Finding out something about the military career of Heye Albers in Teddy Roosevelt’s “Rough Riders” was not as difficult as one might expect. The Compiled Military Service Record for Heye L. Albers’
service in Company F of the 1 Regiment United States Volunteer Cavalry is available online at the National Archives website. One card from that record is used as an illustration in this post.
Heye’s place of birth is given as Hancock County, Illinois, and his occupation is listed as a barber. This occupation is in contrast to a newspaper article that indicated he was working as a wagon driver for a steam laundry at the time of his enlistment. It is possible the newspaper or his military record is flat out wrong. It is also possible that he had worked more than one job before his enlistment.
His age is shown as 25 years 6 months as of May 1898 which is consistent with the precise date of birth of 2 November 1872 given in the newspaper article. That consistency does not prove the precise date is correct.
The place of birth is consistent with his parents’ known migration path as they made their way from Germany to the New Mexico. That does not mean the place is correct, just that it is consistent with other known information about his parents U. L. Albers and Ehe Mennen (Aden) Albers.
4 Responses
Very good information
Would like the know exact web site
http://searchtip.genealogytipoftheday.com/?p=1483
Is there a list, anywhere, of the “Rough Riders”? My grandfather, who was born and died in Iowa, told me about Teddy’s Rough Riders, when I was about 3 years old. I’m not sure what his point was. He never claimed to have been one of the Rough Riders, but he wanted me to know about them, for some reason. He would have only been about 10 years old, so I doubt he was one… but was his father or father-in-law? Was that why he wanted me to know about them?
You might try the following site: http://www.spanamwar.com/rrroster.htm