NORTHAMPTON — Steven Connor, the director of Central Hampshire Veterans’ Services, had no idea that his own uncle had earned a Bronze Star Medal for his service in the Korean War until he had already passed away.
According to Connor, occurrences such as this are not all that uncommon. Many times the inaccessibility of deceased veterans’ documents can leave details of family histories unexplored for the relatives of those who served.
This is one reason why the Northampton Veterans’ Services Department has been diligently compiling nearly 6,000 documents into a digital database that will profile every deceased veteran documented across Northampton’s history.
“Being able to access that information will be really important for people,” Connor said.
Although it won’t be publicly accessible for a year or more, the database will document details on wars fought, medals received, locations of birth and death, details of marriages and burial locations, by digitizing certificates of birth, marriage, discharge and death belonging to Northampton’s veterans.
A few years ago, Connor recalled that his office was overwhelmed by growing piles of documents and he decided he needed to free up space to feel “a lot less cluttered.”
“Everything’s going digital — we should probably do the same,” he recalled telling himself.
However, Connor said the office’s regular staff does not have the time to sift through and catalog the records.
For this reason, volunteer and Vietnam War veteran Lou Groccia has been at the head of the digitizing effort for the past three years. Groccia mostly keeps track of official records, but he mentioned that he’ll occasionally come across black-and-white photos and other memorabilia in his documentation as well.
Although the records reach as far back as the Spanish-American War in 1898, Groccia said most of the documents belong to veterans from World War II.
“Some veterans even served in World War I and World War II,” he said.
On top of this, Groccia said that having an online database alphabetized by name will give some people the opportunity to track family trees and relatives who have served as veterans over the past century.
Besides making documents more accessible, Connor said another purpose of the project is to ensure consistency in record-keeping. For example, it’s his office’s responsibility to clear up misspellings on documents when some veterans have slightly different names on their birth and death certificates.
Connor also mentioned that the project will safeguard against physical damages to veterans’ documents, which could make them nearly impossible to replicate. Due to the sheer volume of documents, Connor predicts that the project could take between one and three more years to complete.
Connor, a peacetime veteran himself after the Vietnam War, said it’s difficult to estimate how many veterans have served across Northampton’s history because being a veteran means different things to different people. Connor recalled talking to one man who served in the Korean War but didn’t consider himself a veteran because “he didn’t get shot.”
Regardless of one’s personal definition of military service, all Northampton veterans are encouraged to turn in their discharge documents to Veterans’ Services to make sure these important records are safe and preserved.