My friends - Tonight, we will close out another week's data postings with the beginning of a group of postings in the "Tips" series that will be concerned with some of the lesser known records held in the National Archives. We are going to begin with Record Group 94 - Records of the Adjutant General's Office, 1780-1917. This initial post will deal with the generalities of RG 94, and, in later posts in this series, we will discuss some of the unique records contained in this huge collection. The Adjutant General's Office has received, maintained and held records, orders and correspondence of the Army. It houses almost all of the records concerned with the military establishment, its personnel, commands, special collections and non-current records of bureaus of the former War Department. Records kept by the Office of the Adjutant General in a custodial capacity include those from the Revolutionary War, captured records of the Confederacy, papers of the U.S.Christian Commission, as well as captured records of the Philippine insurgency. In addition records were kept for the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, Office of the Provost-Marshall Marshall General, and some others which would be of lesser value to genealogists. Associations between the Adjutant General's Office and other groups, such as the Record & Pension Office and the War Records Office existed for many years. The Record and Pension office was merged into the Adjutant General's Office in 1904. This is significant, because that Record & Pension Office held records concerning individuals who fought in wars ranging from the Revolutionary War through the Spanish-American War, and these records were "inherited" by the Adjutant General's Office due to the merging of the two entities. What sorts of unusual and potentially valuable records are in RG 94? Here are only a few examples: -Certificates of Disability - 1812-1899 - contains certificates issued by surgeons recommending discharges for soldiers, with such information as name, rank, organization, when, where and by whom enlisted, place of birth, personal description, and other items - Register of Deceased Soldiers - 1848-1861 - gives name, rank, organization, date of death, cause of death, place of death, and other material - Record of Enlistments - 1798 - 1912 - gives name, place of enlistment, date, by whom enlisted, age, occupation, personal description, regimental assignment, report of examining surgeon, etc. -Personal Papers - 1812-1912 - contains such items as descriptive lists, orders, assignment cards, reports of physical examinations, certificates of disability, discharges, final statement papers, medical papers, burial records, and on and on. As we get into this group of postings, I will go into greater detail on the hundreds of sets of records RG 94. It is a fascinating collection. As is usual, there will be no data posts per se over the weekend, but i hope to drop by with another JP Land Grant Text File. I am currently working on a project connected with the JP, which is taking some degree of time, but I think the end result will be worth the effort. More on that as things progress. -B ============================================================