Military Records
War, this has been a the main United States since the beginning. In reality, our nation began with a war. In her storied history, Americans have fought in a number of wars, battles, skirmishes and conflicts.
The information within military record is a generally over-looked gold mine for genealogist. The information you are able to glean from pension records can enable one to compiled military service records piece together your family. No one kept better records than the U.S. Government and when it comes to military records they left no stone unturned.
Military records can be found in three major categories; Service Records, Pension Records, and Military Histories.
Service Records
Service Records cover the time period your ancestor was actually in the service. Service records will contain your ancestor's name, beginning rank, his highest rank or ending rank, and the unit they served in. Items that may also be unique to your ancestor can be found in the service records, such as furlough papers and medical records. NARA (National Archive and Records Administration) has microfilmed a number of indexes of service records and muster records.
A very important factor you will find about military records is that although they vary in quality and quantity based upon the war, they also vary depending on when they certainly were created, the amount of information contained, amount of records that survived and their availability all get better the more recent the conflict.
Pension Records
Pension records cover the post service period whenever your ancestor, or their next of kin, may have received veteran's pensions. Pension records give probably the most number of information. If they received the pension or not the applying for the pension will soon be on file and have information about it that is useful. They had to prove these were in the military and where they served, neighbors, relatives and comrades had to testify which they served and of the service. Having a rejected pension application is not really a bad thing. These usually generated more information, and more affidavits as anyone was attempting to prove he deserved the pension.
The first step in learning whether your ancestor includes a pension record or not would be to consult the pension indexes which are on microfilm for each war. For the revolutionary war, war of 1812, Mexican War is separate, but records from 1861 to 1934 really are a single consolidated index. These indexes on microfilm are available at your local Family History Center, NARA website, or Ancestry.com. Pension records also give physical descriptions of one's ancestor.
Military (or Unit) History
Unit histories tend to be published by veteran's groups and add historical background that basically helps you recognize the conflict and your ancestors roll in it. It's not uncommon for a unit historian or another individual to gather information from soldiers and to create a unit history. Nowadays many people are taking it upon themselves to produce unit histories. An example of this is actually the Virginia Regimental Services where nearly every Virginia regiment in the Confederacy features a small unit history with an explanation of the involvement of the unit and a roster of men in the unit and a little bit about each man that served.
A good way to master about military histories is to join a lineage organization. Several people whose ancestors shared a typical bond, like service in a war or conflict, DAR, and Sons of the Union Veterans of the Civil War to mention a few. These societies keep large collections of military histories.
Where you can Begin
To start with, identify an ancestor you think could have served in the military. Then decide what you need to understand and determine (if possible) what branch of the military they served. Investigate the war years that will coincide with you ancestor. Now lookup records on ancestry.com, archives.gov or visit your local LDS Family History Center. Also, consider joining a patriotic society that will yield further results.
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