This book reveals how to track the names inscribed on weapons and other equipment back to their origins in the Civil War. Using available state and federal records--anyone can find out the facts of a Civil War soldier's life and fill in the gaps in his family's history. 16 photos.

Have you wondered if someone in your family served in the U.S. Civil War? Are you curious to learn more about an ancestor who fought for the Union or Confederate side? This book, written by a professional historian and genealogist, provides step-by-step instructions detailing how to * determine which of your ancestors might have worn the blue or grey uniform * find information specific to your soldier ancestor * make sense of the documents you uncover * turn your research into a story that your entire family will enjoy. Filled with examples from real historical documents, Discover the Story of Your Civil War Soldier Ancestor, is a must-have for any family historian, genealogist, or Civil War enthusiast.

This easy-to-understand guide through a maze of research possibilities is for any genealogist who has Mississippi ancestry. It identifies the many official state records, incorporated community records, related federal records, and unofficial documents useful in researching Mississippi genealogy. Here the contents of these resources are clearly described, and directions for using them are clearly stated. Tracing Your Mississippi Ancestors also introduces many other helpful genealogical resources, including detailed colonial, territorial, state, and local materials. Among official records are census schedules, birth, marriage, divorce, and death registers, tax records, military documents, and records of land transactions such as deeds, tract books, land office papers, plats, and claims. In addition to noting such frequently used sources as Confederate Army records, this guidebook leads the researcher toward lesser-known materials, such as passenger lists from ships, Spanish court records, midwives' reports, WPA county histories, cemetery records, and information about extinct towns. Since researching forebears who belong to minority groups can be a difficult challenge, this book offers several avenues to discovering them. Of special focus are sources for locating African American and Native American ancestors. These include slave schedules, Freedman's Bureau papers, Civil War rolls, plantation journals, slave narratives, Indian census records, and Indian enrollment cards. To these specialized resources the authors of Tracing Your Mississippi Ancestors append an annotated bibliography of published and unpublished genealogical materials relating to Mississippi. Including over 200 citations, this is by far the most comprehensive list ever given for researching Mississippi genealogy. In addition, all of Mississippi's local, county, and state repositories of genealogical materials are identified, but because most documents for tracing Mississippi ancestors are found at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, the authors have made the state archival collection in Jackson the focus of this book.