Among the current freebies at Ancestry.com are civil war pension records. What a great resource! While they are shadowy and somewhat hard to read, they contain the unit served in and name of widow or minors for whom the pension was requested. My BIG find was the name of Nancy, widow of my 3Greats-grandfather, Abraham Palmer who died in the field hospital near Alexandria in May 1865. Her name had been eluding me for a long time. Now a question - how long does it take to get a CW veteran's records from NARA? Is there a cost? What have been the experiences of list members with regards to usefulness of information found in these records? Also, has anyone used the NARA microfilm listing headstones issued to Union veterans? It is available at the Chicago regional office and just might be worth a trip. Lee Kinnan Fazzari Aurora, IL