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.

Researching the Merchant Marine

During my talk about military archives at the Howard County Genealogical Society, the question came up about researching Merchant Marines.

Some brief research was educational. I learned that the U.S. Merchant Marine has no official historians and researchers. The Merchant Marine predates the U.S. Navy (13 October 1775), the U.S. Marines (10 November 1775) and the U.S. Coast Guard (formerly the Revenue Cutter Service was founded on (4 August 1790)). On 12 June 1775, a party of Maine mariners in an unarmed lumber schooner captured the HMS Margaretta, which was a fully armed British warship.

The mariners involved in “ocean-going service” during World War II do have Veteran Status. They may be entitled to a gravestone, a flag for their coffin, and burial in a National Cemetery. Merchant Mariners who served during other wars do not have this recognition. For more information, see the information at http://www.usmm.org/contact.html

Remember to make a timeline for your ancestor and gather information about the ships and their history while the ancestor served.

I recommend the resources at the American Merchant Marine at War website. These are the links that would be good starting places:

 

1) American Merchant Marine at War

http://www.usmm.org/

This website is dedicated to those Mariners who died during U.S. wars, and contains many links to valuable research material about the Merchant Marines. This website covers a lot of ground, including history and links to help a researcher dig farther into researching their Merchant Mariner and ships. You can also purchase gift items or make donations to support the website.

 

2) American Merchant Marine at War Records and Contact Information

http://www.usmm.org/contact.html

This page has the contact information for service records for mariners and ships.

However, do check the website for more history and historical documents.

 

3) Frequently Asked Questions about the Merchant Marine

http://www.usmm.org/faq.html

This list of frequently asked questions is a great gathering of information about the Merchant Marine including the background about the people, the history, the wartime casualties, and how to join.

 

4) One page Information Sheet Handout about WWII Merchant Marine

http://www.usmm.org/infomm.pdf

This pdf document is a one page summary of how the U.S. Merchant Marine made victory possible in WWII.

Using the USAHEC Tutorials

If you have had ancestors in the military, using military archives can be a research destination. You may find information about your ancestor, but it is more that your ancestor’s name will not be indexed. It is more likely you will locate collections and documents that contain information about the time and unit that where your ancestor served. In turn, these may contain references to your ancestor. At there very least, they will provide insights into the times and places your ancestor inhabited.

After a visit to the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center (USAHEC), described in a previous blog post, I created these tutorials to capture what I had learned.

The main way to search for holdings is to use the Reference Bibliographies, described here. Use these Bibliographies as a finding aid to locate resources relevant to your ancestors at the USAHEC. You may discover that there are collections of images available for your ancestors time and possibly from the group with which he or she served. In my tutorial, you can learn to use the entries bibliographies and look for digital copies of the books.

When you are ready to narrow down your search to the Library and Digital Collections use this tutorial.

An amazing holding is the Veterans Surveys. These documents have been completed by Veterans to capture their own story of service. Copies of the survey form are available at USAHEC and can filled out by any veteran. The tutorial for locating the Veterans Surveys is located here.

After finding holdings that may contain data, in collections that are not online, you will have to visit the facility to view them. That will be covered in upcoming blog posts.