Posts in April 13, 2026

A Union Civil War pension file I am looking at contains over 200 pages. Like most pension files of this type, it contains numerous affidavits. In this case, most of them revolve around the deceased soldier’s health and his mother’s financial status. A large number of individuals signed affidavits testifying to both those aspects of the claim. Determining which of those individuals to research first has been a challenge. How should I prioritize my research into the individuals who appear in the file? It’s important to think about what my research goals are (for me it’s completely documenting the claimants life). While it’s hard to make list ranking individuals in the file from first to last, generally speaking I am using these factors to decide which people should […]