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Newspapers frequently used specialized, abbreviated, or era-specific language when reporting military service, enlistments, promotions, pensions, veterans’ events, casualty notices, and homecoming news. Understanding these terms helps genealogists identify service details, unit affiliations, wartime movements, and clues about an ancestor’s post-service life. The tables below include historically common terms in newspapers, what they meant, and how they can help confirm or expand military-related family history.
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