Study: Nearly 1,000 Irish died serving in the U.S. Army in World War One

The number of Irish-born soldiers who died in World War One while serving the United States army is actually three times higher than previous estimates, claimed one genealogist.

Megan Smolenyak, the genealogist who traced Barack Obama's roots to Moneygall, County Offaly, asserts that previous research "significantly" understated the real losses of Irishmen in the Great War.

"Many more Irish-born were killed serving the American military than previously thought. The true figure may be 900 or 1,000, but it's likely somewhere in this neighborhood," Smolenyak said.

Previously experts have turned to America's army registration data to investigate the losses. However, the bulk of US military personnel records from 1912 to 1960 were destroyed by a fire in 1973.

After Smolenyak came across a New Jersey database focused on WWI soldiers, she discovered that 69 Irish-born individuals from New Jersey had died during the conflict. As 3,427 from NJ had died altogether, Smolenyak used basic arithmetic to conclude that about two percent were Irish nationals. She then applied a similar method to New York focusing on births, deaths and enlistment records, using census records, military abstracts and ancestry websites. She eventually estimated that 976 Irish nationals died fighting for the US.

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