First this is what I found in the Florida State Archives: Joseph J. Biggs born March 29th, 1845 in Shelby County, Tennessee He enlisted about the last of February 1864 at Bolivar, Hardiman,Tennessee into Company "K" 12th Tennessee Calvary his Captain Jasper McFadden. His captain when he was discharged was J.T. Biggs He served until surrender in Alabama (can't make out the city) And received no wounds. Has been a citizen of the State of Florida since June 1885. Residing in Palmetto, Manatee County, Florida on the 21st day of March A.D. 1908 when he was approved for Pension. On October 20th, 1911 a Miss Annie E. Biggs wrote a letter requesting the return of her father's pension claim she wanted the papers to help her join a group (looks like) D.C.W. Her signature and Box number are at the bottom of the small lined note paper. They denied her in a letter dated October 25th, 1911. I found this info from this link http://fpc.dos.state.fl.us/memory/ This is the start page, there are some great links from this page but from this start page I clicked "Collections" it brings up another great page with various collections online including Florida Confederate Pension Application Files. Click there and start your search. Joseph J Biggs had 11 images of original documents- great stuff ! Recently I was helping someone find some info and found out that not everyone knows the wealth of info that is online provided by state and local government. Well not every state has Pension files. But almost every state that I have done research in has a State Library and or Archives page. Many counties these days have searchable data online. For court records you want to find the County Clerk, she/he is responsible for this information. Some counties have found that Lawyers and their researchers use these sites to obtain info so some info has turned into a business. Many times you can pay per hit or document this is a great thing if a trip to that court house would cost more. Most of these sites are easily found by a search engine like yahoo or google. I always use the county, state format (spell out the state) followed by the word government , ex: Broward County, Florida government. Of course this will turn up an endless number of sites. Browse the key words, don't wast! e time with tourism sites, you want sites with the word government, taxes, courts or county clerks. It's not hard to get the hang of it. I have quite a few links saved for counties and state libraries and archives if anyone would like to ask I'd be happy to oblige. If you live in a state with a Clayton Library you will never regret visiting it. My Clayton library is in Houston, TX while I was there I got a Houston Public Library Card. I certainly don't regret having that card. There is many online resources for card holders. Heritage Quest Online is free to search for card holders, newspapers and the endless digitized books on Genealogies. Library Cards...a good thing. Colleges and Universities have libraries with online data. And if the county or state you need info from doesn't have info check back, because they are all changing. One county changed literally overnight on me. Good Luck everyone and I hope this Joseph J Biggs is of interest to someone. "Tip Toe through the tullips, careful not to trip over the daisies, only to stop and smell the roses." -Briana Griffin Etie