI Draft: Step-Great Grandfather Frank J Ward

After finding that 1920 city directory I discovered yesterday for my great grandmother Sarah KENNEDY (1898-1930) and her first husband Frank J. WARD (b. 1895), I spent some time looking for additional records on Ward that might provide more information about my great grandmother and her children.

I came across Frank Ward’s WWI Draft Registration card.

Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005.

Frank Ward registered for the draft in Belmont County, Ohio on 6 June 1917, at the age of 22. He identifies himself as a natural born citizen, born on 19 May 1895, in Bellaire, Ohio (also his current home). Frank worked in a brickyard, for the Suburban Bridge Company, and had no prior military experience. He is described as Caucasian, of medium height and build, with blue eyes and auburn hair (not bald), and has a corn on a toe (seriously?).

At the time of the draft, Frank was married — to my great grandmother Sarah. He also indicated two dependent children, this would have been my grandfather’s sister Catherine Mae WARD  (1914-1994) and his oldest brother Joseph A. WARD (1916-?). Since son Leonard Luther WARD was born in 1917, and this draft registration was conducted in June of that year, Sarah was pregnant with Leonard at this time.