Do you have an ancestor who served for the union during the civil war? If so, have you retrieved a ‘full’ copy of the military and pension files? When I first started researching my family history, I would send a request for a copy of these files to the National Archives. Little did I know, but if one did not request a copy of the entire file, they would pick out parts of the file to fulfil the request.
One of those ‘partial’ files in my genealogy collection is the file for John Reed and his wife, Mary. Having used the services of Brad Quinlin last year to obtain copies of the military files for my 2nd great grandfathers, I took advantage of his most recent trip to Washington, D.C. and hired him to get me a copy of John Reed‘s military, pension and medical records from his service during the civil war.
Even though these files are rather thin when compared to other files I’ve obtained, there is a lot of information buried in them. One important document in the pension file is an affidavit from Jennings county, Indiana regarding the marriage of John Reed and Mary Rogers.
License issued December 2d 1922 to John Reed to May Rogers Married by Thomas Hill a Minister of the Gospel December 9th 1822
The State of Indiana
County of Jennings
I Abram Wagner Clerk of the Jennings Circuit Court in and for said County do hereby certify that the above and foregoing is a true ful and complete copy of the marriage licensed [+c] issued to John Reed to Mary Rogers ad fully as appears of record in my office
In witness whereof I hereunto affix the seal of said Court and subscribe my name at the City of Vernon this seven 7th day of April 1870
Abram Wagner Clk
If you have a civil war soldier in your tree, you might want to consider obtaining a copy of their records since a variety of family information can be found in the documents.
I first learned of Brad Quinlin and his research trips to the National Archives thru a post of his to the Facebook group: Descendants of Andersonville. He recently posted that he is planning another trip for this coming June. Below is a link to the FB post, but it may not work for people who are not members of the group.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/113696832149138/user/100032931795437/
