It may depend on what the disability was. One of my grandfather's brothers entered the army about 1901, shortly after the Spanish-American War, and served in the Philippines. He contracted TB while in the army and spent several years in a military hospital in New Mexico before being discharged for disability about 1909. He died of TB in 1913 at age 30. NARA didn't find any pension file for him. -----Original Message----- From: John Clavin [mailto:jjc@bga.com] Sent: Saturday, February 19, 2000 10:34 PM To: NY-Military-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [NY-Mil] Re: Gravestone problem At 05:49 PM 2/19/00 -0500, you wrote: > Thanks for the insight. Would he have a pension file seeing as he died > at age 35? I did send to the National Archives and they could not find > anything on him, I have now sent to NY State Archives hoping they may > have some information. Wouldn't he have had to apply for a pension to > have a pension file though? I did get the Civil War pension records for > my gr grandfather and they contain a lot of information. Thanks - Eileen Eileen, I am sending theis reply to the list as well because it contains some information which may be of interest to others. He most likely would have a pension file if he was disabled during the war and was awarded a disbility pension, which is a distinct possibility if he died in 1909 at such a young age. I am not certain of the pension rules for those years relating to Spanish American War vets, but the surviving family may have also been able to claim a pension if he died of a "service connected disability". However, if you have already checked that avenue with the NA, then it appears to be a dead end. New York State Archives may be a possibility, but I don't think they have as much info on the Spanish-American War soldiers as they do on the Civil War. Another place to try is the Military History Institute at US Army Carlisle Barracks: http://carlisle-www.army.mil/usamhi/ although, again, they are somewhat more useful for the Civil War. Try local newspapers of the era. They may not be in your local library any longer, but some are available at the State Archives or major universities. See the NY State Newspaper Project at: http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/nysnp/ You may be able to locate an obituary. Depending on the size of the paper and town, there may also be an earlier article about him "going off to war". ***** John Clavin | NY-Military-L List Administrator | jjc@bga.com *****