DID ONE OF YOUR ANCESTORS FIGHT IN THE CIVIL WAR?

If you don't know the answer to that question, the search is on! Since 75 percent of the draft-age men of the Confederacy and 50 percent of the draft-age men of the Union served in the military, there's a good chance that at least one of your relatives was a Civil War soldier. Below, you will find a few resources that will help you on your quest. Once you gather information, share it with your family, friends, school, community, and beyond! Depending on the information that you find, you can do the following:

• Create a mini-exhibit; a report; or a scrapbook of letters, photos, and anecdotes.
• Scan your information onto the computer and create your own website or add it to other family histories at www.myhistory.org or www.usgenweb.org.
• Find out whether your local library or historical society collects family histories and donate yours.
• Initiate a school or community-wide project, where families in the community research their Civil War ancestors. Compile the information and organize a program for the community that illustrates its involvement in the Civil War. Request that businesses in the community sponsor your program.

The search begins with your family. Ask your family members, especially older ones, if you had an ancestor that fought in the Civil War. Accumulate any information that you can on that person such as oral histories, photos, letters, a diary/journal, an obituary, a tombstone, etc. You need to know family surnames like your mother's maiden name, your grandmother's maiden name, her grandmother's maiden name, etc. It will also help if you know where your ancestors lived.

If you don't know if any of your ancestors fought in the Civil War or not, take your list of family surnames and go online to the "Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System" of the National Park Service, at http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss. Type in one name at a time, and view the results. See if there are any matches. This should provide some important information about if and where your relatives served during the Civil War.

If you have a name, but you don't know where your relative lived when he enlisted, you may be able to find out using the 1860 Federal Census records at http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/census/. Most of these records have an index to the head of the households, which could be the soldier or the soldier's father. You need to know where he enlisted so you can find out what regiment he was in. Once you know that, it's easy to find more information.

If you know the state where your relative lived when he enlisted, check the state archives to find out what regiment he was in. You can visit your state library or state historical society, or find state archive listings online at http://www.cws.lsu.edu. When you get to the site, click on "Researching People of the Civil War Era." Among other great genealogical information, state archival sources are listed. Most states have published histories of their military units as well, and brief summaries of the service of each man in the unit are often included. Another good source is "The Sons of Confederate Veterans Genealogy Network" at http://www.scv.org/membership/geneology.asp, which has genealogists listed by state. Regimental histories are available at any good library (if you can't find the one you want, ask about inter-library loan).

If you know the soldier's last name and the regiment he was in, the National Archives has pension records, hospital records, prison records, and military service records and a whole host of other types of information. You can visit the National Archives in Washington, D.C. or go online to the National Archives Civil War Records. Click here to request forms for information on your ancestor (there's a small fee). Broadfoot Publishing Company will do the same thing for you, but much quicker; they also charge a fee.

More Great Resources:

• Tracing Your Civil War Ancestor by Bertram H. Groene.
• Civil War Genealogy by George K. Schweitzer.

Don't forget to keep a journal/diary/scrapbook of your life, because someday, it will be a part of history. Leave something for your descendants to read when they want to learn about your life and society at the time when you lived. Besides, you never know when you're going to be a part of something that will "go down in history!"

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