Primary Sources
The World War II Honor List of Dead and Missing Army and Air Forces Personnel from Pennsylvania is what jump-started my search for information on the life of James Nolan. It shows that he was from Allegheny County, where Pittsburgh is located and also gives his serial number and rank in the army. All of this information made it possible for me to find James's enlistment records. "James M. Nolan" is the first name in the third section of the first column on the 18th page.
After the finding of the Honor List, information of James Nolan's branch and its experiences in World War II proved to be relatively easy to find. However, any records of his early life seemed to have disappeared. Information as simple as his date of birth, let alone any pictures of him, seemed to be nonexistent. A last minute search on ancestry.com led me to these 1930 census records, which shows James and his three sisters to be residing at St. Paul's Orphan Asylum. This was one of my most interesting finds. While it did not give me much more information on James's early life, it did offer somewhat of an explanation as to why records of it seem to not exist.