Jim, That does answer part of my Question. I guess I just had it in my head that the index cross-indexed the State records for confederate soldiers too; I did not know the online CW index was just for U.S. Soldiers. Since almost all my confederate relatives crossed the lines and rejoined the Union, I didn't think anything of it. That would definitely explain why I couldn't find the John Wehunt in the GA confederate pension index book at the library. He had to have rejoined a Union Unit. Still, do you know if there is an easy way to tell the difference between CW pensioners and SAW pensioners. NARA says that the index contains both group of veterans and that the writing in the upper corner indicates that information, but the images at Ancestry are not quite good enough to determine that. I guess you have to go by the date a pension was filed for. Thanks, you opened my eyes a little and now maybe it will be easier to see what I'm looking for when I find it. Keith Bailey ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jim Gilmer" <jimgilmer@alaweb.com> > Keith, > > I'm not sure if this is what your are asking, but the pensions you find in > ancestry.com that come from NARA are all union veterans, as the United > States Government only awarded pensions for CW veterans who fought on the > union side. > > Confederate veterans had to apply to the state where they were living at the > time of application; each southern state administered its own pension, with > its own rules. So you have to find confederate pensions at the archives of > the respective state where you think the confederate veteran/widow applied > from. These are not on line at ancestry.