1. Summary
The Union Army data contains significant information on family members of the recruit, including spouses, parents, siblings and children. These include the dates and places of births, deaths, and marriages, as well as information that comes from the US federal census schedules.
2. Variable Groups
Collection: Military, Pension and Medical Records
Marriage: Marriage date, Marriage place, Marriage officiator, Marital status, Spouse, Co-habitant, Person recruit living with, Recruit's relationship, Married, Single, or Widowed designation, Married within year
Religion: Religious affiliation
Parents: Father's name, Father's birth date, Father's birth place, Father's death date, Father's death place, Mother's name, Mother's birth place, Mother's birth date, Mother's death date, Mother's death place
Siblings: Sibling's name: Sibling's birth date
Children: Child's name, Child's gender, Child living or dead, Child living or dead date, Child birth date, Child's birth place, Child death date, Child's death place
Collection: U.S. Federal Census
Marriage: Recruit's marital status, Recruit's years married, Recruit married within last year, Household member's marital status, Household member's years married, Household members married within last year.
Children: Recruit's number of children, Recruit's number of children living, Household member's number of children, Household member's number of children living,
Relation to head of household: Recruit's relation to head, Household member's relation to head
Place variables including place of marriage, birth and death, are additionally classified under the Geographic category.
Place and date variables are qualified by a set of codes that can be found in the Quality Codes User Guide.
3. Historical Background
3.1 Original Sources
The primary source of family data in a Pension file is the Family Circular, which are surveys sent to pensioners in 1898 and 1915 asking for demographic information on spouses and children. Family information can also be found in affidavits, letters, and depositions submitted to the Pension Bureau in support of a pension application either by the recruit or, in some cases, his surviving widow or children.
Civil War pensions are available at the National Archives for veterans and their dependents. Pension files include information on birth, death, residences, military and medical wartime experiences, postwar health, and family information. Files also contain applications for pension, the corresponding actions of the Pension Bureau, and supporting documentation. Information found in the pension files, e.g. names, birthdates, places of birth, and addresses aid census inputters in locating the recruit in the U.S. Federal Census records.
Census inputters located soldiers and their households in the U.S. Federal census for 1850-1930. Originally conceived as a population count, the census evolved to include much more information, such as age, marital status, occupation, birth place, disability, nativity, etc. Our census collection begins with the 1850 census as it is the first to enumerate entire households. Since the cohort of Civil War soldiers were born circa 1840, we find them as children in their fathers' households. Due to privacy issues, Congress stipulated a 72-year restriction on access to federal census schedules. Because of this restriction, the latest manuscript from which we have collected data is 1930. All information recorded on the census manuscripts is collected by the census inputter.
Pension records often contain the veteran's wife's name, marriage date, children's names and birth dates, and residence information. This kind of information aids significantly in accurately identifying individuals in the later Censuses. Additional information, recorded in free-form, about anything to do with the soldier's spouse, children, or siblings, including additional spouses, children, and siblings that would not fit into the inputting program is found in the Spouse, Children, Siblings Remarks section.
Recruit birth and death information helps determine where a soldier might live in a given census year. The name of the person the soldier is living with and their relation also helps inputters make census links. Additional family data that is inputted includes information about the soldier's spouse, marriage information, divorce/separated designation, information about the soldier's children, parents, and siblings. Additional information, recorded in free-form, about anything to do with the soldier's name, birth, death, appearance, immigration, or parents is found in the Personal, Parent's Remarks section.
The USCT sample also includes information about who the soldier was owned by, if he was a slave, and what plantation he lived on. Often the slaves took the last names of their owners when they enlisted, but later changed their names. Hence, you may find the soldier on the census with this former owner's surname. Slaves do not appear in the 1850 and 1860 censuses because they were not free in these years. However, if they were freemen living in the north, many were enumerated.
4. User Guide Table
| Variable Label | Variable Name | Data-Set | Source |
| recchi, hchi | Recruit/Household member number of children (1900, 1910) | CEN | U.S. Federal Census (1900, 1910) |
| recchl, hchl | Recruit/Household member number of children living (1900, 1910) | CEN | U.S. Federal Census (1900, 1910) |
| recmar, hmar | Recruit/Household member married within last year (1850, 1860, 1880) | CEN | U.S. Federal Census (1850, 1860, 1880) |
| recmst, hmst | Recruit/Household member marital status (1900, 1910, 1920, 1930) | CEN | U.S. Federal Census (1900, 1910, 1920, 1930) |
| recmmr, hmmr | Recruit/Household member married within year (1870) | CEN | U.S. Federal Census (1870) |
| recymr, hymr | Recruit/Household member number of years married (1900, 1910) | CEN | U.S. Federal Census (1900, 1910) |
| recwid, hwid | Widowed or Divorced (1880) | CEN | U.S. Federal Census (1880) |
| recsng, hsng | Single (1880) | CEN | U.S. Federal Census (1880) |
| recmrr, hmrr | Married (1880) | CEN | U.S. Federal Census (1880) |
| recfbp, hfbp | Recruit/Household member father's birthplace (1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930) | CEN | U.S. Federal Census (1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930) |
| recmbp, hmbp | Recruit/Household member mother's birthplace (1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930) | CEN | U.S. Federal Census (1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930) |
| recrel, hrel | Recruit/Household member relationship to head of household (1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930) | CEN | U.S. Federal Census (1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930) |
| cb_dqc01 - cb_dqc15 | Quality code for child's birth date | MIL | Military Quality Codes |
| cb_dt | Child's birth date | MIL | PEN: Family Circular Affidavit, Deposition Pension Application Widow Pension Application Minor |
| cb_cty01 - cb-cty15 | Child's birth city | MIL | PEN: Family Circular Affidavit, Deposition |
| cb_cnt01 - cb-cnt15 | Child's birth county | MIL | PEN: Family Circular Affidavit, Deposition |
| cb_st01 - cb-st15 | Child's birth state | MIL | PEN: Family Circular Affidavit, Deposition |
| cb_pqc01 - cb_pqc15 | Quality code for child's birth place | MIL | Military Quality Codes |
| cd_dt01 - cd_dt15 | Child's death date | MIL | PEN: Family Circular Affidavit, Deposition |
| cd_dqc01 -cd_dqc15 | Quality code for child's death date | MIL | Military Quality Codes |
| cd_cty01 - cd_cty15 | Child's death city | MIL | PEN: Family Circular Affidavit, Deposition |
| cd_cnt01 -cd_cnt15 | Child's death county | MIL | PEN: Family Circular Affidavit, Deposition |
| cd_st01 - cd_st15 | Child's death state | MIL | PEN: Family Circular Affidavit, Deposition |
| cd_pqc01 - cd_pqc15 | Quality code for child's death place | MIL | Military Quality Codes |
| wm_date1 - wm_date3 | Marriage date | MIL | PEN: Family Circular Marriage Certificate Affidavit, Deposition Pension Application Widow |
| wm_dtqc1 - wm_dtqc3 | Quality code for marriage date | MIL | Military Quality Codes |
| wm_plac1 - wm_plac3 | Marriage place | MIL | PEN: Family Circular Marriage Certificate Affidavit, Deposition Pension Application Widow |
| wm_city1 - wm_city3 | Marriage city | MIL | PEN: Family Circular Marriage Certificate Affidavit, Deposition Pension Application Widow |
| wm_cnty1- wmcnty3 | Marriage county | MIL | PEN: Family Circular Marriage Certificate Affidavit, Deposition Pension Application Widow |
| wm_stat1 - wmstat3 | Marriage state | MIL | PEN: Family Circular Marriage Certificate Affidavit, Deposition Pension Application Widow |
| wm_plqc1 - wmplqc3 | Quality code for marriage place | MIL | Military Quality Codes |
| wm_ofct1 - wm_ofct3 | Marriage officiator | MIL | PEN: Family Circular Marriage Certificate Affidavit, Deposition |
| wm_dors1 - wm_dors3 | Divorce or separation designation | MIL | PEN: Divorce Record Letter Pension Application Widow |
| wm_dsdt1 - wm_dsdt3 | Divorce or separation date | MIL | PEN: Divorce Record Letters from pensioner Pension Application Widow |
| wm_dsqc1 -dsqc3 | Quality code for divorce or separation date | MIL | Military Quality Codes |
| r_lvwth1 - r_lvwth4 | Person recruit was living with | MIL | PEN: Affidavit, Deposition |
| r_lwrln1 - r_lwrln3 | Recruit's relationship to co-habitant | MIL | PEN: Affidavit, Deposition |
| r_lvwdt1 - r_lvwdt3 | Date recruit lived with co-habitant | MIL | PEN: Affidavit, Deposition |
| r_lwdqc1 - r_lwdqc3 | Quality code for date recruit lived with co-habitant | MIL | Military Quality Codes |
| wifname1 - wifname3 | Recruit's wife's name | MIL | PEN: Family Circular Marriage Certificate Affidavit, Deposition Hospital Bed Card |
| wb_date1 - wb_date3 | Recruit's wife's birth date | MIL | PEN: Family Circular Marriage Certificate Affidavit, Deposition |
| wb_dtqc1 - wb_dtqc3 | Quality code for recruit's wife's birth date | MIL | Military Quality Codes |
| wd_date1 - wd_date3 | Recruit's wife's death date | MIL | PEN: Family Circular Affidavit, Deposition Minor's pension application |
| wd_dtqc1 - wd_dtqc3 | Quality code for recruit's wife's death date | MIL | Military Quality Codes |
| fthrname | Father's name | MIL | PEN: Marriage Certificate Affidavit, Deposition Pension Application Parent |
| fb_date | Father's birth date | MIL | PEN: Affidavit, Deposition Pension Application Parent |
| fb_dtqc | Quality code for father's birth date | MIL | Military Quality Codes |
| fb_city | Father's birth city | MIL | PEN: Recruit's death certificate Affidavit, Deposition |
| fb_cnty | Father's birth county | MIL | PEN: Death Certificate Affidavit, Deposition |
| fb_stat | Father's birth state | MIL | PEN: Death Certificate Affidavit, Deposition |
| fb_plqc | Quality code for father's birth place | MIL | Military Quality Codes |
| fd_date | Father's death date | MIL | PEN: Affidavit, Deposition Pension Application Parent |
| fd_dtqc | Quality code for father's death date | MIL | Military Quality Codes |
| fd_city | Father's death city | MIL | PEN: Affidavit, Deposition Pension Application Parent |
| fd_cnty | Father's death county | MIL | PEN: Affidavit, Deposition Pension Application Parent |
| fd_stat | Father's death state | MIL | PEN: Affidavit, Deposition Pension Application Parent |
| fd_plqc | Quality code for father's death place | MIL | Military Quality Codes |
| mthrname | Mother's name | MIL | PEN: Marriage Certificate Affidavit, Deposition Pension Application Parent |
| mb_date | Mother's birth date | MIL | PEN: Affidavit, Deposition Pension Application Parent |
| mb_dtqc | Quality code for mother's birth date | MIL | Military Quality Codes |
| mb_city | Mother's birth city | MIL | PEN: Death Certificate Affidavit, Deposition |
| mb_cnty | Mother's birth county | MIL | PEN: Death Certificate Affidavit, Deposition |
| mb_stat | Mother's birth state | MIL | PEN: Death Certificate Affidavit, Deposition |
| mb_plqc | Quality code for mother's birth place | MIL | Military Quality Codes |
| md_date | Mother's death date | MIL | PEN: Affidavit, Deposition Pension Application Parent |
| md_dtqc | Quality code for mother's death date | MIL | Military Quality Codes |
| md_city | Mother's death city | MIL | PEN: Affidavit, Deposition Pension Application Parent |
| md_cnty | Mother's death county | MIL | PEN: Affidavit, Deposition Pension Application Parent |
| md_stat | Mother's death state | MIL | PEN: Affidavit, Deposition Pension Application Parent |
| md_plqc | Quality code for mother's death place | MIL | Military Quality Codes |
| pr_fmpt1 - pr_fmpt3 | Parents' residence- father, mother, parent's designation | MIL | PEN: Affidavit, Deposition Pension Application Parent CMSR: Hospital Bed Card |
| pr_city1 - pr_city3 | Parents' residence birth city | MIL | PEN: Affidavit, Deposition Pension Application Parent CMSR: Hospital Bed Card |
| pr_cnty1 - pr_cnty3 | Parents' residence birth county | MIL | PEN: Affidavit, Deposition Pension Application Parent CMSR: Hospital Bed Card |
| pr_stat1 - pr_stat3 | Parents' residence birth state | MIL | PEN: Affidavit, Deposition Pension Application Parent CMSR: Hospital Bed Card |
| pr_plqc1 - pr_plqc3 | Quality code for parents' residence birth place | MIL | Military Quality Codes |
| pr_fmdt1 - pr_fmdt3 | Parents' residence birth from date they lived there | MIL | PEN: Affidavit, Deposition Pension Application Parent CMSR: Hospital Bed Card |
| pr_fdqc1 - pr_fdqc3 | Quality code for parent's residence birth from date they lived there | MIL | Military Quality Codes |
| pr_todt1 - pr_todt3 | Parents' residence birth to date they lived there | MIL | PEN: Affidavit, Deposition Pension Application Parent CMSR: Hospital Bed Card |
| pr_tdqc1 - pr_tdqc3 | Quality code for parents' residence birth to date they lived there | MIL | Military Quality Codes |
| sibname1 - sibname7 | Sibling names | MIL | PEN: Affidavit, Deposition Family Bible |
| sb_date1 - sb_date7 | Sibling birth dates | MIL | PEN: Family Bible Affidavit, Deposition Pension Board Census Search |
| sb_dtqc1 - sb_dtqc7 | Quality code for sibling birth dates | MIL | Military Quality Codes |