by Brian Rhinehart
March 26, 2021
Have you seen the movie Glory? The movie focused on the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, one of the first regiments in the Civil War made up of African...
by Brian Rhinehart
March 17, 2021
Do you have a photo of your Civil War ancestor in uniform? If so, consider yourself very lucky. Photos of soldiers weren’t taken very often. When ...
by Brian Rhinehart
March 10, 2021
Was your ancestor seriously injured during the Civil War? There may be a clue on his pension index card that could indicate that.
Look at the ...
by Brian Rhinehart
March 02, 2021
Why does he have an alias? Occasionally you may find two names on a Civil War pension card, with one listed as an alias. Why is that?
It’s har...
by Brian Rhinehart
February 12, 2021
Did you know there are multiple versions of the same pension index cards out there? Ancestry has one version in their database, and Fold3 has anoth...
by Brian Rhinehart
January 30, 2021
What do all those red numbers mean? The short answer is that they are serial numbers. And while the numbers do have meaning behind them, they reall...
by Brian Rhinehart
January 18, 2021
Let’s talk about Civil War draft registration records. These can be great resources, but they can also be one of the most misused sources when it ...
by Brian Rhinehart
January 12, 2021
You may be surprised to hear that there is no record group at the National Archives that contains the Civil War discharge papers. These discharges...
by Brian Rhinehart
January 05, 2021
Most Civil War soldiers were eligible to apply for pension benefits after the war. In some cases they were immediately eligible, but in most cases...
by Brian Rhinehart
December 27, 2020
Looking for your ancestor’s Civil War enlistment papers? These are kept at the National Archives, but they’d be in one of two record groups there....
by Brian Rhinehart
November 06, 2020
Another unusual place to find Civil War information about your ancestor at the National Archives would be Homestead records. The Homestead Act was...
by Brian Rhinehart
October 20, 2020
Do you have a military ancestor but have never found a pension file for him? Try looking in the Old War pension index on FamilySearch. https://www...
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