Free access for Civil War collection at Footnote.com

[Rosie1223]

for the month if June. Lots of pension files and confederate records. Happy hunting!

Www.footnote.com

[csziggy]

1. I'm getting ready to dive into Footnote.com for the Civil War stuff

Any advice on how best to proceed? I've got a list of the most likely people who might have been in the military at the time - right ages, at least. I've got the ones that we know were in the military, North and South, with as much information about which regiments and companies they were in.

How are the records organized? State, or can you do look up by name? At least one of my guys died while a prisoner of war - would there be death records? Burial records?

Thanks for any advice on getting the most out of the free period!

[Rosie1223]

2. Footnote's search engine is very versatile

I would suggest you first search by document too see if they have the state/regiment you are interested in. Not everything has been scanned (I'm waiting for all of Tennessee to show up). Do this by using 'Browse Original Documents' method. You will be able to select a state, unit, and surname.

If you want to search by name first, use the 'Advanced Search' method (Click the dropdown button by search to get to advanced search). Select a surname (you may use '*' for wildcard) and the collection you want to look at. You will probably get tons of matches. Then use the 'refine' function to select a first name or location.

As for death/burial records, Footnote mostly has only a few vital records scanned, and will probably not be included in the free Civil War documents. However, you can search the entire collection and see how many matches you get. You will not be able to view the original document but if you get lots of good matches you may consider buying a monthly subscription. Its not too expensive and you can set it to not 'auto-renew'.

Good Luck!

[lazarus]

3. what are the odds that someone

in their 30's wouldn't have fought? I have two ancestors that are the right age, but I can't find any record of their having served.

[Rosie1223]

4. Depends on where they lived

Many from the North or out West did not fight. If you were from the South, probably yes. However, many records from the confederacy were never in Washington or were lost in courthouse burnings.

I have an ancestor from Missouri that fought for both sides. :)

[lazarus]

5. alabama and georgia

so I assume they fought. John Presley Patterson was the right age. There's a John P Patterson who fought for Bama, but he's too young. And there's a John Patterson, but he mustered four or five counties over. I'm having trouble pinning down what units came from what counties, though, so I guess he could have mustered that far away.

These Footnote records are great, and the free trial is paying off, as I'm going to sign up next paycheck. There's something about seeing a scan instead of Ancestry's transcription. I download the scan and then upload onto the Ancestry profile for that person.

How old would be too old to fight, do you think? I have another ancestor who doesn't show up at all, even the wrong age or anything. He's an Irish immigrant who would be in his late 40s.

[Rosie1223]

6. I have an ancestor that fought from Alabama

Try these:
http://www.archives.alabama.gov/referenc/reghist.html#Counties

http://history-sites.com/~kjones/alcounty.html

Good Luck!

[lazarus]

7. thanks, those should help

:hi:

[csziggy]

8. All the Civil War soldiers from my side of the family are from Alabama

Perry County. I've got the companies and regiments for most of them, and Mom got copies of some of the paperwork back in the 60s. But the copies she has were poor to start with - primitive photocopies - and they are not in great condition. I'm hoping that with modern scanning, the copies I can get now will be better.

Thanks for the links - I have managed to verify the info I had.

Now to fins the Yankees - there are a half dozen the right ages that do not seem to have served, more than I have verification for that did.

[csziggy]

9. Thanks - I'll need a mix of methods

I've got three Confederates and three Union that I know their regiments and companies. But I have an equal number, all Northerners, that are the right ages, but that I have not been able to find any indication that they served in the military.

For now, I was just going to try to find a death certificate for the guy who died in the Union prisoner of war camp at Charleston, Tennessee - wouldn't that be a Civil War record? My three Southerners did not do very well - one died, one lost an arm, the other was captured and paroled after the war was over. He actually ended up the best - in the camp he became interested in medicine and later became a doctor.

As for subscribing, I am not ready yet - I am still sorting through the stuff Mom has and re-editing a family history she did in the 60s. That will keep me busy at least through the end of the year. Plus I have not been to the local LDS library to see what they have.

A great resource I have found are the old out of copyright family and local histories that were the craze back in the late 1800s - a lot of those are available for download at archive.org for free. I find if I download the plain text version and the PDF photo image version, I can search the plain text but verify the information with the image. They OCR'd the copies, but have not proof read them, so there are a lot of mistakes in the plain text versions.

Some of the old family histories have a lot of mistakes or even complete fabrications, but the local histories can be a goldmine. I've found biographies of leading citizens of the time - and since the books are a hundred years old, they are great background for ancestors from contemporaries. The biggest problem is that many are not indexed - that is why searching the plain text is very useful. I've even found photos of family members - my husband's grandmother was in one as an infant, along with his great-grandmother and great-grandfather. Some have pictures of homes of prominent families - I found one of the home of an ancestor that was ancient when the book was printed, since it had been built in colonial times.