>>>I already have the first 19 pages of my great great grandfather Silas Pearson's pension papers and hope that by going ahead and ordering it all ( 154 pages ) Steve, That's a tough one to answer. Not knowing what the logic was behind sending you only 19 of 154 pages, it's hard to predict what's in the rest of the file. And that is a pretty steep price to pay to get your hands on the rest of it. However, with a file that is that large, I'm curious as to whether the 19 pages you have are predominantly military records. If so, I think the chances increase that the remainder of the file may be of interest. I ordered complete files for all my Civil War ancestors (but never had to pay for one as large as you're talking about). My experience though on my "large" files - which were only in the 40-60 page range, was that the actual military files only made up 10-15 pages of the record. Basically they were the routine roster records, enlistment and discharge papers. The large majority of the files were made up of letters written over the years by neighbors and relatives to substantiate the pension request. In my case, those letters were very useful since they basically were carefully spelled out descriptions of family relationships. That's my 2 cents worth - you might want to see what additional feedback you get from others on your question. But at least based on my limited experience, if the file is as large as the one you've come across, I'd guess that the very large part of it must be family information - not the somewhat less valuable roster records. Glen Glen Gallagher http://www.lsorevolution.com http://www.glengallagher.com