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04 July 2013

Widows Who Had to Prove

Did any sisters of your ancestors survive their husband who had military service? Would those ladies have qualified for a military pension based upon the service of their husband? If so, the "proof" of their marriage and relationship to the soldier may have included testimony from some of their relatives documenting the relationship.

It is always good to check out the siblings in any records, but pension records may contain unexpected family details.

3 comments:

  1. I didn't know about this until recently when I was indexing some of them for familysearch. You'll find spouse information and death information on the recipient of the pension..how much they got and how long.

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  2. I've seen pages from a Bible included in a pension application and other documentation and testaments from friends and family members included as well.

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  3. I found this out after I had written to almost every church in the County looking for the marriage and Baptism records. Then when I got the pension record of my Civil War ancestor, all of that documentation had been submitted by his widow to claim his pension. It took her 4 years to be okayed to receive the pension

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