To explore this mystery, I searched for and found his military records on Ancestry.com. The records showed he had enlisted in the 179th New York Volunteers in September 1864 and had been killed in battle on April 2 at Petersburg in the last great battle of the war—not three days after the war ended, as I had originally thought based on information from my family.

  I was able to view records of the regimental hospital, showing he died from wounds related to artillery fire. The census records that I found on Ancestry.com showed his youngest daughter was two years old when he died. She would grow up to become my great-grandmother.

  Other census records showed my great-grandmother named her second son after one of her uncles, leading me to speculate he had stepped in to act as a father figure for his fallen brother’s children. Thanks to Ancestry.com, I was able to print these records and share them and stories with my grandchildren. I probably could have found these records from other sources (such as the National Archives), but I wouldn’t have found them as easily or conveniently as I was able to using Ancestry.com.

  Photos

  Of the more than sixty collections in this category, one that really stands out to me contains more than 250 United News newsreels. Each averages about ten minutes in length and consists of military footage from 1942 to 1946. Each of the newsreels has a thumbnail sketch of subject matter, such as:

  Part 1, naval guns bombard the beaches of Leyte and carrier-based planes bomb the island defenses. The amphibious assault begins. Shows Gens. MacArthur and Wainwright and Adm. Halsey. Part 2, Red Cross personnel pack food parcels for Americans imprisoned in Germany. Part 3, cadets parade at Uruguay’s military academy in Montevideo. Part 4, a MARK I calculator at Harvard University solves math problems. Part 5, Marines capture pillboxes and dugouts on Peleliu Island. Part 6, the 5th Army breaks through the Gothic line in Italy behind artillery and tanks.

  Other collections in this category offer gravestone photos from national cemeteries, images from US wars and conflicts, soldier photographs, narrative and photos from former slaves, and British Royal Aero Club pilots’ photos and flying certificates.

  INTERNATIONAL MILITARY RECORDS

  Ancestry.com also has a healthy selection of international military records, with the largest group from the United Kingdom, followed by Germany (though several of these are in German). UK records cross the centuries and include military service in the French and Indian Wars, the Boer War, and World Wars I and II, along with service and pension records. If you’re primarily interested in international military records, use the Card Catalog (see details in chapter 3) to filter to the record collections of interest. You’ll need the World Explorer membership to access most international military records.

  Among the excellent collections are ones that cover UK WWII prisoners of war, WWI service and pension records, and WWI casualties. Canadian military records stretch back to the 1700s and include records from the War of 1812, Revolutionary War, and World War I. Record types include pension files, Loyalist claims, muster lists, and grave registers.

  SAMPLE SEARCH: FINDING MILITARY RECORDS ON ANCESTRY.COM

  Let’s do a search for service records. But first: Put on your detective hat. We’re trying to find out if there are any military records relating to my ancestor John Knox, born July 31, 1744, Rich Square, Northampton County, North Carolina. John Knox would have been the correct age for military service during the Revolutionary War, but the Knox family was historically Quaker (and thus, opposed to violence). Are there any records showing that he served?

  In this section, we’ll go step by step, and you can use this search as a template for doing your own military record searches. This search is also an example of how deeply you can begin to solve a genealogy problem by weaving back and forth between Ancestry.com and other sites such as Google .

  Under the Search dropdown menu, select Military to scour the collection for John Knox. My search found several results with that name, but none were part of my family line. However, while viewing search results that pointed to other users’ family trees, I found a tree containing my Knox family. What caught my eye was a notation for a Sons of the American Revolution (SAR) application based on the patriot service of John Knox of Rich Square, Northampton County, North Carolina. To be considered a patriot by the SAR or Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), the organizations require that a person gave some kind of service to the Army—but not necessarily in a combat role. Perhaps John wasn’t a Quaker at the time, or maybe he didn’t serve in a combat role? Only more research can tell.

  Having used on the main search form, I moved on to specific collections that may relate to information I know or suspect about my ancestor. I wanted to learn more about the SAR application notes in the Member Trees, so I searched Ancestry.com’s collection of “U.S. Sons of the American Revolution Membership Applications, 1889–1970.” The SAR application (image D), neatly typed onto a form, included this notation about John Knox: Named on a list for commanding officer under Col. Allen Jones, May 20, 1775.

  With that in mind, I turned to other sources for more information on what I had already learned. Taking the information from the SAR application, I Googled the term John Knox Col. Allen Jones 1775. Among the search results was a PDF document titled “A History of Rich Square Monthly Meeting of Friends, 1760–1990.” That history listed the fact that John Knox was an Elder, which meant he belonged to the Quaker church. In the May 20, 1775, meeting notes, it states:

  Also it appeared to this Meeting that Col. Allen Jones, the commanding officer of this county, requests to have a list of all male Friends from the age of Sixteen to Sixty Years in order that they may be exempted from being called on to act under the Militia Law according to an Act of Assembly in that case made and provided. Therefore John Knox is appointed to make out a list in order to be presented to the Colonel.

  I still had one question: Was the list on which John Knox (under Col. Allen Jones) was named related to those who served or those who were exempt due to their religious beliefs? The SAR application listed supporting evidence in the following sources:

  Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy by Hinshaw, Vol. 1, pages 167, 168, 217, 244, and 347

  Biographical Record of Bureau, Marshall, and Putnam Counties, Illinois, pages 168–169

  North Carolina Revolutionary Army Accounts, Vol. 6, folio 4, page 33

  I decided to check all three, if possible.

  I went back to the Ancestry.com Card Catalog to see if the sources noted are available through the website. The first source, the Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy by Hinshaw is. This encyclopedia contains monthly Quaker meeting notes. Volume 1 has records from North Carolina. This collection is searchable by name, as well as volume and page number. Page 217 contained a wealth of information:

  John’s wife’s name (Pharaby)

  the names and birth dates of their children

  the names and birth and death dates of John’s parents

  the names and birth and death dates of John’s siblings

  Page 244 contained more than three-dozen references to the family, all taken from the Rich Square monthly meeting notes. Among the most interesting:

  On May 20, 1775, John was on a list for commanding officer Col. Allen Jones. (This date and notation is the same as that given on the SAR application.)

  John was “con” [condemned] for misconduct for being a judge at a race.

  The date of John’s marriage to Pharaby

  Having learned so much about the Knox family, I returned to non-Ancestry.com sources for more background information. I still had the same question: What was this “list” that was used in the SAR application? I searched Google for anything to do with the Rich Square, North Carolina, meeting and found the same history of the meeting I had found earlier, but this time one of the lines in that history stood out to me:

  Also it appeared to this Meeting that Col. Allen Jones, the commanding officer of this county, requests to have a list of all male Friends from the age of Sixteen to Sixty Years in order that they may be exempted from being called on to act under the Militia Law [emphasis mine] according to an Act of Assembly in that case made and provided. Therefore John Knox is appointed to make out a list in order to be presented to the Colonel.

  It seems John was on the list of people who were exempt from military service, not of people who were a part of military service! But being a stickler for verification, I searched Google for more information about Col. Allen Jones and the Rich Square people. I found another reference:

  Francis Beaman [senior] and his wife Mary were received by the Friends at Rich Square Monthly Meeting in Northampton County, North Carolina, in January 1764, having satisfied the preparative meeting (Hinshaw, Vol. I, page 229) . . . In 1775 Francis was on the list of exemptions prepared by the Monthly Meeting at the request of Col. Allen Jones of the local militia.

  It appears that the list “proving” John’s service to independence was actually a list of people exempt from that service.

  Armed with this new information, I went back to Ancestry.com’s Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy collection and searched for Col. Allen Jones. There I found more than a dozen other notations exactly matching that of John Knox: “[name of person] on list for commanding officer Col. Allen Jones.”

  I searched Google to see if a digital copy of the Biographical Record of Bureau, Marshall, and Putnam Counties, Illinois, was available online. Eureka! Not only did I find the book online , I found a biography of John and Pharaby’s grandson, William. The biography notes that five of William’s brothers served in the Civil War along with four of his nephews.

  I now have nine members of the family who should have Civil War records in the Ancestry.com collection of Civil War draft, enlistment, and pensions. (Looks like the next generation of the Knox family weren’t Quakers.)

  One last thing about this biography (and why it’s a good idea to always check facts): William’s biography notes that two of the nephews “died soon after their return home from effects of starvation and disease while incarcerated in Libby prison.” Using Ancestry.com’s 1890 Veterans Schedules (a special census of Civil War veterans), I found James and John M. Jr. listed, so clearly those two did not die soon after the war. What happened to Joseph and William?

  After exhausting my Ancestry.com search, I went to Fold3 (an Ancestry.com property that specializes in military records—see chapter 16) and found that Joseph was sent to the hospital on March 10, 1862. On March 12, 1862, he was “left sick” in the hospital in St. Louis, and discharged at Corinth, Mississippi, on January 3, 1863, for “disability.” His disability papers say he had an “affliction of the chest said to be the result of measles.” The papers went on to note that he had chronic bronchitis, the sequel to a bout of measles.

  Back at Ancestry.com, I found a Joseph Knox of the right age and residence on the 1870 census; however, I’ve found no trace of him following that record.

  And the other nephew, William? What of him? At Fold3, I found that he had been discharged on March 3, 1862, on a surgeon’s certification of disability. I cannot find William on either the 1870 census or the 1890 Veterans census.

  Are Joseph and William the two nephews who perished soon after the war? Neither of their service records indicates being a prisoner at Libby prison, but clearly both had medical problems.

  Check offline sources to locate more information. Let’s go back to my original problem of John Knox, the Quaker, and his Revolutionary War service. The third reference, North Carolina Revolutionary Army Accounts, wasn’t online. I telephoned the North Carolina State Archives, who then sent me to the Government and Heritage section of the State Library of North Carolina, then onto the Genealogy section.

  The librarian was kind enough to look up John Knox in that reference, and found three references of payment but couldn’t access the original records, which are stored in the archives. She sent me the names of local researchers for hire to complete the research.

  Of interest, though, she did tell me that North Carolina gave the equivalent of payment IOUs to people other than soldiers, such as someone who gave a barrel of apples or whiskey to the army, or provided blankets and care of the sick. Remember, as I learned earlier, a patriot can be someone who provides service to the military. Is it possible that John Knox was among these patriots? I don’t yet know.

  Applications for the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR) and Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) can contain detailed genealogical information, which was used by applicants to prove their relationship to Revolutionary patriots.

  Finding Military Service in a US Federal Census

  Sometimes, you can use multiple kinds of records in conjunction with each other to take your research to new heights. For example, you can use US federal census records to identify if, when, and where your ancestors served in the military. Four US federal censuses contained information about military service:

  The 1840 census shows surviving Revolutionary War pensioners and/or their widows.

  The 1890 special veterans census lists Union veterans or widows (though only a partial census remains). This census includes: name of surviving service member and widow, rank, regiment, enlistment date, discharge date, length of service, address, and disability (if any).

  The 1910 federal census asks if the respondent was a survivor of the Union or Confederate Army or Navy.

  The 1930 federal census shows military service in any major war through World War I. If military service is noted, use the chart at the beginning of this chapter to approximate the conflict in which the service member may have served. With that information in hand, use the Military category in the Card Catalog to filter down to the most appropriate collections.

  USING PENSION FILES

  If you can’t find service records for an ancestor, start searching pension files. Pension files can contain a massive amount of detailed information about the person’s military service. More than just about any other type of military record, pension files give an insight into the person not found in “just names and dates.”

  Let’s look at another search example. In this case, the ancestor in question is David Faulkenberry from South Carolina. Although family lore places him as a Revolutionary War soldier, a search of Ancestry.com’s “U.S. Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775–1783” collection was fruitless. However, David did show up in “Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, 1800–1900.” This bountiful find included several pages of testimony and affidavits.

  I knew David lived in South Carolina, but I tracked him down in Tennessee when he applied for a Revolutionary War pension (1833). From the pension files on Ancestry.com (image E), I learned that David personally appeared before a justice of the peace in Rutherford County, Tennessee. The affidavit shows that he stated his age was eight-five or eight-six and that he entered the service before the engagement of Hanging Rock, South Carolina.

  With this information from my Ancestry.com search, I did a quick search at Wikipedia to learn more about the battle. The Wikipedia entry said the “Battle of Hanging Rock took place on August 6, 1780, [was] a three-hour battle that caused some men to faint from thirst and heat.” An interesting side note—and, of course, one I wondered about Faulkenberry taking part in—was “A group of Americans came across a storage of rum in the British camp and became so drunk they could not be brought back into the battle.”

  According to the testimony, David was a drafted militiaman and after five or six months of service was discharged but then recalled for another five- or six-month tour. He was also in the army at Gates’ defeat at the Battle of Camden (August 16, 1780, near Camden, South Carolina). He was sergeant of a guard detail to watch wagons. Twenty or so years after the war, he moved to Clarke County, Georgia.

  David’s son, Jacob Faulkenberry (sixty-two years old at the time), also appeared in court, submitting an affidavit that stated his father was “in full vigor and perfect exercise of his memory” to give details of his service. Jacob further said that after Gates’ defeat, his father was ordered to collect property (guns, baggage, etc.) that had been left by the retreating army. David is crippled in both of his hands, caused by “being cut to pieces” by Tories, and also wounded by a ball at the same time. A neighbor who knew David for forty years also appeared in the document. When his memory was still good, David had told the neighbor in detail about his service. Another neighbor and a clergyman swore to David’s good character.

  Because pension files can have so much personal information, be prepared for the unexpected. Case in point: I was curious to learn more about a cavalryman named Adolph Metzger, who was killed December 21, 1866, in Dakota Territory, near Fort Phil Kearny. If you’re a history buff, you may have read about the fight that goes by the name the Fetterman Massacre. In brief, Captain Fetterman (against orders) led the eighty-one men under his command into a trap set by about one thousand Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors. None of the men—including bugler Adolph Metzger—survived.

  I went to Ancestry.com and searched the Civil War records. I easily found Adolph in the “U.S. Army, Register of Enlistments, 1798–1914” collection, serving as a bugler in Company C, 2nd Regiment, Cavalry, during the Civil War. Later I searched “U.S. Civil War Pension Index: General Index to Pension Files, 1861–1934” and found that Adolph’s widow, Frederika, filed for a widow’s pension in 1867. Surprisingly, there was also an 1890 pension filing from Adolph’s mother, Anna, still living in Germany. Of course, I wanted to know more.

 

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