New Fort Mackinac Resource Accesses Soldiers' Information
Display Honors Late Interpreter Frank M. Fitzgerald

Visitors will be able to step up to a computer and search for information on Fort Mackinac soldiers using a custom-designed database as part of a new resource display opening Friday, August 18, and honoring the late Frank M. Fitzgerald. A dedication will be held at 7 p.m.

Mr. Fitzgerald, a soldier-interpreter at the fort from 1975 to 1980, later became a Michigan state representative, state insurance commissioner, a state financial and insurance services commissioner, and an attorney. He died in 2004. "He adored Fort Mackinac,"

said his mother, Lorabeth, from her summer cottage on Mackinac Island's East Bluff. Mr. Fitzgerald's father, John Warner Fitzgerald, a former Chief Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court, died last month.

"Frank loved the history of Mackinac Island and Fort Mackinac," said Phil Porter, director of Mackinac State Historic Parks. "This database is just the sort of thing he would have enjoyed."

The database will be stationed at the Post Headquarters building and will allow fort visitors to type in a last name, and if the search is successful, the computer will display a record of the soldier who served at Fort Mackinac during its 99 years of American occupation, from 1796 to 1895. The information accessed will include a birth date, birthplace, martial status, physical description of the soldier, both military and civilian occupation, dates of service at Fort Mackinac, and military rank.

Information on approximately 1,000 soldiers is contained in the database, with more names to be added as additional records are obtained.

"Our primary source of information was a National Archives' list called the Register of Enlistments in the U.S. Army, 1798 to 1914, which covers everyone who enlisted in the U.S. Army in the 19th century," said Mr. Porter. "That, combined with unit muster rolls, helped us flesh out the files, which are now accessible."

Funds for the development and installation of the new resource display came from several sources, including the Fitzgerald family and friends.