Page News & Courier

Heritage and Heraldry

Sources Abound for Information on local Civil War ancestors

Article of February 5, 1998

"So where do I start?" I started with a family story. First I found out that a great-great grandfather had served in the war. From there I figured out the exact family tree back to this ancestor and then I was off to the Virginia State Library (now known as the Library of Virginia) in Richmond. Others can start with Harry Strickler's Short History of Page County and go from the incomplete lists of veterans published therein. Today, with the aid of the books in the Virginia Regimental Histories Series and, in some insances, Spratt's book (Page County, Virginia Men in Gray), one can "quick reference" and find a bonanza of information in seconds.

For those who cannot find the ancestor they KNOW to have served in the war, either in the regimentals or in Spratt's book, go first to the Library of Virginia, then to the National Archives in Washington, D.C. or my personal web site for Page County Confederate veterans (http://www.oocities.org/Heartland/Hills/1850/pagecoconfeds.html).

From the Library of Virginia or National Archives you can begin with the Combined Service Records of Confederate veterans available on microfilm. First check the cross-reference microfilm for Virginia soldiers, at Washington there is one for all Confederate soldiers from all states including Virginia. Then, after you have found the name you were searching for you can go to the microfilm of the particular unit in which he served and find your veteran and his specific record.

If your in Richmond and have found your ancestor's microfilm record, I highly recommend a search of the Confederate pension records. Whether he survived the war or not, there may at least be a record for his widow that would give either vital statistics information otherwise unavailable from the service record.

In the case of Union soldiers one would need to go to Washington and check the cross-reference of Federal soldiers in the war. There at Washington, one too can one find a pension record for a Union veteran.

In addition to all of this, within one or two years and as the grand finale to the Virginia Regimental Histories Series there will be a set of books (now estimated to be a three-volume set) that will include all of the names of all of the veterans of all of units from Virginia who served the Confederacy. Therefore, by referencing this set of books one would be able to quickly reference the particular name and then find the unit-specific book in which the ancestor's military record can be found.

For those who look into the regimentals and, though they find their ancestor's military record, find there is no photo, there is still a way to rectify the situation. Each book is limited to 1,000 copies in its first edition, but when the book goes into a second or third edition (limited to 200 copies each), new photos and new vital information provided by readers can be added.

If you are one of those people who are concerned that there are letters or diaries that have yet to find their place in history in these books, or there is no photo of your ancestor in the books, whether a wartime or a postwar photograph, you can send a copy to the publisher of the series for future publication. The address is H.E. Howard, Inc., Rt. 2, Box 496 H, Appomattox, Virginia 24522. Please reference the unit and name of the veteran for easier placement of the information or photo.

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