United States, Civil War and Later Pension Index - FamilySearch Historical Records

United States

What is in This Collection?
Organization Index to Pension Files of Veterans who Served Between 1861 and 1900 on NARA microfilm publication T289 part of Record Group 15 Records of the Veterans Administration. The most of the index cards pertain veterans in the Civil War veterans. Other pension records included are for the of the Spanish-American conflict, Indian wars, the Philippine insurrection, and World War I. Index courtesy of Fold3. The pension files are located in the National Archives in Washington, D.C.

What Can This Collection Tell Me?
The Civil War pension index includes the following information:


 * Name of the person claiming the pension
 * Service record of the soldier, including rank, company, and regiment
 * Enlistment date
 * Discharge date
 * Date pension was filed
 * Whether an invalid, widow, or minor
 * Application number
 * Certificate number
 * Additional service information, including company and regiment
 * Death date of the veteran
 * Death place of the veteran

How Do I Search This Collection?
To begin your search you will need to know:
 * The full name of your ancestor
 * The approximate age and birth place of your ancestor
 * The state and county of residence for your ancestor
 * The approximate dates your ancestor served in the Civil War

Search by Name by visiting the Collection Page: Fill in the requested information on the search page. This search will return a list of possible matches. Compare the information about the individuals in the list to what you already know about your ancestors to determine if this is the correct family or person. You may need to look at the information on several individuals comparing the information about them to your ancestors to make this determination. Keep in mind:


 * There may be more than one person in the records with the same name
 * You may not be sure of your own ancestor’s name
 * Your ancestor may have used different names, or variations of their name, throughout their life
 * If your ancestor used an alias or a nickname, be sure to check for those alternate names
 * Even though these indexes are very accurate they may still contain inaccuracies, such as altered spellings, misinterpretations, and optical character recognition errors if the information was scanned

What Do I Do Next?
When you have located your ancestor in the pension index, carefully evaluate each piece of information given. These pieces of information may give you new biographical details that can lead you to other records about your ancestors. Add this new information to your records of each family. This information will often lead you to other records.

I Found the Person I Was Looking For, What Now?

 * Use the age to calculate an approximate birth date.
 * Use the birth date or age along with the residence or place of birth of the deceased to locate census, church, and land records.
 * Compile the entries for every person who has the same surname as the deceased; this is especially helpful in rural areas or if the surname is unusual.
 * Continue to search the records to identify children, siblings, parents, and other relatives who may have been seeking the pension.
 * When looking for a person who had a common name, look at all the entries for the name before deciding which is correct.

I Can't Find the Person I'm Looking For, What Now?

 * Look for variant spellings of the names. You should also look for alias names, nicknames and abbreviated names.
 * Try alternative search methods such as only filling in the surname search box (or the given name search box) on the landing page leaving the other box empty and then click on search. This should return a list of everyone with that particular name. You could then browse the list for individuals that may be your ancestor.

Known Issues With This Collection
For a full list of all known issues associated with this collection see the attached Wiki article. If you encounter additional problems, please email them to [mailto:support@familysearch.org support@familysearch.org]. Please include the full path to the link and a description of the problem in your e-mail. Your assistance will help ensure that future reworks will be considered.

Citing This Collection
Citing your sources makes it easy for others to find and evaluate the records you used. When you copy information from a record, list where you found that information. Here you can find citations already created for the entire collection and for each individual record or image.

"United States Civil War and Later Pension Files, 1861-1917." Database. FamilySearch. http://FamilySearch.org : accessed 2017. Citing "Organization Index to Pension Files of Veterans Who Served Between 1861 and 1900." Fold3.com. http://www.fold3.com : n.d.
 * Collection Citation:

Top of Page