Final chapter: Digitization project brings historical military records to light
Apr. 12—BEVERLY — Dennis DiPaolo never met his grandfather, James Barry, who died before DiPaolo was born. And he knew little about his grandfather's service in World War I.
Late last week that unknown history came into sharper focus when the Beverly Veterans Services office presented DiPaolo with his grandfather's leather-bound 1919 discharge certificate, which had been sitting in a box in the veterans office for decades.
"It's really a good thing to have this show up," DiPaolo said. "It should go to somebody who's going to give it to their children."
Barry's discharge certificate was discovered as part of an ongoing project by the city's Veterans Services office to digitize thousands of Beverly-related military records. As of last week, the office had scanned 6,739 items since David Perinchief took over as the city's veterans agent in 2014.
Perinchief said the goal is to make the records available online, for free, to family members and the general public, and to ensure that veterans' graves are properly marked as they are entitled to by law.
"We've got 100 years of neglect that we have to fix," he said.
Perinchief said the city had accumulated about 40 boxes filled with records, mostly discharge papers and applications for benefits, over the years. The oldest dates back to the Spanish-American War — an original discharge paper for Almon Nutting from Oct. 31, 1898.
Ken McKay, a Beverly resident who is helping with the project, said copies of discharge records were routinely sent to soldiers' hometowns before a centralized system was established at the state level. Finding an original document in the city's records, such as the one for James Barry, is more unusual. McKay said the originals could have been given to the city by the veteran when he was applying for benefits, or perhaps found in a storage unit and turned over by somebody to the city.
Two years ago, the veterans office found a pair of dog tags in one of the files belonging to a Gloucester woman who had served in the U.S. Naval Reserve during World War II and returned them to her family.
Another discovery included a 1943 Western Union telegram informing "Mrs. John Couhig" of Beverly that her brother, Naval aviation radioman John Joseph Murphy, was missing in action. McKay said an application for benefits from Murphy's mother confirmed that he had died.
McKay said he is using the records found in the boxes, plus several other sources, to complete a map showing the location of veterans' graves in all Beverly cemeteries, to ensure an American flag is placed on them every Memorial Day.
"One of the mottos I go by is, the greatest casualty is to be forgotten," McKay said. "We're working to make sure that doesn't happen."
Staff writer Paul Leighton can be reached at 978-338-2535, by email at pleighton@salemnews.com, or on Twitter at @heardinbeverly.
