Not everyone filled them out completely. Some most likely did not return them. Not all the information is accurate. But that’s nothing new. Americans don’t like to complete surveys or to provide information to the government. Things were not that different at the end of the 19th and beginning of 20th centuries.
In 1898 and 1915, Union Civil War pensioners were sent a survey asking them about their family, particularly about their marriage, their wife, and their children.
The reason was fairly simple: to help document eventual claims that may be made by widows of deceased veterans. The 1915 form said “the information is requested for future use, and it may be of great value to your widow or children.”
There are those who simply enter “no record” on the form. There are those who say “records lost in a fire.” There are others who only list minor children (because adult children will not potentially filing for any sort of benefit based upon their father’s military service). Those warnings need to be kept in mind.
Widows were not asked to complete these forms (notice that both are addressed to “sir”) because there would be no “later widow” to file after the original filing widow was deceased.
But these forms could provide valuable marriage information or possibly dates of birth for children.
And, in states that did not keep adequate vital records, these forms could be helpful.
Because theoretically the father would be providing primary information about the birth of his children.
If he could remember their names and when they were born.
And if he bothered to return the form.
The forms in this blog post were obtained from the Civil War pension of Charles Hartsell at the National Archives. He served in Company C of the 102 Illinois infantry.
8 Responses
Where would one find these forms in the National Archives online?
They are with the pension records–these are Civil War pension forms and these materials are not available online.
Where are these forms available, if they exist for our ancestors.
They are with their pension files at the National Archives. Only veterans on the pension roll were sent the forms.
My 2nd great grandfather was on a pension until 1923 when he died. Were these forms only offered in 1898 and 1915?
There might have been another one in the 1890s.
How would we go about finding these pension files. Is there an index online or is the name of the veteran enough to request a copy?
Usually the name is not enough.
Here is one place to look. There are other indexes that are on film, but are not necessarily online for free. I’ll work on a blog post about this.