Cases Studies: Here we offer some real examples to demonstrate some of the problematic issues having to do with pension indexes and how to get around them.

Alternative Pension Indexes: When the principal pension indexes don’t include what you want, there are some alternatives.  In fact, those alternative indexes sometimes include information about the veteran that is not recorded on any other pension index.

Principal Pension Indexes: To find a Civil War pension, you must first find it in an index. There are several types of indexes available online and they contain different – and sometimes conflicting – kinds of data.  It is therefore critical that you understand the differences and consult the correct index(es), depending on your purpose.

Eligibility: The qualifications to receive a pension changed over time.  Some reasonable conclusions can be drawn merely by examining the date of the application and the laws that were in place at that time.

Terminology and Abbreviations: In Part 2 of this series, we will define the terms and abbreviations that are found in Civil War pension files.