Success with Civil War Ancestors

I am like so many others who have ancestors who fought in the Civil War on both sides. I have heard family stories and seen records of many of them. When looking for your Civil War ancestors make sure you try as many of the resources as possible.
I start with 1.family stories, then go to 2.county records, then 3.state archives, then websites like 4.ancestry.com and the National Parks Service Soldiers and Sailor database which gives you what unit your ancestor was in and then can give you info on the units as well as some info on some of the battles the units fought in, the website address for this is www.civilwar.nps.gov/cwss/and then I go to the 5.National Archives website and order the ancestors military and pension records, web address is archives.gov. All of these are very important places to look for the info on your ancestors civil war experience.

First talk to those in the family who might know or who have heard stories about your ancestors who fought in the civil war. My Grandma Snodgrass use to tell me that her Grandpa Vincent fought for the Union side because the Confederates had killed his brother. He hid out in the woods and then went and signed up with the union army. Now her Grandpa Thomas E Vincent did serve on the Union side and he did have a younger brother that died but it was of disease according to court records. He did serve from Monroe County Mo. that was mostly Confederate at that time but I found no proof that he had to hide in the woods from them. The story he told her and she passed down to me did give me a place to start looking though. Another family story was that one of my ancestors was fighting for the Confederate side from Monroe County MO. and was killed at the battle of Corinth in 1864. This gave me a place to start looking because of the story.
Next make sure you check county records to see what they might have on CW ancestors. I found in the Court records where the brother of Thomas E Vincent had died and his siblings were claiming his pension. It listed all of his living siblings and told how he died of disease.
The third place to look is the State Archives of the state your ancestors served from. They should be able to give you some insight on when and what unit they served in.
The fourth place to look is at ancestry.com because they have some records on pensions and if they served or not. I found just recently the ancestor that was killed at Corinth and it gave when and what unit he served in when he was killed. I then went to the National Parks site and looked him up and got more info on when he was killed and what units he was in and what battles they fought in. I then looked up info on the unit. This is a valuable site that many overlook.
Last I go to the National Archives site with the info I have found and send for the pension and military records of my ancestors. I always ask for all records even though this costs more because I want to see everything they have and not just what they think is important. It is well worth the money to get these records.

Snodgrass Family Stories, Okay I should of listened

How many times have you heard your relatives reminiscing and not really paid attention and then later when you are trying to learn your genealogy you wish you still had that relative around to ask questions? I am sure that this has happened to us all. We should all pay more attention to the stories and even jot them down or record them for future use and future generations. I wish when my Grandparents were still alive that I had done a better job of this but I wasn't doing my genealogy then I just liked hearing the stories. Then when I started doing the genealogy I only had one Grandmother and my husbands Granddad left to ask questions of. I did have a few great Aunts and Uncles and tried learning what I could from them at that helped but oh how I wished I had recorded or written down all the stories that they would tell and now are lost to me and my children. Lesson is pay close attention and write them down.

Another thing is no matter how far fetched you think a story is write it down or record it because you may just find out that it is true. An example of this is when I talked to my Grandmother about my Mom's dad's side Grandma told me things I just didn't think were true but I took note of them and found out she was right.

I found that my Grandma and Grandpa Snodgrass got married in Kansas City, KS and that they had lied about there age by a couple of years. She said that during the depression they lived on a side room of Grandpa Snodgrass's dad's house in Oklahoma City and that the room was made out of used thrown out lumber because none of them had money. Then they went to Cordell OK and picked cotton in the fields which I figured was her remembering wrong until we went to the courthouse in Washita County, OK and they had pictures of migrant workers picking cotton in there county back in the 1930's. In fact they had a picture on the wall that asks do you know these people and it looked like a younger picture of my Grandmother in the fields. Ok so the story she told was right.
Next she told me that Grandpa Snodgrass's mother changed her name from Sallie Ann to Cleo Ruth and that she was married to a man named Crews when she died. She also said that she was buried in OK somewhere. Now why she changed her name she didn't know but they never got along so Grandma didn't care to know either she said. Well I once again was skeptical but in the 1920 Census I found that she had changed her name to Cleo Ruth and was married to Simon Nix. I know it is her because my Granddad Emmett Snodgrass and his sister Snow are living with them. Okay now I knew that she had changed her name next to find if she had married a man name Crews and where she was buried. Sure enough she is buried where Grandma thought at the Lookeba Cemetery which is located ½ mile north of Lookeba Ok. in Caddo County, OK. So two stories she told me were true but I still haven't been able to proof the last story and that is that Grandpa Emmett Snodgrass is part Indian. His mother Sallie Ann/Cleo Ruth is suppose to be half Indian and her mother full blooded Indian but so far I haven't been able to prove this. I have been told by Emmett's other two daughters that we found two years ago that they were told the same story and that a cousin of theirs from Snow Snodgrass told it too. We are still looking and I have this story written down so that when I prove it one way or another and can give Grandma credit again.
The thing is we need to listen and record everything we are told whether we think it is possible to be true or not and then research to find the truth. I hope to find more interesting stories and truths so I keep looking through our tree.

Ancestor Charles Jester

Charles A Jester has been one of my stumbling blocks in my family research. I know he was suppose to be born in Washington County, IA according to his death certificate and his head stone says 1868 though other things have him being born in 1866 or 1869 also. He died in 1942 in Wyandotte County Kansas City, KS in 1942. He married Hattie Jane Anderson in Cloud County KS but she was born and lived in Brown County Kansas. They had 6 children Laura, Bessie, Susie, Daniel, Jesse and James all born in Horton, Brown County KS. Susie died as a young girl in Brown County KS and Daniel died in Aug. 1902 two months after he was born. He was a twin to my grandfather Jesse and they were born May 10, 1902. Daniel also died in Horton Brown County, KS. They moved to Kansas City KS in the late 1920's they are listed in the 1930 census as living in Wyandotte County, Kansas City, KS. I have yet to find out anything on Charles childhood or who his parents are. My granddad and my Great Uncle Jim did know much about his family either when we shared before they both died. Children of the other children of Charles and Hattie don't seem to know anything either. He is a very elusive ancestor and the search is on going to find his parents and more about Charles. The picture above is of Charles and Hattie's headstone at Highland Park Cemetery in Kansas City, Wyandotte County, KS. The search is on going and I will some day find out more about him.

Finding the hard to find

When we start searching our family trees we sometimes have trouble finding people. When I started searching my Snodgrass family all I knew is what my Grandmother had told me which didn't amount to much since her and my Grandfather separated when my Mother was very little. I searched with what I knew and soon found my Mom's half sisters names by way of an obituary but it took a few years to actually find the half sisters themselves. Sometimes its just a matter of timing. I had gone through all the phone books for the area and had done people searches on the net and I did not have any luck but I just kept trying and every so often I would check them again. One day my daughter and I were talking and I gave her all the information I had and she did exactly what I had done but then she found one of the sisters. We got in contact and them and 2 years ago my Mom and the rest of us got to meet her half sisters face to face. It is great to get to know them and the moral to the story is never quit looking. Even if you have looked in that same place before revisit it and see if you might have missed something or someone that can help. It is a matter of never saying I can't find them and forgetting about them it's a matter of I will keep looking. Sometimes if we get away from a line in our family tree and then go back to it later you will find something that you missed before and that line will open up just a little more. Always keep going and never stop looking when you are searching for the next clue in your family tree. We added two more people to our family just by following these rules.