Listers, I have sent for both the military and pension records. There is a world of information in them, and the cost is insignificant considering the amount of history you will learn. Here are some things to keep in mind when ordering your records. This is quoted from the book "Tracing Your Civil War Ancestor" by Bertram Hawthorne Groene: "What may not be quite so clear to the beginning researcher is that the record of a man's military service in any one organization is wholly separate from the record of his service in any other organization. This means that if your ancestor joined the Sixteenth New York and later transferred to the Twenty-eighth, your NATF Form request will get you his service in only the one unit you requested, the Sixteenth New York. It will take another NATF form set to get his service record with the Twenty-eighth New York. You will be billed for each form answered." "If you have reason to believe from the rank and position of responsibility of your soldier that there may be more than ten pages, the best approach is to write across the top of your NATF form, "Send All Military Records." "This is not the end of the use of NATF Form 80. If you either suspect, or the pension or military records show, that your soldier was sick, wounded, or disabled in any way, reach for yet another NATF Form, fill it out, and write across the top, "Please Send Complete Medical Records." You must do this because, as in the case of court-martial records, medical records are not included in the military records, and researchers in the archives will not tell you that they exist unless you specifically request them." This book is a small paperback and was VERY helpful to me, and packed full of information. Anyone interested in finding their Civil War Ancestors this is a MUST read book for you. I hope this was of some help to ALL. EM -----Original Message----- From: Christopher Robinson <pangeaao@hotmail.com> To: OLD-FREDERICK-CO-VA-L@rootsweb.com <OLD-FREDERICK-CO-VA-L@rootsweb.com> Date: Tuesday, May 13, 2003 7:30 PM Subject: [OLD-FREDERICK-CO-VA] RE: National Archives Records >Listers, > >I recently received Forms 85 and 86 to request Military and Pension records >from the National Archives. Also, some form of land record associated with >the military records. I was very excited to identify my gg-father's Civil >War regiment, but am a little discouraged by the price of ordering this >info. I would like to accumulate as much info as available, but I am not >sure what info is in these records. Is anyone familiar with these documents >and the ordering process. Should I order both the Pension and Military >records, or is this info redundant? What kind of info is in these Civil War >records? Do I need to order the complete pension file at abt. $37 or is the >general pension info sufficient at abt. $18? Also, what are these land >records? > >Thanks, >Christopher L. Robinson > >_________________________________________________________________ >Tired of spam? Get advanced junk mail protection with MSN 8. >http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail >