Re: Alternative search questions?


I'm a new kid on the block and I need some help. Here is the problem:

Following my father's line, I followed MY grandfather to his father,
Edward. Well, I found a 1870 census of Edward as a child being
raised by his mother M. E. alone.

Now, how do I find out what "M. E." stands for, and what happened to
Edward's father? I was thinking I could go through civil war
pensions and see if he died during the war...but I don't know what
her name WAS! It's really starting to annoy me.

I have another from my mother's branch that dates to 1769 North
Carolina. I'm not finding anything on Ancestry. Where else can I
search for information on this ancestor?

Terrie Milligan


It /might/ be easier to make suggestions if you had mentioned what
state the 1870 census covered, or which state you think the man
served from, but ...

The Natinoal Park Service at
http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/
has a list of Civil War soldiers and sailors. It's about as
complete a list as you'll find, but there ARE people who aren't on
it.

Once you know the state from which he served -- and which side --
you can look for pensions; Confederates got state pensions and in my
experience all pensions are filed by the soldier's name, not the
widow; A Union soldier would have gotten a Federal pension.

Did you find the parental unit in the 1880 or 1860? Did you find a
marriage record for M E (almost guaranteed to give her name); Did
you find a different copy of the 1870 (1870 being one of the years
where there was an original and 2 hand-copies, the last of which
generally reduced to initials!)?

HTH

Cheryl

singhals <singhals@xxxxxxxxx>
.