United States Military Old Soldiers Home Records

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Old Soldiers Home Records
Congress provided for national homes for disabled veterans starting in 1851, and again in 1865. Veterans were eligible for admittance if they were honorably discharged; had served in the regular, volunteer, or militia forces mustered into federal service; were disabled and without support; and were unable to earn a living. In 1930 the national homes were combined with other agencies to form the Veterans Administration (now the Department of Veteran Affairs). The homes were officially known as the National Military Home, and informally known as the Old Soldiers Home.

For more detailed history, see the Wikipedia article National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, and Trevor K. Plante, "The National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers," Prologue: Journal of the National Archives, Spring 2004, vol. 36, No. 1. [FHL Book 973 B2p].

Also, some states established their own state-run homes for veterans.

Soldier home registers are usually divided into four sections: military, domestic, home, and general remarks. The military section includes information such as enlistment, rank, company, regiment, and discharge. The domestic section includes the veteran’s birthplace, age, height, religion, occupation, residence, marital status, and name and address of nearest relative. The home section includes the veteran’s rate of pension, date of admission to the home, discharge, death date, and burial place.

Some reports published by the Board of Managers for the National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers contain alphabetical rosters of soldiers. The rosters provide name, rank, company, organization, length of service, war, pension rate, birthplace, admission date, age when admitted, and status (including death date).

The Family History Library has microfilms of the following:


 * Registers of Veterans at National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, 1866–1937. (On 282 FHL films starting with 1546167.) The registers are indexed individually by the name of the veteran for each home. Upon admission each veteran was given a number. The registers are arranged numerically by these numbers. To find specific microfilm numbers, look in the Place Search of the Family History Library Catalog under:


 * UNITED STATES - MILITARY RECORDS.

State Homes
Many states also maintained soldier homes as well. The Family History Library also has records for some state homes, including:


 * Georgia Index to registers of inmates of the Confederate Soldiers Home of Georgia (2 FHL fillms 1445835-36)
 * Louisiana Register books, 1884-1934; index, 1905-1944 (5 FHL films beginning with 1685399 Items 5-6)
 * Michigan Applications for admission, 1885-1960 (75 FHL films beginning with 925040), and Historical register of inhabitants, 1885-1927 (10 FHL films beginning with 925039)
 * Ohio Admission records of veterans of wartime United States military service, 1888-1919 (8 FHL films starting with 928927)
 * Missouri Confederate pension applications and soldiers' home admission applications (27 FHL films starting with 1021101)
 * Pennsylvania Philadelphia soldier's home records, 1866-1883 (FHL film 1032842 Items 4-6), and Pennsylvania soldiers and sailors homes, 1864-1872 (FHL film 1032842 Item 3)
 * Tennessee Judith A. Strange, The Tennessee Confederate Soldier's Home : marching out of the mist into the light, roster one and roster two, The Tennessee Confederate Veterans' Home (Goodlettsville, Tenn.: Tennessee Tracers, 1996) [FHL book 976.8 M2s].
 * Texas Roster of the residents of the Texas Confederate Old Soldier's Home in Austin, Texas (FHL film 1689628)
 * Virginia Applications for admission, 1884-1941 (40 FHL films beginning with 2026354), and Registers of residents, 1885-1939 (FHL film 2109655 Items 1 - 3)

External References

 * Cyndi's List Veterans' or Soldiers' Homes