HelPeR - BYU Idaho Special Collections and Family History

Beginner’s Corne BASIC HELP TO GET YOU OFF TO A QUICK START
Military Records:
Follow-Up & Trivia
ABy Do n n a Po t t e r Ph i l l i p s
As a follow-up to my article in the Sep-Oct 2008 issue
(“Women’s Roles in U.S. Military History”) I heard
from two very enthusiastic researchers.
Mary Louise Jesek Daley emailed that “my husband
and I belong to an organization called Society for
Women and the Civil War. The mission of this group is
to promote the research and education about women’s
roles during the Civil War. Our membership includes
authors, independent and affiliated researchers,
scholars of all disciplines, genealogists, archivists,
museum professionals, librarians, students, historians,
teachers, re-enactors, and living historians. We
discuss and research and present information on topics
relative to the study of women and the Civil War.
For more information, go to our website, www.swcw.
org. Here you will find resources and books available
to continue any personal research and discover some
really neat roles that women took on themselves to
the credit of their gender.”
Mary Louise went on to explain, “Before 10-12
years ago, women’s history and especially the role
of women during the American Civil War, was very
seldom discussed. Yet, contemporary accounts tout
the energy, help, and guidance of women during the
Civil War period in a variety of roles that they chose
to undertake. Today there is so much scholarship
coming out of many sources, many of them unlikely
and nontraditional sources. Men and women are
finding their own ancestor’s involvement, writing
about this and sharing that information.”
Thanks, Mary Louise, for the follow-up and for the
website where we can learn more.
Another follow-up was shared with me by Nancy
Leathers, a long-time friend in Pullman, Washington
(75 miles south of Spokane). Nancy told me of a
favorite book, All the Daring of the Soldier: Women of
the Civil War, by Elizabeth D. Leonard. The jacket of
this book states: “These are the fascinating stories of
the women who worked as spies, as daughter of the
regiments, or, disguised as male soldiers to play their
heroic part in the Civil War. Historian Elizabeth D.
Leonard has combed archives, memoirs, and histories
to unearth the stories of the hidden and forgotten
women who risked their lives for the blue or gray.”
This book was published in 1999, is 368 pages in
length, and has 65 pages of footnotes and 17 pages of
bibliography. I did a search for it at www.abebooks.
com and found that I could order a copy for under
$5.00. Just might do that!
Now for some “military trivia.”
Did you realize that there is military information contained
in the U.S. Federal Census records Pulling the
following from a handout by Miriam Robbins Midkiff
here in Spokane, I share a list of possibilities with you:
• 1840 census—lists Revolutionary War pensioners
and their widows.
• 1890 census (remnants) —asked whether was a
Union or Confederate soldier, sailor or marine, or
widow of such a person.
• 1890 Union Veterans Schedule—lists Union veter-
ans and their widows.
• 1900—first census to list active-duty personnel.
• 1910—lists military and naval personnel in the Philippines,
in hospitals, aboard ships and at stations.
• 1920—lists overseas military and naval population.
• 1930—lists whether a person was a veteran and
from which war or expedition.
Miriam’s handout mentions other, lesser-known
State Censuses that contain military information:
• 1777 Rhode Island Military Census—all males
over age 16 able to bear arms.
• 1863 Georgia Military Census—all males, including
children; included name and age, indicated whether
they owned a rifle, shotgun, horse and tack.
• 1885 Dakota Territory Veterans Census—name of
veteran, whether Union or Confederate service
and Civil War state.
• 1907 Alabama Confederate Veterans Census—all
persons in Alabama receiving a pension for Confederate
service.
• 1911 Arkansas Confederate Veterans Census—lists
several points of identification for veterans.
• 1917 Connecticut State Military Preparedness
Census—lists all males and all nurses; lists several
points of identification.
• 1921 Alabama Confederate Veterans Census—
taken by mail; original forms available at the Alabama
Department of Archives and History.
62 © Ev e r t o n’s Ge n e a l o g i c a l He l p e r Ja n ua ry/Fe b r u a r y 2009