Lee, I ordered the pension records of my great-grandfather and his four brothers who fought in Company B, 101st PA Volunteer Infantry. I downloaded the forms from the Internet and enclosed a $10 check with each one. It took about four weeks for the first installments to arrive. In four instances the files were so voluminous that second installments were necessary: one for $10, two for $20, and, in my great-grandfather's case, $30. There were depositions by neighbors to support the applications of my great-great-grandmother, my great-grandmother, two great-great aunts, and one great-great-uncle who never married and applied for benefits on his own behalf. There was information about my relatives' occupations, their weddings, their dispositions, their moral characters, and much about their health and the illnesses they died from. There were affadavits from doctors. There was repetition, but I felt the $130 was well spent. I hope you're as lucky as I was. Good luck. John Bauer Mendham, NJ SnowLee@aol.com wrote: > 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