I have not seen any early military record that included next of kin. I have state and federal records on Civil War folks and there is no next of kin listed anywhere. The purpose of a certified copy, I assume, would be for DAR or some such. No point that I can see in this case. The material on the Black Hawk War is, apparently from Ellen Whitney's 'The Black Hawk War, 1831-32,' Vol 1. Other published works include [no, I don't know where you can find them]: Isaac Elliott, 'Record of the Services of Illinois Soldiers in the Black Hawk War....' Springfield: H. W. Rokker, 1902 Illinois Adjutant General's Office, 'Record of the Services of Illinois Soldiers in the Black Hawk War...' Springfield: H. W. Rokker, 1882 You could check the LDS web site for their card catalog and see if any of these books are available in SLC. The National Archives Military Reference Branch under RG 94 Adjutant General's Office has military records for the period 1780's-1917. As I understand it these records are only available in DC in the same building but separate from the main National Archives. I could find nothing in 'Printed Sources' on records of this war. Cheryl Rothwell LoganCty@mindspring.com Coordinator, Logan County, ILGenWeb Project http://www.rootsweb.com/~illogan/loindex.htm Logan County mailing list> LOGAN-L-request@rootsweb.com Downing mailing list> DOWNING-L-request@rootsweb.com Harding mailing list> HARDING-L-request@rootsweb.com Downing query board> http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/FamilyAssoc/Downing Lucas query board> http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/FamilyAssoc/Lucas