I’m working through a family where four of a couple’s sons were in the US Civil War. My original source for documenting their service (and the deaths of three of them in the war) was a letter another son (their youngest brother) wrote in 1879. I wanted to immediately document all their service and pension using the information in the letter.
I thought it would be easy to document the service details–after all, everything today is online.
That was not the case. I documented the service of three of them using online databases. I documented the death of one during war time and found a pension card for the fourth. Instead of continuing to search for the additional information, I am going to obtain the compiled military service records and pension files I have discovered.
Then when those materials have arrived, I will evaluate and work on filling in the missing pieces. It is possible that there are clues in the references I have found that will help me find the others.
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