Digging for Roots and Climbing the Trees
Ideas on Discovering Your Own War Between the States Heritage

     I have spent over ten years, and thousands of hours, poring over books, documents and records at county, state, regional and national archives and libraries to find my own heritage. In the process, I have gained a strong knowledge of the resources and effort involved in obtaining and understanding genealogical information. Learning your family history is a very rewarding and exciting experience. However, discovering your true genealogy is not an easy task. Serious, dedicated, time consuming research is required, which causes many to lose interest. The purpose of this article is to dispel a few genealogy myths and offer basic research ideas. As the focus of this website is based on the War Between the States, the concentration of this article is on gaining genealogical information from that time period, specifically military service.

     Despite what many people would like to claim, not everyone is a "direct" descendant of Confederate President Jefferson Davis (03 June 1808-06 December 1889) and Gen. Robert Edward Lee (19 January 1807-12 October 1870), and for good reason. Davis had only one child, and Lee only two, that lived to have any children of their own. Thus, your chances of connecting to either, except in a quite distant collateral case, is not a real possibility.

     Family legends are just that,...legends. While they are likely really nice people, the stories "Grandma" told or the book "Uncle Ned" assembled of your "official" family history, are only as good as the source of their information. In reality, most of these tales are not much more accurate than tabloids sold at your local grocery store check-out counter. Online and computer program genealogy is much the same. Many of the CD genealogy products, genforums, personal home page ahnentafel reports, and gedcom files are often propagations of misconception, assumption, and fable. While they can be a good roadmap, and might hold some truth, you are best served to verify what you find with legitimate documentational evidence. As long as you always bear that in mind, speaking with your family's so-called surname "experts" is recommendable. It may help to speed up the process of obtaining copies of documents, learning problems which they have already discovered, and sometimes they have photos they might be willing to share with you.

     The Hollywood fantasy that the War Between the States pitted "Brother against Brother" is very inaccurate. So is the idea that "Great-Great Grandpa Joe" picked up his rifle and walked 1000 miles, uphill and in the snow, to Atlanta or Richmond to enlist. The War Between the States was a community effort. Men enlisted in the towns, counties, and regions in which they lived with their fathers, uncles, brothers and cousins. Not to say that some people didn't have differences of political opinion and fought for the other side, but most did not.

     Not every man was in "Pickett's Charge" or was some fantastic Homeric war hero. There were many different departments, armies, districts, and corps in the armed forces of both nations. Battles, skirmishes, raids, and other land operations were carried out from the border with Canada to the Rio Grande. Do not be surprised to find that some of your ancestors never once laid eyes on "Marse Robert" or sucked lemons, "praised the Lord, and passed the ammunition" with "Stonewall" Jackson. The number one cause of death in the War Between the States, on either side, was not shot and shell, but disease. Thousands of men never truly encountered the enemy, breathed in the sulfurous smell of black powder, heard the clash of sabers and bayonets or the cries and screams of the wounded.

     On average, the typical soldier only served about two years. Often, they re-enlisted in other commands when their regiments were mustered out, disbanded or consolidated. Even so, there were still many that received medical discharges for battle and non-battle related health problems. For them, the war was over. Furthermore, many North and South, jumped bounty, deserted, were captured, imprisoned by the enemy (or their own side) or ended up taking an Oath of Allegiance and enlisting with the other side out of choice or survival.

     To begin researching, you must first know about your more recent family history. Marriage, divorce, and death records are readily available, provided you know the correct county and state to obtain them. If an individual is now deceased (and was alive in 1935 or after), the Social Security Death Index can also be of value. Due to adoption regulations, privacy acts, and security laws passed in the latter 20^th Century, birth certificates, unless you are the child or parent of the child, are off limits. Before the 1920's, neither birth nor death certificates were required by law.

     Once back to the 1930's, your principal documentation comes from censuses, marriage certificates, wills and probates, land records, tax records, pension records, and military service records. These are obtained, as previously mentioned, from county, state, regional and national archives and libraries. Federal Censuses are enumerated every tenth year, on the zero year. A complete census does not exist for 1890, as it was partially destroyed in a fire, but some states did re-enumerate for their own use in 1895. Prior to 1850, only the head of household is listed on the census. Everyone else appears as a hash mark for age and sex. Therefore, you must use the other resources mentioned to dig deeper. People are like birds, they migrate in patterns and in groups. If you lose track, Soundex files, which can be obtained at LDS libraries, list everyone with a specific surname and location for census years between 1880 and 1930.

     In all records, information is only as good as the information taker. Often you will find woeful misspellings, abbreviations, middle names and not first names, nicknames, reverse order first and middle names, or just initials used. Like modern times, many individuals had the same name, even within the same extended family, in the same county or same region. Be careful before claiming an individual, to make sure you have the "right one." However, do not discount the other men you might find. There is a very good chance that they are cousins, and could have been soldiers too.

     Let's assume you have gotten back to the early 1800's and now want to hone in on your soldiers. This is when you seek out rosters. Some of these can be found online, but mostly not. There are some decent published sets for a few specific states, but they should not be trusted implicitly for their biographical information as they often contain errors. Your best bet is to locate a decent genealogical library that has either the NARA roster indices on microfilm or copies of The Roster of Confederate Soldiers, 1861-1865 (or The Roster of Union Soldiers, 1861-1865) by Broadfoot Publishing Company.

     Copy every name you find that matches the correct family surname and state, and all misspellings and other naming combinations. Eliminate possibilities by seeking out regimental histories of the listed units for the soldiers you think might be a match. Some are available online, but many are not. As far as published resources, a few of the more "famous" units have histories that were written by the actual vets themselves. These are highly recommended, should one exist for the unit you're looking for. There are also compendiums available at most genealogical libraries that provide basic information for most units.

     Compare the region/county/township in which the soldier's company was raised with the region/county/township your real ancestor lived (taking into consideration that more than one man with the same name may have lived in the same region). Enjoy reading the exploits of the unit, but never assume that your ancestor saw any of the battles and places unless it is corroborated within the contents of his service record, pension or a legitimate regimental history that singles him out as having done such.

     Compiled Military Service Records are comprised of an envelope with the soldier's name on it, and a certain number of index cards (or tickets). Compiled from original company and regimental documents between the 1890's and 1910's, then microfilmed in the 1950's and 1960's, they are often hard (sometimes impossible) to read, and are frequently very incomplete. I have seen anywhere from one to more than forty total items per soldier, and sometimes numerous pages of payment vouchers and supply request forms in the case of officers. Some of the information you can possibly gain from some of the better records are: enlistment, clothing issues, pay disbursements, leaves of absence, promotions, woundings, captures, paroles, extra duty assignments, hospitalizations, discharge, and death. Should you desire, this website sells digital copies (on CD) of CMSR for specific states.

     Pensions were for indigent veterans, widows, and in some remote cases, orphaned minor children. These were filed with (and are obtainable from the archives of) the post-war home state in the case of Confederates, and the Federal Government (contact NARA) in the case of Union veterans. Ranging anywhere between three to more than fifty pages, they contain very little about the soldier's service (mostly whether he was a deserter or not), but often have some valuable biographical information about the applicant, their health, and their financial situation at that time. Affidavits from other soldiers or officers that knew the man are sometimes included, which might divulge service specific data.

     With the information provided above, you should now have some ideas to more easily and effectively discover your War Between the States heritage. Remember, since it took time to make history, it takes time to find it. Genealogy is not an exact science, nor are records always complete. Enjoy what you can find and never stop looking. With experience and practice it can be both quite addictive and fun. Good luck in all your ancestor quests!