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Personnel Records, Muster Rolls & Genealogical Research

Military Personnel Records (Served from 1920 on)

If you would like to obtain copies of your own or a relative's Coast Guard service record (and they served in the Coast Guard sometime between 1920 to the present), which contains dates of service, station and cutter assignments, as well as medals and awards earned, you will need to contact the National Personnel Records Center. You may download the necessary forms from their website at the following URL:  We can copy these records in one Week.

Civilian Personnel

If the person you are researching served as a civilian in the Coast Guard, you will need to contact the Civilian Records facility of the National Personnel Records Center:

National Personnel Records Center
Civilian Records Facility
111 Winnebago Street
St. Louis, MO 63118-4199

Service prior to 1920

If they served prior to 1920 or were keepers in the U.S. Lighthouse Service prior to 1920, the records will be in the headquarters branch of the National Archives.

Crew Lists

If you are looking for the names of the crew of a particular cutter or those of a Coast Guard station, you will need to send a request, in writing, to the following office in the Coast Guard's personnel command. Please indicate in the letter which cutter or station and the date (month and year) you are interested in:

Lighthouse Keepers' Documentation

Researching the careers of anyone who served with the Lighthouse Service or the Coast Guard entails accessing documentation available at a number of different locations. Our office does not have any information on individual keepers. Personnel records for those who served in lighthouses prior to the Lighthouse Service's merger with the Coast Guard in 1939 need to contact the National Archives, which is the primary repository for all records concerning the Lighthouse Establishment & Service:

National Archives and Records Administration
Textual Records
7^th & Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20408

If the individual(s) served with the U.S. Coast Guard, you will need to contact the National Personnel Records Center. Please be advised that privacy restrictions apply to these records:

LOCATING A COAST GUARD RETIREE:

You will need to contact the Coast Guard Pay and Personnel Center. Due to the Privacy Act, however, they cannot provide home addresses. Nevertheless, if you would like to contact a Coast Guard retiree, send an envelope addressed to:

COMMANDING OFFICER (RPD)
U.S. Coast Guard Pay & Personnel Center
444 SE Quincy
Topeka, KS 66683-3591

Enclose in this envelope your correspondence (your letter to the retiree you wish to contact) inside another stamped envelope with the retiree's full name on it. The Pay and Personnel Center will look through their files, add the retiree's address, and forward your correspondence on to the retiree. Please include a telephone number where you may be reached--since there may be more than one retiree by the name you are seeking, they may need to contact you.