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There is a number stamped on the top right hand corner of the draft cards that I have copied of my family members. The one for my grandfather for WWI has stamped 9-2-27.A What do these numbers mean?

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  • Welcome to G&FH SE! As a new user be sure to take the Tour to learn about our focussed Q&A format which is quite different from bulletin boards, discussion forums and other Q&A sites you may be used to. To help potential answerers of your question can you use the edit button beneath your question to provide the country whose armed forces your ancestor was in the draft for, please?
    – PolyGeo ♦
    Jun 1, 2017 at 8:25
  • @PolyGeo The Questioner should have said so, but this is for the US.
    – Jan Murphy ♦
    Jun 1, 2017 at 15:36

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I have a similar card and from browsing cards in the same series, we can see that

  1. These numbers are not unique, several successive draft cards have the same number. The only difference seems to be the final letter:
  2. The ending letters I have observed are A, B, and C.

The Massachussets Society of Genealogy gives a pretty thorough explanation:

  1. The number is the 'registration' number. (these numbers where assigned to each local board)
  2. The letters numbers the draft, i.e. (A) refers to the first draft, (B) to the second etc.

Caveat, I wonder how identical numbers with different letters ended up on the same microfilm, I believe that all cards coming from different drafts must have been compiled.

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    NARA says: "The records are arranged alphabetically by state, including Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia; thereunder, alphabetically by county or city (except for Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island which are arranged by divisions and counties); thereunder alphabetically by the name of the registrant." see their guide at archives.gov/research/military/ww1/draft-registration -- technically speaking the A, B, C refer to the first/second/third registrations. One registers for a draft -- the draft is a separate event.
    – Jan Murphy ♦
    Jun 1, 2017 at 15:48
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    The lists of who actually got ordered to report would be a different record group. Those records are discussed in the NARA guide I linked to.
    – Jan Murphy ♦
    Jun 1, 2017 at 15:49

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