What exactly is a SRS check?

[WHG]

Could someone explain where the data came from / who compiled it?

Also could I have my 1898 Krag rifle serial # 423371 checked please?

[Dick Hosmer]

Springfield Research Service was founded by the late Frank Mallory. He and some friends - one of whom now owns the operation - spent at least a hundred man-years on their hands and knees at the National Archives recording every serial number they could find. We owe them a huge debt of gratitude.

At first he published a pamphlet on arms sold by the DCM (government), then finally four soft-cover books of serials - though there is some duplication and overlap between volumes. He figured that the team had gotten nearly all of what had survived (an average of 5%, or 1 in 20) and history has pretty well borne that out - no huge caches have turned up, though it seems that Rock Island has some numbers which were not seen by either Mallory, or Bill Brophy (who wrote the other 1980s-vintage Krag book).

Frank was an easy-going guy, and saw no problem with allowing his basic yes-or-no number "index" to be hosted on the web for no-charge checking to see if further data was available - for which he did charge, and rightly so. His successor has taken an entirely different approach, jealously guarding the list, and is entirely dollar-driven - I could say a lot more, but I won't.

Your 423371 falls between recorded rifles 423235 and 423482. As I said above, data is limited, and "hits" are infrequent. The likelihood of anything having survived, and then been missed by Frank, is extremely slim. There is no overall "master list" in government hands, so one cannot go to the NA with a number scribbled on a piece of paper, and expect an answer. We are very fortunate to have what we have.

[WHG]

Thank you for the explanation.

[raymeketa]

Dick

A very nice write up on Frank Mallory. Thanks for doing it.

I knew Frank when his "SRS" consisted of single hand written or typed pages that he would send out to anyone who was interested. They grew into the bound volumes that many of today's collectors use. Most do not realize the time and expense that Frank devoted to his hobby and avocation, at times just to verify a single serial number. Even though I no longer collect the U.S. Martial arms, I still remember him and those golden days, before computers and the Internet, of scraps of paper with notes, letters, and phone calls. Can you imagine what he would have accomplished with today's technology?

Ray

[5MadFarmers]

Can you imagine what he would have accomplished with today's technology?

Yes, I can. That knife cuts both ways though. Some information is more readily available where other information is less so. Digital cameras are the difference. Instead of sitting in a dusty archives for a couple of weeks writing down notes it's possible to image them and then process them later. This is huge. Conversely Frank had access which is in some cases no longer available. Those who have done genealogy are aware of it. Three decades ago I could walk into any given court house and they'd let me walk through the vital records books. Today they will not in many of those same court houses. Two decades ago I leafed through such a book in a court house and it was crumbling as I did so. I stopped. Some records no longer exist. I'd rather not think of the thoroughness of the cavity search they'd do if you wanted to see records at the national archives today.

Yes, I can appreciate what Frank did. As I do. Frank was a researcher.

Dick, a couple of notes on that. Frank didn't vacuum the national archives thoroughly. He missed a very vital set. I'm aware that he missed it as I have some. I'd love to have the rest. They're, in my opinion, very significant. I know exactly what set they're in. I'm simply not going to, at this time, take the travel time and expense to see what kind of cavity search they'll demand. Perhaps Google will go through that and I'll get to walk them that way.

Then again perhaps not. Google started digitizing records early on in the major libraries. Pretty exciting stuff. It gave me access to five huge libraries while I was sitting in the comfort of my pajamas at home. Those books are slowly disappearing. There was no profit in it. They're being replaced with fee access books. The worm turned. I didn't just "view" the books I found significant - I downloaded them. Many of those are gone. I know this as their search functionality was better than a PDF download. Today I have to walk the PDF as the book is gone at Google. Archive.org has some but not all.

Rock Island Arsenal doesn't have the last major haul of serials. They're elsewhere. This I know as I have some of those too. I'm including some in the book. A survey of Krags with broken parts. None of the serials are in the SRS. They're not at Rock Island either.

Sources undiscovered still exist.

[Dick Hosmer]

One of Frank's main laments was that he was unable to find (when returning after a few years to recheck some bit of data) records at the NA, that he knew from his records that he had seen there before. Further, his accounts of pilferage and crappy storage would make a historian cry. Yet, the "public" (who are the actual owners of the records) are treated like criminals.

It's hard to imagine that a file ("record group") existed of which he was totally unaware - perhaps it was a recent acquisition? He was not in good health towards the end, and I'm guessing that he may not have spent a great deal of time there after around 1995 or so. Is it part of 156?

[5MadFarmers]

No.

156 is Chief of Ordnance.

I'm not going to give them any hints as I may want to eventually get into that pile. If you encounter 203842 you've found the right record set.

[raymeketa]

I did a little writing years ago, back when research was a monumental and aggravating part of the process. I found that if you really wanted to find many of the missing files, you had to think like a governemnt worker. They saw sorting and cataloging as a chore that they would rather not be doing. Any conveniant place will do, even if it's behind the file cabinet for somebody else to find in later years, and for them to worry about.

The Internet is a little better but too easy to access and make additions and/or corrections.

JMHO

Ray