Posts in March 5, 2025

When evaluating information, genealogists usually categorize that information as primary or secondary in nature. The difference is not just academic. The 1937 military application headstone card for John Ehmen indicated that he died in Galesburg, Knox County, Illinois, on 12 November 1864. Ehmen’s compiled military service record contains two contemporary documents indicating he died on that same date in a military hospital in Quincy, Adams County, Illinois. The headstone application card’s death information would be considered secondary since the application was made in 1937 and the information was likely copied from somewhere–it certainly is not a contemporary record. The death information in the compiled military service record is listed on two separate original documents created shortly after Ehmen’s death (one is a hospital record that indicates his treatments […]