If your relative lived through a war, try and determine how that war might have impacted their life. Did they serve? Were they drafted? Did any of their children serve? Did any relatives later receive a pension or bounty land? Did they contribute materially to the cause? Was their violence in the area where they lived?
There's more to war than service records.
On a genealogy mailing list some years ago, someone wanted to know why the South seemed to hold onto Civil War memories. My reply was that we could stand on the very spot where military action took place.
ReplyDeleteAlso, our ancestors passed down info about the hardships they went through while the war was taking place on their land. The women and children endured hardships while left at home with the husbands and sons away at war. It was said that my GGgrandfather's health was so ruined that when he returned home from the Civil war his wife and children did not recognize him as he came into their yard in Carroll Parish, Louisiana.
I have southern relatives who still refer to the Civil War as “The War of the Northern Aggression”.
ReplyDeleteHow do I sort through the hundreds of William Walkers in an attempt to see if any of them are mine?
ReplyDelete