Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) – 5 – Records on Ancestry.com

This post is the fifth in a series of posts is about how to locate record the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR). The first post contains information about the GAR.

To use the GAR records on Ancestry.com, start at the Card Catalog. From the Search menu, select Card Catalog.

 

 

In the Keyword(s) field type: Grand Army of the Republic.

 

 

Click the Search button.

 

 

From the results list, you can select an individual database to search.

Click on New York, Grand Army of the Republic Records 1866-1931.

 

 

I scanned the listings in the Browse this collection section and did not see the Gowanda Chapter for the ancestor. When I used surnames from the family in the Last Name field there were no results. So, I entered a county of residence.

 

 

This search returned the names of all the individuals who were listed as living in Cattaraugus County, New York in these records. I will use other techniques to search for Tingues in the databases, just in case there were issues with indexing.

Good luck with your searches!

 

Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) – 4 – Records Project of the SUVCW

This post is the fourth in a series of posts is about how to locate record the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR). The first post contains information about the GAR.

The Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, mentioned in a previous blog post about the GAR, have an ongoing project to populate a database with the locations of available GAR records for every chapter. It is the GAR Records Project.

From that page, you can select “Explore the GAR by state”.

I clicked on New York.

Following the other links on the page led me to some interesting websites. There is a website with digitized records for one post. Another website contains information about GAR posts in New York organized by county.

There was a listing for the GAR chapter in Gowanda.

There is also a link to a listing of GAR posts in New York State.

Click on the GAR Records Catalog.

From here you can download the pdf document (using the icon with the downward arrow).

Alternately, you can go Selecting the “Go Directly to the Catalog”. As of this blog post, the database was last updated in November 2015.

Select your state on the tab on the bottom opens a spreadsheet for the state.

Some of the records show that they have been digitized and are available at Ancestry.com.

But there is no record for the Gowanda Post #359.

I did copy all of the spreadsheet into an Excel document, but the cells had to be reformatted to see all the text. The spreadsheet is presented by a script, so there were some issues saving the page.

Give this website a try and let me know how you do!

Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) – 3 – NY State Archives

This post is the third in a series of posts is about how to locate record the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR). The first post contains information about the GAR.

The New York State Archives holds the organizational records of the GAR in New York State.

There are fourteen categories of records that a post might have, but the Archives are cautioned that all categories are rarely available for each chapter. We are also told that the focus of these records is the disbandment of posts from the 1920s to 1940s. Since there is no name index, you first have to find the chapter that to which your ancestor would have belonged.

You can use this list of GAR posts in New York State.

In Cattaraugus County, there was a Gowanda chapter.

Since Gowanda is in both Cattaraugus and Erie Counties, I checked the listings for Erie County, but found no other chapter.

So using the search at the NYSA.

 

I searched for: Gowanda and had 0 results.

Next I searched for the Chapter number, 359. I got 2 results, but was disappointed that items online was not one of them. There were 2 results, but it was disappointing that none was in items online.

 

 

Selecting Subseries 8

I saw that the Post Charter Application for Post 358 is held.

The next arrow took me to the next result in Subseries 9

I searched for Post 359, and they have it:

Since these are from 1922 – 1942, there are probably not of interest to me.

I did click on the Items Online to view what the NY State Archives had online about the GAR. There was one image, GAR photograph, William Murrell.

Look for your your state archives in this list from NARA, and check the archives for GAR information. Good luck with your searches!

Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) – 2 – The GAR Museum

This post is the second in a series of posts is about how to locate record the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR). The first post contains information about the GAR.

The Grand Army of the Republic Museum and Library is located in Philadelphia, PA, and has limited hours of operation.

 

There is a research and archives library available at the museum that advertises over 6,000 books, magazines, pamphlets, newspapers, and original source documents. You must make an appointment to view them.

There are Finding aids for the Library.

 

 

Click on the record set to get more information, or download the pdf for the information.

Pay attention to the Abstract, The Scope and Contents.

 

 

The Museum’s Archive Library holds several collections of Post materials, and not all of the posts are located in Pennsylvania.

Good luck in your searching!

Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) – 1 – Background

In this series of blog posts, you will learn where to look for Grand Army of the Republic  records.

The Grand Army of the Republic was a fraternal organization founded in Founded in Decatur, Illinois on April 6, 1866 by Benjamin F. Stephenson. It was open to Union veterans of the Civil War. The veterans served in the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, Marines and the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service (became the Coast Guard). There were hundreds of posts across the U.S., numbered in sequential order of as they were admitted. The GAR grew powerful politically. From 1866 to 1949. There were over 7000 posts with more than 400,000 members by 1890. There was a “National Encampment” annually; many states also had encampments each year. You may see a GAR insignia on a Union veteran’s tombstone, or a nearby marker.

Five U.S. presidents were GAR members: Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James Garfield, Benjamin Harrison and William McKinley.

Its last member died in 1956, its mission was taken over by the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW). The SUVCW was founded in 1881, and is dedicated to the preservation of the history and legacy of these veterans.

There are fourteen categories of records that a post might have. The materials may provide information about the members’ war service and postwar activities. The Post Descriptive books contain information about the members, including birthplace, residence, occupation, service information, discharge information, wounds and other remarks. There were also ledger books, cash books, letters books and minutes books. A brief description of the GAR records can be found at What is A GAR Record?

Your Civil War Union ancestors may have been members of the GAR. Unless you find indexed records, you will need to know the ancestor’s: 1) Name, and 2) Post Number. Knowing the regiment and company will also be helpful to make sure you have located the correct veteran. There are different ways to find the post number. Consider looking for a post located in your ancestor’s town; check the Mortuary tables for the membership; or check an obituary. Once you find the post number, you have to find where the records reside.

Read on to the next posts to learn how to look for these records.