> And Phil replies, Yes, BUT, When I received My GG Grandfather's > Pension file IT Listed ALL Eight of his Children, ALL Three of His > wives, WITH Dates of Birth Death and Marriages, EVEN Where ....... > SO You can not say That the Goverment will do one thing and Only one > thing, YOU must Remember This!!, You are dealing with the US of A > Goverment structure, Do Not assume ANYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, Phil > (who by the way has a total of 5 Pension files for his families!!!) > > "Phil Stevens" <joephil@nwlink.com> I too have gathered five pension files. From comparison of their child listings against census records, I have found that not one gives complete dates of birth for all the pensioner's children, but all five give full dates of marriage, often with an affidavit from the minister or magistrate who officiated. Only one fails to give a death date for all wives (and in that case the pension was dropped for "Failure to claim"). Legally, the recording of all marriages and wives' deaths is as justified as the requirement for full dates of birth of surviving children under 16 years of age. The pension board had to be certain that the pensioner had only one wife surviving to press a widow's claim. Because children's eligibility was highly limited, however, one is less likely to find information on them in the pension file. In the census I saw one child who would have been eligible for government support had she only outlived her father. His pension file does not mention her at all. It's nice to see a family record fully entered in a pension file; I just don't think it advisable to bet on it. Austin W. Spencer P. S. My address is properly AustinWSpencer@cox.net; the sdc was added somewhere between me and Methods, possibly by my ISP. I don't have this problem with e-mail or GenForum. But I prefer to read responses on the newsgroup anyhow. [ The address mangling is almost surely happening inside of cox.net. Usually this occurs when someone has incorrectly configured the mail transfer agent's "masquerading" on the USENET News server or on an internal mail relay. (Note that *moderated* newsgroup posts actually travel as ordinary e-mail to the moderator.) -Mod (who has been doing system administration since 1974) ] "Austin W. Spencer" <AustinWSpencer@cox.net>