http://www.houstonlibrary.com/clayton/cd002.html Here's the url! Another place to look for information which will assist you in narrowing down where this ancestor lived is find out where his wife went to church, there are records there, usually the nearest church is located nearby where people live. Then, within the town his wife was living there is usually a newspaper and cemetery. There is often times someone who can be contacted at the cemetery who can look where his wife was buried, where is not too far from where he was buried. Two excellent sources to find information you never dreamed of existing comes from these two books: "Printed Sources: A Guide to Published Genealogical Records," edited by Kory L. Meyerink ISBN # 0916489701 and "Hidden Sources: Family History in Unlikely Places," by Laura Sxucs Pfeiffer ISBN # 0916489868 Rhonda Houston -----Original Message----- From: Rhonda Houston [mailto:rfhouston@mindspring.com] Sent: Tuesday, October 02, 2001 3:09 PM To: IL-CIVIL-WAR-L@rootsweb.com; DEBSTER13@webtv.net Subject: RE: [IL-CIVIL-WAR] new to group Debs, If you can pinpoint around when he died, the county and state in which HIS WIFE lived/passed away in that might give you a window to look through to pin him down. There are city directories for the areas in which these people lived, and according to an article published by the Houston (Texas) Public Library online, Clayton Library for Genealogical Research, authored by Trevia Wooster Beverly who said that "Directories are among the most valuable tools available for urban research, especially for the period 1780-1860, when cities like Baltimore, Boston, New York and Philadelphia became magnets for immigrants newly arrived from Europe and for rural families seeking employment in urban industries." These directories were created up until the turn of the century for most towns and these old directories are kept within the public libraries and often the genealogical/historical societies who reside within the library or nearby take great pride in perserving and sharing the information within these. If you know the county in which his wife lived, you could go back some years and look for their residence. These genealogical/historical societies frequently have volunteers who will assist with this task. Rhonda Houston -----Original Message----- From: debs [mailto:DEBSTER13@webtv.net] Sent: Sunday, September 30, 2001 10:37 PM To: IL-CIVIL-WAR-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [IL-CIVIL-WAR] new to group Hi all. My gr-gr Grandfather fought in the Civil war, and I have just recently started to look into how to go about finding records for him. Unfortunately I don't even know what state he enlisted in. It's most likely IL, or IN. He also has a common name which isn't helping. I'm not exactly clear how the Civil War pensions worked. Were pensions given to all soldiers, or just to the family of men that died? We know my g-g-grandfather was wounded. He was shot in the soldier, but lived and was able to still work and support his family. My Mother has said he died of lead poisoning from shrapnel that wasn't removed, but I don't know how accurate that is. I have been able to get ahold of the death cert. for his wife, and on it is her exact house address. Is there anyway to find the civil war records from knowing where the pensions were last being sent? (That is if she even received it.) If so, where can I send for this info? debs