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Only top-level descriptions United States of America WWI & WWII Thematic Guide
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Voluntary enlistment register, Charlotte County

  • CA PANB MC3148
  • Item
  • 27 September 1915-30 August 1917

This register records the voluntary recruitment of 553 men in Charlotte County, New Brunswick, for service overseas during the First World War, dating from 27 September 1915, when a major recruiting drive was underway in the province, until 30 August 1917, the day after Prime Minister Robert Borden's Military Service Act became law. It may be a manuscript copy of the enlistment register in which names of volunteers were recorded initially during or immediately after recruitment rallies.

Each entry provides the recruit's name, place of residence, age at recruitment, marital status, date of enlistment, nationality, and the unit to which he was assigned. Most of the men were Canadians, natives of Charlotte County, N.B. Other places of residence include Albert, Charlotte, St. John, York, Carleton, and Kings counties in N.B.; Nova Scotia; Prince Edward Island; Ontario; United States of America (Maine); England; Ireland; Scotland; Newfoundland; Denmark; and Romania. A very few gave their nationality as Italian, Danish, Norwegian, Russian, or Syrian.

A few notations, such as "stopped by mother," "discharged," "wife objected" or "rejected," are recorded in the margins. Occasionally, the name of the recruiter -- H. V. Dewar, Herman G. Smith, or ? McDowell -- and the place of recuitment -- St. George, St. Andrews, Castalia -- are given. The entries are in several different hands.

On the record book's cover is printed "Hospital Admission & Discharge Book". The recruitment entries begin at the back of the book.

Volunteer Enlistment Register

Oakley and Sophia Orser family fonds

  • CA PANB MC2893
  • Fonds
  • 1916-1926

This fonds consists primarily of correspondence received by Oakley and Sophia Orser and members of their family, including their daughter, Augusta Orser Burrill; Oakley's father, John W. Orser, and sister, Georgia Orser, from family members serving overseas during the First World War. Taken collectively, these letters underscore the fact that many young men from Carleton County, a number from, and related to, the Orser family, enlisted for wartime service, and suggest the impact this had on their families and community.

The bulk of the correspondence is from John A. Orser, Oakley and Sophia Orser's son, but there are also letters from Augusta Orser Burrill's husband, William E. Burrill; cousin Samuel Gilbert Barter; and two of John A. Orser's wartime friends, Fred B. Wallace and Bert [?]. These letters offer news of wartime activities in England and France and, particularly, information about soldiers from Carleton County who were at the Front. They also highlight family and community ties and provide insights into feelings of loneliness, dangers, and difficulties soldiers faced during wartime.

There are also a few letters between family members at home during wartime; correspondence relating to Sophia Orser's attempts to have her son's estate distributed after his death and pertaining to Oakley Orser's claim to a pension on account of his son's wartime service; a poem by John A. Orser about working on farms in the state of Maine; a scroll commemorating the wartime sacrifice of Pte. William E. Burrill; and two photographs, one of Orser family siblings taken on the farm,and the second, a studio portrait of John A. Orser and his friend, Harold Olney, in uniform.

Order family (Oakley and Sophia)