This series will explore the many mysteries of the Civil War pension file, including how to find and interpret the many types of online pension indexes, some details of which are rarely documented elsewhere. Those indexes alone may contain hidden clues and a remarkable amount of detail about the veteran’s life, family, and military service.
The fact that your ancestor fought in the Civil War and lived in a southern state does not mean that he was a Confederate soldier. “Southern Loyalists” were citizens of southern states who sympathized with the northern cause to preserve the union. Approximately 150,000 of them (or more) became Union soldiers.
Contrary to popular belief, many Confederate veterans did receive pensions. They were provided not by the U.S. Federal government but by the individual southern states. Although Confederate pension files typically contain fewer documents than Union ones, they are nonetheless very useful for family researchers.
The last widow of a Civil War veteran was not eligible for his pension.
With a FREE membership to Gopher Records, you’ll receive a discount of at least 10% off the regular retail prices of our services (excluding special orders and certifications). You will also be able to purchase gift certificates, track the status of your orders, and (optionally) be notified of drawings, sales, and other relevant news. We
We offer low flat rates because we focus on record groups that are indexed or sorted so that we can go directly to the records that interest you. We don’t have the resources to manually go through an unsorted record group and evaluate each page for whether it might interest you. Such work is very
Our expertise is with 19th-century records. They are preserved at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Washington D.C. 20th-Century records (World War 1 and later) are held at the NARA facilities in College Park, MD or St. Louis, MO and are therefore not available to us. You can find an independent researcher who
We make color copies of your documents and deliver them as downloadable PDF files. Each PDF file will contain one element from your order. That is, if you order a service file and a pension file, you will receive two PDF files. PDF files can be viewed by any version of Adobe Acrobat, including the
When you access our Order Form, you’ll be asked whether you want to Login/Register or proceed as a Guest. Members receive at least 10% off our regular retail pricing (excluding special orders) and <a href=”https://gopherrecords.com/faqs/single-faq/member/”>other benefits</a>. Membership is free and we don’t sell or share our membership list with anyone else.
No, we will not ask you to pay until the search(es) have been conducted and the documents, if found, are ready for you to download them. The ordering process will not even ask you for any payment info. So, unlike most record retrieval services, we don’t have your money while you wait for the order