KYJacksonPurchase-L Archives

From: Bill Utterback <>
Subject: The Old Wars Pension Files
Date: Sat, 05 Feb 2005 20:36:43 -0600

My friends -

One area in which we may sometimes be less than active in pursuing our
ancestors' trail is that of the Old Wars Pension Files. The "Old Wars"
include claims for military service between the end of the Revolutionary
War and the first year of the War Between the States in 1861. The claims
are generally based on disability or death incurred while on military duty
over this 78 year period. The services covered include the Army, Navy and
Marine Corps. The claims cover the period of the War of 1812, the various
Indian wars, the Mexican War and there are some that reference service in
the War Between the States.

The information that may be found in these files can include such things as
the name of the veteran and any aliases used, name of the widow or
contesting widow, names of previous and subsequent husbands, names of minor
children and occasionally, names of married children, minor children and
children of age, certificates, files, state from which the claim was filed,
the date of the claim, name of war(s), and, in some cases, the names of the
father and/or mother of the veteran may be given, as well as others, such
as a dependent sibling who may have filed a claim. Our good friend, Virgil
White, transcribed the essential information from these files some years
ago and published them in his work, "Index To Old War Pension Files". Some
larger libraries have this item in their collections.

I have this publication in my own resources, and, given the fact that we
may not have worked this research area as well as some others, I am
offering to check the Index for a name of an ancestor or family member who
may have applied(or his widow may have applied)for a pension that falls
into this category. A few caveats, though: I need the complete given name
and surname of the individual(for example, "John Parkenfarker"), not just a
request to "check all Parkenfarkers". If you have solid reasons to believe
that an individual did *not* serve in any of these conflicts, please do not
request that his name be checked. I would ask, too, that the number of
individuals to be checked not exceed *two*. The chances of an ancestor or
family member(or widow or dependent)having applied for a pension under this
grouping is naturally limited, since 90% of them deal with soldiers who
were killed or disabled in some capacity during their time in service.
Those who applied claiming disability from service related problems who did
not serve on the battlefield had a much lower chance of receiving such a
pension, since many disabilities were caused by non-service related
illnesses or accidents. Obviously, then, a man who did not die in service
and lived out his life without disabilities would not be found in this
pension file group.

These pension files are held by the National Archives and can be ordered
online in the same fashion as Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Mexican War,
and War Between the States files. It is important to indicate that the file
group, "Old War Pension Files - 1815-1926" be shown on the request.

-B
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• The Old Wars Pension Files by Bill Utterback <>