Thursday, March 16, 2017

CSA Pension Applications

Do you have an ancestor who received a pension for his Civil War service to the Confederate States of America? If he was living in Kentucky at the time of the application, you can read  his application at the  Kentucky Dept. for Libraries and Archives Electronic Records Archives  website.  An bonus is that it is a free website.  The information in the pension applications includes date of birth,  enlistment date and location, present residence, plus the depositions of at least two people who knew the veteran.  

The Confederate Pension Act was passed by the Kentucky General Assembly in March 1912 to provide aid to indigent and disabled Confederate veterans. Any Confederate veteran living in Kentucky in 1912 or after could apply for a pension, regardless of the state in which he resided or the unit in which he served during the war. In March 1914, indigent widows of Confederate soldiers became eligible for a pension. The widows' applications included the date of their marriage and date of the veteran's death.  

Pensions for the Union veterans were funded by the federal government. Many southern states funded state pensions for Confederate veterans. 

This source has been mentioned previously, but it is such a helpful source that it begs to be mentioned again.

Published 16 March 2017, Western Kentucky Genealogy Blog, http://wkygenealogy.blogspot.com/

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