Pension files can contain just about anything. None of the ones related to me list the soldier's parents but I have seen some with pages torn from family Bibles. Someone said that they had never seen the physical description in a pension file. The one for John Kinsella (9th NY Heavy Artillery), my g-g-grandfather, has a physical description on his "Certificate of Disability for Discharge". I got one pension file for Jacob Sours of Huron, Wayne Co., NY (also 9th N.Y.H.A.). It had a church wedding certificate dated 1861. His daughter was born in 1862, a few days before he enlisted. He was received fatal wounds at Winchester, VA on Sept. 19, 1864. (John Kinsella was wounded there the same day.) The file didn't not give any genealogical information for Jacob. I can't find any record of Jacob prior to his marriage but one of the affidavits in the pension file (submitted for his daughter) was signed by Phillip Sours of Huron, my 3g-grandfather. The file did list the parents of Jacob's wife and the name of her second husband. I can't figure out why there was no pension file for John Welch, another of my g-g-grandfathers, who was also in the 9th N.Y.H.A. He died in 1879 but his widow was around until 1912 and all indications are that she certainly could have used the money. -----Original Message----- From: LydBeach@aol.com [mailto:LydBeach@aol.com] Sent: Monday, June 14, 1999 8:39 PM To: NY-Military-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Civil War Hi I have Ciivil War papers that I sent for, for my great grandfather but they do not list his parents names. Does anyone know if the papers might sometimes show parents? Thanks Lydia ______________________________