charles fox wwi veteran

Charles L. Fox

Dog tags and identified material are easily collected by militaria enthusiasts due to the personal connections with names, families and units/divisions. Collecting dog tags is an easy way to feel a connection with the past; many dog tags were actually worn during combat and followed a soldier across the European continent. In this case I was able to pick up a cheap (less than $5) dog tag on eBay. A quick search for Charles L. Fox Brought up a smattering of possible leads that crisscrossed the country. Census records and marriages were of no help. I spent over an hour searching through military records for a man named Charles Fox born between 1885 and 1899 (a generally good search range for WWI veterans) and landed a solid hit. It’s not often that I identify a veteran through his/her serial number, but I was able to ID Charles L. Fox as having been born on December 14th, 1889 in Whitehouse, Ohio. He served with an ordnance supply unit in France during the war and was honorably discharged on July 26th, 1919. I was lucky to find both the veteran headstone marker card as well as the state veteran roll. A fun find, and another reason to invest in an ancestry.com account!