Ancestry/Genealogy

flyingfysh

(1,990 posts) Sun Feb 5, 2012, 08:59 PM Feb 2012

How do I track down an ancestor who fought in the Civil war?

One of my mom's ancestors had been thought by the entire family to have been in the Confederate army. But her uncle found the ancestor's discharge papers, and he was in the Union army! While searching the net, I found a mention that he had been in the cavalry, but haven't been able to repeat the search.

How would I search old military records like this?

6 replies

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How do I track down an ancestor who fought in the Civil war? (Original Post) flyingfysh Feb 2012 OP

Do you have an ancestry.com subscription? kdmorris Feb 2012 #1

Go the the free latter Day Saints genealogy website and search for census. They sometimes applegrove Feb 2012 #2

Try the Soldiers & Sailors System of the National Park Service Sherman A1 Feb 2012 #3

Look for state records here: Rosie1223 Feb 2012 #4

If you are near DC TuxedoKat Feb 2012 #5

I've got a Fold3.com membership - I can look up National Archives stuff for you csziggy Feb 2012 #6

kdmorris

(5,649 posts)

1. Do you have an ancestry.com subscription?

Reply to flyingfysh (Original post)

Sun Feb 5, 2012, 09:31 PM

Feb 2012

They generally have most of the union civil war indexed (esp is he received a pension). If not, give me the state, name of the person, app year of birth and any other information and I'll run the search for you.

applegrove

(122,824 posts)

2. Go the the free latter Day Saints genealogy website and search for census. They sometimes

Reply to flyingfysh (Original post)

Sun Feb 5, 2012, 10:50 PM

Feb 2012

list a person's occupation in the census.

Sherman A1

(38,958 posts)

3. Try the Soldiers & Sailors System of the National Park Service

Reply to flyingfysh (Original post)

Mon Feb 6, 2012, 03:56 AM

Feb 2012

http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/

It is a good starting place. Then you can move to state records or unit histories as they exist.

I have a couple of family members that fought in the Civil War, some South some North. I have found some in the correct units here and others I have found some leads (due to similarity of names it's tougher).

Good Luck!

Rosie1223

(2,013 posts)

4. Look for state records here:

Reply to Sherman A1 (Reply #3)

Mon Feb 6, 2012, 09:06 AM

Feb 2012

https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list#page=1&region=UNITED_STATES

Good Luck!

TuxedoKat

(3,821 posts)

5. If you are near DC

Reply to flyingfysh (Original post)

Mon Feb 6, 2012, 01:14 PM

Feb 2012

You can visit the National Archives and request to look at his actual file. I used to live and work in DC years ago and often during my lunchtime would go over there and peruse the census, etc. One day I decided to see if an ancestor was in the Civil War and sure enough he was! I saw his file, it had his muster in paperwork, regiment info, correspondence about his veterans' benefits from him and his wife, hospitalization info, etc. Very interesting. Maybe this info is all computerized now, I don't know. WAIT -- here you go:

http://www.archives.gov/research/military/civil-war/civil-war-genealogy-resources/

Good luck!

csziggy

(34,189 posts)

6. I've got a Fold3.com membership - I can look up National Archives stuff for you

Reply to flyingfysh (Original post)

Wed Feb 8, 2012, 11:21 PM

Feb 2012

Though their Confederate files seem more complete than their Union ones.

Tell me the name, location, age, etc. and I can look it up, download the files and email them to you. Use the DU mail to send me private info.

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