I recently obtained digital images of a Union Civil War pension file of a relative by marriage. It took over 200 images to digitize all the records. My interest in the file was to see if there was information on the claim of the widow and what information she had provided on herself. Having seen quite a few pension files, I knew where to look for the “good stuff.” There should be documents with “WIdow’s Declaration” or similar phrases at the top in large black letters.
I zipped through the files and didn’t see any such statements. I nearly concluded there wasn’t anything on the widow in the file.
A slower, page by page, reading located information on the widow and her claim in letters that at first glance looked very innocuous. Those letters documented why the widow wasn’t the veteran’s legal wife.
She had filed no claim. She had filed no affidavits. Sometimes one needs to read slowly and methodically.
Wait.
It’s not sometimes.
It’s all the time.
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