Changes

The Draft Lottery was a practice in general use, used to select who should have to undertake military service. Before the advent of a permanent professional army, it was not feasible to train all young boys, so some selection process was needed to determine who would or would not be drafted. So as to make this a fair process, it was common practice to organise a lottery, into which all boys of certain age had to be entered. You could choose to create a new [[Custom_Event_Types|custom event type]] or add a Description to a [Events_in_Gramps#Military_Service|Military Service]] Vocational event to log registering for a Draft Lottery or being selected.

<ol style="list-style-type: lower-roman;">a) <li>registration for the lottery</li> <li>the lottery itself. This is associated with a place, and a specific date.</li> b) <li>legal documents relating to the lottery. Boys from rich families who were selected to join the army by the lottery process frequently paid commoners to take their place. Legal contracts were drafted for this. </li> c) <li>desertion documents concerning the lottery. Many selected individuals emigrated abroad so as to avoid their draft, with the consequence that they were recorded as deserters in their home country. In genealogical research this event can prove very difficult to trace, as deserters often changed their name to evade detection.</li></ol>