Thanks, Laura- I will look that up- I am so used to using libraries and ancestry that I am not always familiar with all of the online sites. Sue -----Original Message----- From: nynewyor-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:nynewyor-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of gothamgal Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2008 10:56 PM To: nynewyor@rootsweb.com Subject: [NYNEWYOR] Civil War Enrollment/Albany Vital Records Sue, NY Civil War enrollments (registrations) are at NARA in DC. This includes the lists of everyone eligible to be drafted, whether or not they were actually drafted. Look for Record Group 110: "Records of the Provost Marshall General's Bureau; Enrollment Lists and Corrections 1863-1865". These are sorted by Congressional District, then by Class, and then alphabetically by first letter of the surname. The records I've examined for District 26 (Tioga county, NY) are ledger books with the following column headings: Residence, Name, Age as of 1st July 1863, White or Colored, Profession/Occupation/Trade, Married or Unmarried, Place of Birth (State/Territory/or Country), Former Military Service (this means in the Civil War), and Remarks. Note that places of birth tend to be rather broad like "Ireland", "Pennsylvania", or "New York." There is nothing listed to indicate citizenship, but as the History Channel link provided by someone else seems to indicate, citizenship seems not to have been a requirement. The classes are as follows: Class 1 = Everyone 20-35 subject to military duty, and married persons 35-45 subject to military duty Class 2 = Everyone else subject to military duty These Enrollment Books are good resources for identifying men, WHETHER OR NOT they served in the Civil War. The Enrollment lists were used in preparation for the draft. As you are probably aware, all of the drafted men (a subset of the Enrollment lists) had to pass a Medical Examination. Men who passed could pay $300 to be exempt from service. Ultimately, the number of men who were drafted AND served was relatively small compared to the number of men who were drafted. For example, on a page of 42 men drafted from Tioga county, NY, one was sent to rendezvous (to serve), four paid $300 to be excused, and the rest failed the medical test! You can look at the Draft records at NARA in DC as well (also in Record Group 110). Entry 2212 contains descriptive books of drafted men sorted by Congressional District. The headings on these oversize ledgers are as follows: Number, Name, Age, Eyes, Hair, Complexion, Height (Ft/In), State or Kingdom where born, Town or County where born, Occupation, Enrolled year/place, Drafted (When/Where), Term (years), and Remarks. Note that many physical description columns are left blank (at least in the books I've seen). Place of birth tends to be along the lines of "NY/Tompkins County" or "Mass" or "Holland." Again, there is nothing to indicate citizenship. Note also that this particular series doesn't SEEM to be sorted by or include information about place of residence (just Congressional District), making it more difficult to isolate men of the same name. For those men who were drafted AND served, you can check Record Group 110, Entry 2214 (at NARA in DC): "Descriptive Book of Recruits for Draft 1863-1864" which is also sorted by Congressional District. These ledgers contain similar (although not identical) information as the Adjutant-Generals Reports. The bonus is that this Entry contains place of residence (as opposed to just place of muster), and physical descriptions. This does NOT include information on place of birth or citizenship, so you'd need to cross reference back to the Enrollment and Draft records for that information. I believe the Medical Examination Records are also at NARA, but don't have those notes with me at the moment. The records are all excellent, but sometimes researching them may feel like looking for a needle in a haystack. However, when tracing men who DIDN'T serve in the Civil War, this may be an excellent resource. -- Laura H. Congleton PS. To the person looking for vital records in Albany, you can view the indices for free at the NY State Archives in Albany and drop off your official order in a box there that is delivered to the Vital Records folks on a daily basis. You'll get your certificates in about 4 weeks, as opposed to the usual 8-month wait. Jim Garrity, List Administrator jimgarrity@earthlink.net ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to NYNEWYOR-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message