“Document” can be a noun or a verb and, as genealogists, we should be using it as both! Perhaps this week you share a neat document you’ve found or write about your efforts to document an ancestor.
One of my favorite sources is the pension file. I have a copy of my 2nd great-grandfather, Robert Barbee’s Civil War Pension file. There are at least two-hundred seventy pages in it. There are many good documents. My favorites are (1) a History of Claimant’s Disability ( 3 May 1890) – a list of all the jobs he had since his discharge from the service, (2) a Declaration for Pension (16 March 1907) – a list of place of birth and places of residence since his service, (3) Department of the Interior Bureau of Pensions Questionaire (8 April 1915) – date of birth, spouses, when married, name of ex-spouses, list of all children and their birth dates, (4) Certificate of Death of Robert Levy Barbee (4 March 1928), and (5) a statement from J. B. Barbee (Son of enslaver – 15 April 1908), copy below. It is on my favorite list because it got me past the 1870 census.
Robert Barbee (Pvt., Co. C, 106th, 106 U.S.C.T., Inf., Civil War), pension no. 585,763, Case
Files of Approved Pension Applications …, 1861–1934; statement of J.B. Barbee, 15 April 1908; Civil War and Later Pension Files; Department of Veterans Affairs, Record Group 15; National Archives, Washington, D.C.