The following article is the Introduction to “Part 4 – The Best Civil War Resources Centers for Local & County Research,” from the new book, Genealogical Resources of the Civil War Era by William Dollarhide. The book will be available from Family Roots Publishing Company by the end of May 2009. Please note the the following is technically “unedited” copy.
The Best Civil War Resource Centers for Local & County Research
by William Dollarhide
In Parts 1, 2, & 3, [Which will be in the book itself] we identified the genealogical resources of the Civil War era as found in ten statewide and ten nationwide resource groups. The chances of success in finding references to an ancestor in any of the twenty resource groups are quite good. But, there is one important piece of information that can lead to still more references. That information is the exact location of the residence of an ancestor. Understanding the place of residence just before the war, during the war, or just after the war, will lead to still more published records ̶ but records found at the local/county level, rather than the state or national level.
Local resources are those that were first created at a village, city, or town/township, usually as sub-groups of a county. County resources are those that originated at one of the 3,141 counties in the United States, and the original records may still be stored at a county courthouse or local repository. We use the nationwide and statewide resources to help us identify the county where an ancestor lived, and any follow-up research into the records there will almost always be a rewarding experience.
Some local and county resources may be identical to the resources found at the state level. In fact, the statewide resources were often originally created at the county level, then transferred to a state repository, such as county tax lists and other name lists transferred to a state archives. However, there are still countywide resources that are unique to that county, e.g., tax lists, cemetery indexes, newspaper obituaries, funeral home records, vital records, land records, and perhaps many more records traditionally maintained at a county courthouse.
Certain resources relate to one particular county (or surrounding area) during the Civil War era. For example, local regiments raised in one or more counties recorded name lists of enrollments, issuing of uniforms and weapons, and other details concerning the formation of a regiment. These unique records generated at the county level may have never been transferred to a state archives, and if not, they may be still sitting in a county courthouse or local repository. This will be true for both Union and Confederate counties.
In some states, specific Civil War records relate to the smallest local government units. For example, New York’s sixty-two counties are sub-divided into about 3,000 minor civil divisions, including towns, villages, and unincorporated communities. Generally, records created at one of the minor civil divisions come to rest at the county courthouse. Such was the case for one of the best Militia Lists for the Civil War era, the New York Town Clerk’s Registers (see example, RG 16, page 43). Fortunately, those Town Registers eventually were transferred from all New York counties to the state archives. But, other original records of the Civil War era may still be hiding at the New York town or county level.
Because of their ties to a particular county, some Civil War regiments may have historic records found in one county and nowhere else. For example, an obscure unpublished history of a regiment may have originated at the county, and the only copy of the manuscript may be in a local library, museum, college, or some other local repository.
To determine whether a county record exists that mentions an ancestor by name, the task is now one of taking an inventory of what is available within any county of interest.
Inventory Local & County Name Lists Online
Name lists of Civil War era residents from many of the American counties are found at specific county websites on the Internet. Included for the period 1861-1869 are possible censuses and tax lists, militia lists, regimental histories and name lists; or perhaps later veterans or pensioner databases.
As an example, inventory what is available online for Bourbon County, Kansas. Use your browser to search for the keywords “Bourbon County Kansas Genealogy.” A Google search for just those keywords linked together will present over 1,600 items in the results/hit list. To review them all becomes a rather daunting task because many of the hits are repeats, most of them dozens of times each. After perhaps hours of reviewing the Google hit list in more detail, the unique genealogy links to Bourbon County will be condensed to about 200 different websites. Unfortunately, a general browser search may take hours, yet still miss many genealogy-related webpages. Therefore, it may be better to conduct the search using a browser specific to genealogy.
Of several genealogy search engines available online, www.Linkpendium.com is probably the most comprehensive locality portal site for genealogy on the Internet today.
At Linkpendium, the search for Bourbon County, Kansas references, for example, will reveal over 330 direct links to databases with Bourbon County information. They are all organized as follows:
Linkpendium Categories
“Bourbon County Kansas Genealogy”
Projects:
● Bourbon County Information and Resources
● Bourbon County, Kansas
● Bourbon KS GenExchange
Adjacent counties:
● Allen County, KS to the west
● Anderson County, KS to the northwest
● Crawford County, KS to the south
● Linn County, KS to the north
● Neosho County, KS to the southwest
● Vernon County, MO to the east
Biographies, Oral Histories, Diaries, Memoirs, Genealogies, Correspondence:
● Bourbon County Biography Bibliography
● Bourbon County GEDCOM Index
● Fort Scott GEDCOM Index
Cemeteries: (12 databases)
Census Records and Indexes: (24 databases)
Directories:
● 1887 Bourbon County Farmers’ Directory
● Fort Scott City Directories
Estate Records:
● Bourbon County, Kansas Will Testators Index 1867
Immigration and Naturalization Records:
● Name Index to Naturalizations for District of
Kansas (1915-1967)
Introduction and Guides:
● Bourbon County Genealogy
● Bourbon County Kansas Genealogy, Resources for Family History Research
● Bourbon County Resources (RootsWeb)
● Cyndi’s List of Kansas locality links
Land Patent Search (BLM)
Libraries, Museums, Archives:
● Bourbon County
● Family History Library Holdings
● KSGenWeb Digital Library
● PERiodical Source Index Search, Bourbon County
●Southeast Kansas Library System SEKLS
Genealogy Bibliography
● USGenWeb Archives
Mailing Lists and Message Boards
●Bourbon County Genealogy Queries
● Bourbon County, KS
● GenForum Message
● RootsWeb Message
● KSBOURBO-L Bourbon County genealogy
● KSBOURBO-L Mailing List Homepage
● KSBOURBO-L Browsable Mailing List
Archives
● KSBOURBO-L Searchable Mailing List
Archives
Maps and Gazetteers: (16 digital documents)
Military Records and Histories:
● Pensioners on the Roll, 1 January 1883
Bourbon County
● World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-
1918 Bourbon
● Bourbon County, Kansas World War II
Casualties, Army and Army Air Corps
● World War II Casualties from Bourbon
County, Kansas
● World War II Honor List of Dead and Missing
● World War II Honor List of Dead and Missing
Personnel
Miscellaneous Data: (14 databases)
Newspaper Records:
● Bourbon County Obituaries and Funeral Home
Records
● Konantz-Cheney Funeral Home, Fort Scott,
Kansas
Photographs, Postcards, Historical Images:
● Bourbon County (Built in America) –
● Bourbon County (Kansas Memory)
● Bronson, Bourbon County Kansas and the West Photograph Collection
● Fort Scott Bourbon County Kansas and the West Photograph Collection
● Fort Scott, Kansas
● Garland, Kansas (Kansas Memory)
Historical Postcards of Bourbon County
● Marmaton (Kansas Memory)
● Penny Postcards from Kansas
School Records and Histories:
● Custard School (Kansas One Room School House Project)
● Gwin School (Kansas One Room School House Project)
● Rocky Point (Hog Holler) School (Kansas One Room School House Project)
Societies:
● Molly Foster Berry Chapter, DAR, Fort Scott
● Old Fort Genealogical Society of Southeastern Kansas
Surnames Websites, Obituaries, Biographies, and other material specific to a surname:
● Transportation and Industry
● Bourbon County Bridges
● Building histories of Bourbon County
● Extant Railroad/Railway Structures
● Mines, Mining and Mineral Resources
● Patents Bourbon County, Kansas
● Bourbon County Vital Records
● U.S. Federal Census Mortality Schedules,
1850-1880 Bourbon County, Kansas
At first look, it may appear that there is only one Civil War reference, that for the “1883 Pensioners on the Roll” under the Military Records and Histories category. However, note the array of name lists indicated in the other categories, such as biographies, censuses, deaths, burials, estates, land records, directories, obituaries, photos, school records, funeral homes, and more. Clearly, there is an abundance of references where Civil War era residents of Bourbon County, Kansas can be identified online.
Bourbon County, Kansas is a small county in population (about 16,000 in 2000), and the area is average in size by geographic area, or how far back the records may cover. Obviously, larger counties may have many more references listed in a Linkpendium search, as smaller counties will have less. This example indicates that there may be several references for virtually every county in the United States.
Inventory the Top Six Civil War Era Resource Centers
Continuing the inventory, we need to find any genealogical resources of the Civil War era in a library catalog. Which library catalog can be determined by knowing which libraries in the United States have the best collection of books, periodicals, documents, maps, or photographs relating to the Civil War era.
For this review, we have determined that the top resource centers are six very special facilities/institutions where Civil War materials can be found in great numbers. There are other very fine Civil War collections at the State Library or State Archives for virtually every state. The state facilities were identified in Part 3 ̶ Statewide Sources.
All of the top facilities listed below have online catalogs or good descriptions of their holdings. They all offer many search options for locating a local/county resource without leaving home. Included are three large libraries, two specialized military collections, and several Civil War parks. Some are best visited in person, but all have Internet websites describing their holdings. The most important Civil War resource centers can be identified as the following:
- Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.
- Allen County Public Library, Fort Wayne, Indiana.
- Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
- Union Unit Histories at the Military History Institute of the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.
- Confederate Unit Histories at the Historical Research Center of the Texas Heritage Museum, Hill College, Hillsboro, Texas.
- Historical & Civil War Parks of the National Park Service.
A recent blog expanded information about No. 5, Confederate Unit Histories at Hill College, Texas, A future blog will expand information about No. 4. Union Unit Histories, Military History Institute, Carlisle Barracks, PA.