Ordering Military Records May be Daunting

Local Brown County WW1 Veterans: Hershel Moberly - front 3rd from left, back row - Dan Lucas, Ben Morris, Charles Swift

We recently held one of our Genealogical Society meetings at our local Veterans Services building. When I called to ask if we could hold our meeting there we got a quick and positive response back that we were very welcome, and they would also like to attend the meeting. Our local Veterans Service officer, I’ll call him Mr. H, receives a lot of requests for genealogical help on Veteran ancestors. Mr. H. doesn’t know how to help them when it comes to doing genealogy, but he is of immense help when it comes to maneuvering through government bureaucracy. They are experts at handling requests for service records, pension records, and veterans’ benefits. The two former items are what we genealogists work with the most when it comes to doing research on our veteran family member.

Many of us that use the internet everyday have become experts at finding these records ourselves. There are those, although, that are still not completely internet savvy to do it themselves. That’s where we need an expert to help us wade through all the paperwork that is required to get those records. I, myself have ordered half a dozen pension files and service records on many of my family members that served their country.

All the while I am still trying to connect the paperwork back to each individual to prove my lineage to these soldiers. I’ll name some of the ones here that I have found in my family lines that were in service for their country.

Revolutionary War: Lawrence Conner, Edward Pedigo/Peregoy, John Booth, Peter Kinder
War of 1812: John Wiginton, William Roberts
Civil War: George Monroe Dunn, Claborn Brown, Eli Brown

These are just the ones in my straight line back that I have gotten records for. I have also collected the records for lateral lines such as brothers to my maternal lines. These records have been invaluable in helping to find new information on my family that could not be found anywhere else. If you have trouble finding these records on your own please pay a visit to your local veterans services, they can help.