As I pointed out in Part II, you can often find out which unit your ancestor served in by using the Civil War Soldiers Index. Sometimes, however, we need to conduct further research to verify things. One excellent way to pinpoint your ancestor’s unit is by searching for them in federal and state pension indexes. These indexes are available on FamilySearch, Ancestry, and Fold3, and can lead to loads of further information on your ancestor’s service, far beyond the name of his unit alone. We will discuss that more later. For now, let’s focus on further verifying in which unit your ancestor served using Civil War Pension Payment Cards.
Searching Civil War Pension Payment Cards Indexes
Civil War Pension payment cards can provide you with valuable clues as to your ancestor’s Civil War service. I’ll use my ancestor, Newell Elijah Gile, as an example. Let’s say I know (and I do) that his wife’s name was Caroline Jane Webber, and that his age leads me to suspect he may have served in the Civil War (as discussed in Part I).
I will go to FamilySearch’s Civil War Pension Payment Cards, 1907-1933 database and run a search for “newell e gile.” When I do, I get the following results:
Right away, I see three different records for a Newell E Gile associated with a Caroline J Gile. This is promising. FamilySearch offers original images of these records, so I’ll have a look at one of them:
This record is packed with information that helps me confirm that the beneficiary it describes, Newell E Gile, is my ancestor. Near the bottom, it names Caroline J Gile as his widow, which corresponds with what I already know about who his spouse was. It also gives his death date, 20 December 1911, which I can check to see if it matches with my ancestor. Doing this, I know we have a match!
Reading Pension Payment Cards:
Finding the Unit
From there, I can use other information on the record to learn more about my ancestor’s service. On the card’s third row, I see that he served as a “Pt” or “Private” in “Batty G 4 US Art” or Battery G of the 4th US Artillery. This information about his unit will help me discover more about the battles and military campaigns he likely participated in. I also learn from the middle of the second line on the card that Newell received an “INVALID PENSION”. This means that he was awarded a pension due to wounds received during his service.
Pension Amounts and Dates
In the middle of the card, in the section labelled “Issues,” I can see the pension amounts issued to my ancestor on given dates. In this case, I see the number “12” under the “RATE” column on the first row. Then, under “DATE OF COMMENCEMENT,” I see “8 Mch 1907”. This means that my ancestor received a pension at a rate of $12 a month beginning 8 March 1907. The next row tells me that his pension increased to $15 a month on 13 October 1910. I can use an online Inflation Calculator to discover that these payments equate to about $304.18 per month and $380.22 per month, respectively, in 2018 dollars. The final line of this record, under “FORMER ROLL NO.,” gives the number “2052” and the date “27 Jun 1890”. This tells me that Newell was also receiving a pension prior to the 8 March 1907 date given above, as early as 1890.
Certificate Number
Lastly, this record also tells me Newell E Gile’s pension certificate number: 463210. This will be invaluable to me as I locate his full pension file. I know from this record that Newell received a pension as an army invalid. Therefore, I also know that his pension file should include details about injuries he sustained during the war.
Final Notes
A few things to know about this record set: First, it only includes Union soldiers. I will discuss later how Confederate soldiers can be found in other indexes. Second, it only lists soldiers, widows, and their minor dependents who were awarded pensions and received pension payments. Some people may have applied for pensions, but were denied. Other soldiers served in the war but never applied for pensions. They will not show up in this record set. Lastly, this record set only reveals pensioners who received payments between 1907 and 1933. If your Civil War ancestor received payments earlier than this time period, they may not show up in these records. Other record sets, however, may help you find out more about your ancestor’s service. I will discuss these later on.
One final note: We at The Handwritten Past offer Professional Genealogy Research Services to unearth the details behind the military life of your Civil War ancestor. Contact us with the details you know about your relative, along with what you hope to find out, and we will give you a free price quote.