Serving Their Country

Throughout the decades the census would ask questions about military service.  Here’s a summary.

• 1840-Is there a Revolutionary Pensioner in the household?
• 1910-Are you a veteran of the Civil War?  Union or Confederate?
• 1930-Are you a veteran?  Which war?
• 1940-supplementary questions-Are you a veteran or the spouse, widow, or child of a veteran?  Is that veteran still living?  What war did they serve in?
• 1950-supplementary questions-Did you serve during World War I, in World War II, other service?

As you can see, these questions varied a lot and depended on the time period covered by each census.  I have not mentioned the 1890 Veterans Schedule, we’ll discuss that when we talk about the non-population schedules.  When looking for Revolutionary War veterans in the 1840 census, it’s important to remember that the people listed are only pensioners, not every veteran.

Going Further

While these questions, for the most part, only tell you if your ancestor served their country in the military or not, that can be a valuable piece of information.  Records on veterans abound, occurring in many forms, such as pension documents, military rosters, draft registrations, unit reports, discharge forms, and written records of major conflicts.

The most likely place to find these records is Fold 3.  Fold 3 is a separate genealogy database devoted mainly to military records, although it does contain some others.  It also contains many unit histories, primarily of the Civil War.  If you find out your veteran served in the military, this should be your first stop.

More Options

If you are looking for options besides Fold 3, they are there.  FamilySearch has a wiki page giving links to military records, both for the United States and for the rest of the world.  Many state archives will have military records on people who served from their state, and there are many collections on the large genealogy websites that have veterans from different states, or collections containing individual records, like draft registrations.  There are also many digitized books that cover soldiers that served from different locations and different wars.

One good website to check if you are looking for Revolutionary War ancestors is the DAR Genealogical Research Database.  By entering the name of your suspected patriot the search will give you the names of Revolutionary War soldiers and sailors that are in their system.

Moving On

We’ve been examining the population schedule of the U.S. census, 1850-1950, for over a year, and it’s time to move on!  Next we will take a brief stop at the population schedule for 1790-1840, then on to the non-population schedules.  You won’t believe the secrets they contain!