I’ve reviewing a Mexican War pension application for a widow whose veteran husband was never divorced or widowed from his first wife. The claims made in the pension are confusing and not always consistent with other records. It’s claimed that the first wife died in the 1850s, but she’s living with her children for at least twenty years after that. Because the situation is confusing to begin with and because some of the statements are inconsistent, I’ve decided to make an chart with every date or event given in the pension application, including columns for:
- Date
- Place
- Event
- Witness
- Comments/Miscellaneous
- Document/Source
This way I have extracted key items from the application and can sort them in a variety of ways.
One response
Excellent tip! From my experience some will say the spouse is deceased rather than suffer the humiliation of a divorce, which was unthinkable in 1850.