Heritage Chapters · Inside a report

The Henry Gunther Story

A historical case study showing our research and presentation approach, prepared from public records about a Baltimore man born in 1895. Your project is shaped around your family and the records available.

Report: 20 pagesKeepsake: 2 viewsSources: 17, each linked

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Pages open here as images. The PDF has selectable text and clickable source links.

The written plan for this case study

Ancestor: Henry Nicholas John Gunther, died 1918 in France
Question: Who was he before the war, and what do the records say about his family and his death?
Starting point: His name, the date of his death and the city he came from
Sources: US federal censuses 1900 and 1910, World War I draft cards, military death and veterans’ indexes, published accounts. Online only.
Not included: Archive visits, records not online, DNA, living people
Report type: Ancestor Story report and keepsake, as PDFs

Prepared for the case study, not a client proposal.

Real photographs, real stone

The face behind the records.

The case study includes the only portrait we found of Henry, the headstone that confirms his birth date, and period photographs of his regiment. Every image is a real photograph, credited and licensed. Nothing retouched, nothing generated.

Black-and-white portrait of Henry Gunther, a young man with dark hair, before 1918 — **Henry Gunther, before 1918.** Photographer unknown; public domain. Original source not identified, and labeled as such in the report. [10]

What the stone confirms

BORN JUNE 6. 1895.

The same birth date Henry wrote on his 1917 draft card and the one in the Veterans Administration index. The stone adds his unit: Company A, 313th Infantry.

✓ Matches sources [3] [4] [5]

Bronze plaque reading SGT. HENRY N. GUNTHER, AEF CO. A, 313 INF, 79 DIV, JUNE 6, 1895 – NOV. 11, 1918 — **Plaque unveiled on 11 November 2010.** Photo: Concord, CC BY-SA 3.0. A modern memorial, so the report treats its wording as a published account, not a record. [12]

Printed page from 1922 listing the men killed on the final day; Private Henry N. Gunther is highlighted — **History of the Seventy-ninth Division, 1922, page 320.** The men who gave their lives on the final day: first on the list, Private Henry N. Gunther. Highlight added by us; public domain. [15]

Named in his division’s own history

“At 10h 59, Private Henry Gunther, Company ‘A’, charging headlong upon an enemy weapon, was shot to death.”

Page 316. It agrees with the headstone on his unit and on his death on the last morning, and was written by the division four years later.

✓ Agrees on unit and date

His regiment, 1918

Context, not evidence: Henry is not identified in these photographs.

Soldiers of the 313th Infantry in formation at Camp Meade during a flag presentation — **Camp Meade, Maryland, 4 April 1918.** A flag is presented to the 313th Infantry. U.S. National Archives, public domain. [13]

Five soldiers leaping from a log platform during bayonet drill — **Bayonet drill, 313th Infantry, Camp Meade.** Committee on Public Information. U.S. National Archives, public domain. [13]

Soldiers gathered around a steaming field kitchen in a French forest — **Troyon, France, 14 October 1918.** A rolling kitchen of the 313th Infantry, four weeks before the Armistice. U.S. Army Signal Corps, Library of Congress; public domain. [14]

How the records connect

The right name is only the beginning.

Is the five-year-old “Nicholas H Gunther” of the 1900 census the Henry Nicholas John Gunther who registered for the draft in 1917? Here is the comparison from the case study.

US Census · Baltimore · 1900Index transcription · original image not yet checked

Name	Nicholas H Gunther, son, 5
Born	June 1895, Maryland
Father	George Gunther
Mother	Lina Gunther
Brother	Charles A., 1

Source [1] on FamilySearch ↗

Draft registration card · Baltimore · 1917Transcribed from the original image

Name	Henry Nicholas John Gunther, 22 (as written)
Born	June 6th 1895, Balto, Md
Address	3011 Eastern Av, Balto
Occupation	Gen. Bookkeeper, Nat. Bank of Balto
Description	Medium height and build, gray eyes, dark hair

Source [3] on FamilySearch ↗

The bridge

The 1910 census, read on the original page, lists “Henry N”, 14, son of George and Lena, with his brother Charles, 10.

Why it is him

Same birth month and year, same city, same parents and brother. In 1900 he is indexed as “Nicholas H”; why the names appear in that order stays open until the original page is checked.

What we excluded

Three other Henry Gunthers: born 1896 in Canton, Maryland; about 1887 in New York; and 1897 in Baltimore County, each with different dates, places or parents.

Sources

Every source, linked.

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