"Austin W. Spencer" wrote: > > > Hello Richard and list. You have made an assumption that is > > wrong. I never said that a pension was paid for the childern under > > any age. I said: the childern of my GGrandfather were listed BY > > birth date and place AND by the mothers >>>>>>>> ALL THREE of them, > > eight children in All. HE applied for a pension in 1898. The > > question asked was "How many children do you have", he then lists > > them ALL!!!!, Phil > > > > "Phil Stevens" <joephil@nwlink.com> > > Phil, this repetition is getting tiresome. Yes, your great- > grandfather left a pension file with an uncommonly full description > of his wives and children. Does this mean that our readers can and > should expect the same from any given pension file search? Once > again, I say no. For the third time this month, by my count. It is however something that MANY files do contain, and the possibility that it might be there makes it well worth getting the file. > Finally, without consulting other sources, how can you be certain > that these eight are all the children that your great-grandfather > had? As in a case that I cited recently, children might have been > passed over because they died very young. Moreover, even your > great-grandfather may have suffered from faulty memory when he > reported his children's births to the pension board or compiled the > record of births in the family bible. (Families were known to > compile their bible records after the births of several children and > to estimate birth dates from ages -- and thereby get them wrong.) > For this reason it is still advisable to seek original, independent > birth or baptismal records, if available, or confirmation of > parentage elsewhere. Checking from another source is a given. I have my gggf's pension file in front of me, and it gives a WEALTH of information, including that he joined up underage (lied about his age), was discharged on a writ of hebeas corpus from his mother, skipped states and joined up again under a slightly different name, and that he was invalided out aged 25, and drew a pension for nearly 50 years! In January 1915 the Bureau of Pensions sent out a questionaire including the following question; State the names and dates of birth of all your children living or dead. Dave Mayall <dave@research-group.co.uk>