U.S. Military Records Tips





There are three major genealogical classifications of U.S. military records: 
Service records, pension records and bounty-land records.  You may find your 
ancestor in all or none of them.


SERVICE RECORDS -- consist primarily of enlistment and discharge papers, muster 
rolls, attendance and activity reports. They may give a description of the soldier, 
his age and birth place; often provide information about battles that he was involved 
in and date of death, if it occurred while he was in service. Sometimes you will 
find his wife's and/or parents' names.


PENSION RECORDS -- consist of applications for monetary assistance by veterans or 
their families when the veteran was elderly, injured, sick , incapacitated or dead. 
These records often provide birthdate and birthplace of the veteran, his death date 
and place, names of his children, including their birth dates,  his marriage date  
and place and maiden name of wife. Sometimes you will find information on his parents 
or other relatives, biographical, medical and historical information about him.


BOUNTY-LAND RECORDS -- consists of applications for land offered before 1856 as a 
service benefit. Bounty land was offered to all who served, not just those who were 
injured, sick or incapacitate as pensions required.  Bounty-land records often contains 
same type of genealogical information found in pension records. 


You can obtain NATF Form 80, the forms required for these records, by writing to 
the National Archives, 7th and Pennsylvania Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20408. Or 
you can order them on-line from the Genealogy Home Page under "Sights at Genealogical 
Sites" (click on National Archives).  Request several copies. They are free, and you 
may need to request a search in each of these three records for your ancestors. 
If records are found, National Archives charges $10 for the search and photocopies 
of the records.