-----Original Message----- >From: [email protected] Not every soldier who served applied and received bounty land >warrants;not every soldier applied for a pension. Christie makes a very good point. The qualifications for receiving a pension varied tremendously over time, becoming much more liberal as the number of surviving veterans diminished and recognition of their strength as a voting block increased. [cynic? me?] Initially officers, drawn from the upper class of course, got generous pensions and not many others got anything. In time the pension was offered to those who served a year or more (tremendous numbers of veterans served for maybe a day or two--it makes a difference whether it's militia service or continental army), but need had to be demonstrated, and by need they really meant need. So veterans who were comfortably off, meaning they knew where their next meal was coming from, may not show up. [That is, not show up unless they were trying to commit fraud, which was apparently a considerable problem for the government.] So unless your ancestor was an officer or a widow of a soldier killed in the war, your best shot is if he survived in extreme poverty for a long time.