 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||
 |
Trace Your Civil War Ancestors | |
 |
July 2007 issue | |
|
Current issue | |
 |
||||
| Ethnic Toolkits Web Exclusive Forms Bookstore Soundex Code Generator Article Search Writing Workshops Newsletter |
||||
Victory at Sea
Let these steps guide your Civil War sailor research. For more help tracing Civil War ancestors, see the July 2007 Family Tree Magazine. By David A. Fryxell No matter the side your Civil War sailor ancestor chose, his records won't be equal to soldiers' compiled military service records (CMSR).
For Union sailors, turn to Lewis R. Hammersly's General Register of the United States Navy or Marine Corps, 1792-1892, or Edward W. Callahan's List of Officers of the Navy of the United States and of the Marine Corps from 1775 to 1900. If your ancestor was an enlisted man, get his enlistment date and name of ship in the National Archive and Record Administration's (NARA)Index to Rendezvous Reports, Civil War, 1861-1865 (item T1099). You can then order the Rendezvous Report (similar to enlistment papers) from NARA's Textual Archives Services Division in College Park, MD (301-837-3510). You can access original reports and ship muster rolls at NARA in Washington, DC.
For Union officers, look in the Abstracts of Service Records of Naval Officers, 1798-1893 (film M330) and 1829-1924 (film M1328). If your Union sailor or his family filed for a pension, consult the same sources as for soldiers (see the July 2007 Family Tree Magazine).
Confederate naval records are probably the most challenging, warns NARA librarian Lee D. Bacon. Many didn't survive the war, and those that did were often in poor condition. Sources you can try at NARA include Confederate Naval and Marine Personnel Records (M260) and Subject File of the Confederate States Navy, 1861-1865 (M1091); both are also on Family History Library (FHL) microfilm.
Look for these books at the FHL and other large libraries: Confederate States Navy Research Guide by Thomas Truxton Moebs (Moebs Publishing Co., out of print) and the Office of Naval Records' Register of Officers of the Confederate States (J.M. Carroll & Co., out of print).
Learn more about what your ancestor's ship did in the Naval version of the OR, the 30-volume Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion, and the General Index by Dudley W. Knox (Antiquarian Press). Civil War Research Toolkit
Web Sites
Access Genealogy: Civil War Records
Alabama Department of Archives and History: Civil War Records
The American Civil War Home Page
American Memory
Bits of Blue and Gray
A Brief Introduction to Genealogy and the American Civil War
Butts County Georgia Civil War Records
The Civil War Archive Regimental Index
The Civil War Archive: United States Colored Troops
Confederate States Regimental History Index
Civil War Era
Civil War Genealogy
Civil War Resources in the Atlanta Area
Civil War Rosters Arranged by State
Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System
Confederate States Navy, Museum, Library & Research Institute
CyndiÕs List: US Civil War
Genforum Civil War Forum
Grand Army of the Republic and Related Research Links
Illinois Civil War Muster and Descriptive Rolls Database
Indiana Soldier's and Sailor's Children's Home Database
Kentucky Civil War Rosters
Pennsylvania Civil War Soldier Databases
Prologue: Civil War and Later Navy Personnel Records at the National Archives, 1861-1924
Massachusetts 54th Infantry
Military History Online: Civil War Genealogy Database
National Park Service Civil War Web Site
New York Divided: Slavery and the Civil War
NHCivilWarVeterans.com
North Carolina Civil War Genealogical Resources
Oregon Civil War Genealogy
The Olive Tree Genealogy: Civil War Genealogy & History
Researching People of the Civil War Era
US Civil War History Selected Primary and Secondary Sources Union Army Regimental History Index
US Military Records Research Outline: Civil War
Vermont in the Civil War
Western Maryland Historical Library: Civil War
Books
Bibliography of State Participation in the Civil War, 1861-1866 (Martino Publishing Co., $125)
The Civil War Day by Day: An Almanac 1861-65 by E.B. and Barbara Long
(Da Capo Press, $35)
Civil War Sites: The Official Guide to Battlefields, Monuments, and More
by the Civil War Preservation Trust (Globe Pequot, $17.95)
A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion, 3 volumes, by Frederick H. Dyer (National Historical Society)
Confederate States Navy Research Guide by Thomas Truxton Moebs (Moebs Publishing Co., out of print)
The Confederacy: A Guide to the Archives of the Confederate States of America by Henry Putney Beers (NARA, $25)
Confederate Burials, 28 volumes, by Raymond W. Watkins (Lauderdale County Department of Archives and History, $10 to $15 per volume)
Deaths of Confederate Soldiers in Confederate Hospitals, 14 volumes, by Raymond W. Watkins (Lauderdale County Department of Archives and History, $10 to $12 per volume)
Index to the Roll of Honor by Martha and William Reamy (Genealogical Publishing Co., $75)
Military Bibliography of the Civil War by Charles E. Dornbusch
(New York Public Library, $25)
The Official Military Atlas of the Civil War by George B. Davis, Calvin D. Cowles and others (The Fairfax Press, out of print)
Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion General Index by Dudley W. Knox (Antiquarian Press)
Personnel of the Civil War edited by William Frayne Amann, 2 volumes, (Thomas Yoseloff, out of print)
Register of Officers of the Confederate States, 1861-1865, Office of Naval Records (J.M. Carroll & Co.)
Roll of Honor: Civil War Union Soldiers CD (Genealogical Publishing Co., $49.99)
Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion (30 volumes, Government Printing Office)
The Roster of Union Soldiers, 1861-1865 edited by Janet B. Hewett (33 volumes, Broadfoot Publishing)
The Roster of Confederate Soldiers, 1861-1865 edited by Janet B. Hewett (16 volumes, Broadfoot Publishing)
Supplement to the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies edited by Janet B. Hewett (51 volumes, Broadfoot Publishing, out of print)
Union: A Guide to Federal Archives Relating to the Civil War by Kenneth W. Munden and Henry Putney Beers
(NARA, $25)
The Unpublished Roll of Honor by Mark Hughes (Genealogical Publishing Co., $35)
The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, 70 volumes (Government Printing Office, out of print)
Who Was Who in the Civil War by
Stewart Sifakis (Facts on File, out of print)
Organizations
Army Heritage and Education Center
Civil War Preservation Trust
Confederate Research Center
Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War
Grand Army of the Republic Museum and Library
Library of Congress
Library of Virginia
Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States
National Archives and Records Administration
New England Civil War Museum
Sons of Confederate Veterans
Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War
United States Civil War Center
Hill Memorial Library
United Daughters of the Confederacy
For help using all these great resources, see the July 2007 Family Tree Magazine.
www.accessgenealogy.com/military/civil
www.archives.state.al.us/referenc/military.html#CivilWar
tsunsite.utk.edu/civil-war/warweb.html
memory.loc.gov: Click War, Military, then titles of Civil War collections.
http://www.bitsofblueandgray.com
http://www.illinoiscivilwar.org/cwgeneal.html
www.lofthouse.com/USA/ga/butts/civwar.htm
www.civilwararchive.com/regim.htm
www.civilwararchive.com/unioncol.htm
www.tarleton.edu/~kjones/confeds.html
www.proquest.com: This database of opinion pamphlets and newspapers from the Civil War years is available at subscribing libraries.
homepages.rootsweb.com/~sroots/cwgene.htm
www.historians.org/perspectives/issues/2006/0610/0610ann5.cfm
www.geocities.com/area51/lair/3680/cw/cw.html
www.itd.nps.gov/cwss
www.csnavy.org
cyndislist.com/cw.htm
genforum.genealogy.com/civilwar
suvcw.org/research.htm
www.library.sos.state.il.us/departments/archives/datcivil.html
www.in.gov/icpr/archives/databases/issch/intro.html
rootsweb.com/~kymercer/CivilWar/Union
www.pacivilwar.com
archives.gov/publications/prologue/1995/summer/navy-records-1861-1924.html
extlab1.entnem.ufl.edu/Olustee/54th_MS_inf.html
www.militaryhistoryonline.com/genealogy/Default.aspx
cwar.nps.gov/civilwar
www.nydivided.org
www.nhcivilwarveterans.com
ncmuseumofhistory.org/exhibits/civilwar/resources_section6.html
www.geocities.com/heartland/woods/3099
olivetreegenealogy.com/mil/usa/cw.shtml
www.cwc.lsu.edu/cwc/other/genealogy/faq-gene.htm
oldsite.library.upenn.edu/vanpelt/guides/civilwar.html
www.tarleton.edu/~kjones/unions.html
www.familysearch.org: Click Guide, then Research Outline, then US Military Records.
vermontcivilwar.org/research/roots.php
www.whilbr.org/categories.aspx?idcategory=4
950 Soldiers Drive, Carlisle, PA 17013, (717) 245-3971
www.carlisle.army.mil/ahec
1331 H St. N.W., Suite 1001,
Washington, DC 20005, (202)
367-1861
www.civilwar.org
Box 619, Hillsboro, TX 76645, (254) 582-2555
www.hillcollege.edu/museum/crc.html
503 S. Walnut St., Springfield, IL 62704, (217) 544-0616
www.duvcw.org
4278 Griscom St., Philadelphia, PA 19124, (215) 289-6484
garmuslib.org
101 Independence Ave. SE, Washington, DC 20540, (202)
707-5000
www.loc.gov
800 E. Broad St., Richmond, VA 23219, (804) 692-3500
www.lva.lib.va.us
1805 Pine St., Philadelphia, PA 19103
suvcw.org/mollus.htm
700 Pennsylvania Ave. NW,
Washington, DC 20408,
(866) 272-6272
archives.gov
Thomas J. OÕ Connell Library
14 Park Place, Vernon, CT 06066,
(860) 870-3563
pages.cthome.net/ne.civilwar.mus
Box 59, Columbia, TN 38401,
(800) 693-4943
www.scv.org
Box 1865, Harrisburg, PA 17105,
(717) 232-7000
suvcw.org
Louisiana State University,
Baton Rouge, LA 70803, (225)
578-6544
www.cwc.lsu.edu
Memorial Building, 328 North Blvd., Richmond, VA 23220, (804) 355-1636
www.hqudc.org
|
|
