Despite my years of researching and documenting my family, I’m continually humbled by how much I don’t know and how much is available to us if we simply know where to look or who to ask. Case in point: I recently learned in a Civil War Facebook group that I could request my 2x great grandpa’s Civil War Pension File using the information provided on the Pension Index Card I found on Ancestry.com a few years ago.

Armed with that information I clicked over to GopherRecords.com, input the relevant information, and waited patiently for a response.

Within two weeks I had an email in my inbox stating my document was ready!

So, what was in this Civil War Pension File PDF?

So much!

The total file is 429 pages long with some of those pages being the backside of a document… but truly… 429 pages of information on someone who I’ve been enamored with since I was a small child and my Grandma Eve began sharing stories about him.

Truth be told, so much of it is back and forth requests, denials, and approvals for, you guessed it, little bits of pension money for his service in the Civil War where he was wounded in action with a bullet through the groin that exited through his buttock.

Ouch, right?!

Unfortunately, methods and understandings of wounds and pain were very different in the late 1800s and early 1900s when he was applying for his pension. While he was granted assistance, the hoops he had to jump through to prove he was truly in pain and unable to function properly, especially in his older years, were truly jaw dropping. And, because he didn’t lose a whole hand, or the like, his wound was seen as “less than” even though it directly impacted his ability to work in his trade as a Stonemason.

But that’s not all!

While combing through page after page, I have to admit that my eyes went a bit sideways. With so much information and so many different handwritings and official documents, it all stretched my eyes and brain in entirely new ways. But as I settled my excitement and focused in, I began to find some true gems in his handwritten testimonies of the times before, during, and after his Union Soldier service, including:

• His handwriting and signature! Not sure if these things are as exciting to others as they are to me but I believe there is something truly special in seeing an ancestor’s handwriting.

• Confirmation about his US Civil War service specifics (enlistment and discharge dates as well as his Company Numbers) including when and where he was wounded: The Battle of Cedar Creek (Virginia) on October 19, 1864.

• The exact location John Patrick lived in in Ireland with his family in 1850! Until this document arrived all I could nail down was Cavan County. Now I know he was born in Ballyhilland (sp?) and lived in Dromore Townland, Kilmore Parish, Cavan County. Basically dialed into his actual neighborhood in a very rural area in 1850! Oh how I long to see a proper map of the area!

• Additionally, he stated that in 1860 he was living in McGregor, Ohio where he worked for a Michael O’Brien. Later, he worked for a grand uncle named John Farley in Harlem, NY. Excellent fodder for future research.

• A re-issue of his Marriage Certificate with my great grandma Alice which had to be provided when Alice applied for a Widow’s Pension after John’s death. Previously, I only had the indexed information from Ancestry, not the actual document.

• Without a photo of him (yet!), I now know he was 5 foot 9 inches tall with dark hair and complexion and blue eyes.

In addition to all these wonderful details to help inform further research, I have also learned about the phrase “no vicious habits” and am finding myself learning much more about the Civil War than ever before or ever imagined.

In my search for the meaning behind the “no vicious habits”, I learned a lot through this post alone, Disability, Responsibility, and the Veteran Pension Paradox. Here’s a tiny snippet:

I’ve never served in the US Military but I know many who have and it seems that our government has always looked for any excuse to not properly take care of our soldiers once their service time is up which is just so shameful. We truly need to do better by those who serve our country.

Luckily, John had no vicious habits, so pensions (and increases) were granted to the extent the rules allowed.

Beyond John Patrick

While not relevant to John’s service or pension applications, I now also have his youngest daughter’s signature (my Great Grandma Orvetta) and the knowledge that my 2x Great Grandma Alice (John’s wife) could read but not write.

These are small details, yes, but very important to me none-the-less.

While I have a great interest in all of my ancestors, I have an even deeper interest in learning as much about my direct maternal line as possible. Given the lack of records and information about our female ancestors throughout time beyond being the “wife of X” and how many children one birthed, every little detail counts to form a picture of who each woman might have been and how she saw the world she walked through.

Onward,

Melis