1. Summary
The Union Army data has significant information on residences for recruits and household members. This includes residences that come from the U.S. Federal Census. Place variables are additionally classified under other categories, which are the primary association.
2. Variable Groups
Collection: Military, Pension and Medical Records
Recruit's Residence: Residence street address, Residence city, Residence county, Residence state, Beginning date for recruit's residence at a location, Ending date for recruit's residence at a location
Parents' Residence: Parent's residence- father, mother, parent's designation; Parents' residence city, Parents' residence county, Parents' residence state, Parents' residence from date they lived there, Parents' residence to date they lived there
Collection: U.S. Federal Census
Census location: County name, Dwelling number, Farm schedule number, House number, Institution, Name of town, Political ward, Post office, State, Street address, Enumeration district, Supervisor district, Subdivision, Block, Incorporated city, town, or village, Unincorporated place
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
Civil War pensions were available for veterans with disabilities as well as for deceased veterans' widows, minor children, dependent major children, and parents. Under the Act of July 14, 1862, the first pension legislation specific to the Civil War, the veterans were eligible only for disabilities (wounds or chronic illnesses) received during wartime. The Act of June 27, 1890 changed that requirement and expanded eligibility to include disabilities not directly related to wartime experience. As a result, the number of men on the pension rolls swelled. Laws passed after 1907 changed the pension from disability-based to age-based.
When a veteran wanted to receive a pension, he would, under his attorney's supervision, submit an application/declaration. This form was sent to the Pension Bureau in Washington D.C., which reviewed the application and collected further testimony in support of the veteran's application. The decision is recorded on a claim form, which is input alongside the pension application/declaration. Veterans could, and often did, apply for a pension under several laws or submit additional applications because of an increase in disability or a dissatisfaction with the Pension Bureau's decision, therefore, records usually contain more than one pension application and claim.
Information about each pension application/declaration and claim is recorded separately. The pension board required that the veteran appear before a Board of Examining Surgeons to determine his rate of disability. Once the board had the veteran's application and the surgeons' determination of disability, they would issue their ruling-granting the pension or rejecting the claim.
A veteran's application for a pension, includes supporting documentation regarding:
birth
residences
family information
occupation at enlistment
employment after discharge from the service
summary of military and medical wartime experience
affidavits from comrades, neighbors, family members, and physicians.
There are several types of dependent pensions. These are: widow, minor, parent, dependent major, and sibling. Dependent pensions include information on:
dependent's name
including maiden, married, remarried names
dependent's relationship to the veteran
dependent's age
dependent's residence
veteran's death
date, cause, and burial
marriage
Information regarding the veteran's economic status is found in dependent pensions. For example, in order to receive a pension, a parent had to prove that her/his deceased son contributed to the support of the family in a substantial way. In such a situation, one might find an employer's affidavit testifying that the young man worked as a carpenter before enlisting and gave every nickel he earned to his mother for food. Also, to prove their economic dependency, parents might submit a letter or letters the veteran had sent home during the war which mentioned sending his army pay home for the family.
Important material is found in a variety of documents within the pension. An example is the veteran's religious affiliation. We find this type of information in several places, including the baptismal records, marriage certificates, and burial information. Nowhere in the official Pension Bureau forms is the veteran asked to state his religion. Another example is a veteran's residence. Rarely will a document in a pension state that the veteran lived at Constantia, Oswego County, NY from July 1, 1862 to May 10, 1894, but there may be an envelope in the file that gives that address on February 28, 1865. Lacking a "residences" document, we must peruse all documents, including envelopes, for addresses and dates, then piece together the veteran's residence patterns from disparate sources with accompanying quality codes. In the residence example above, the researcher would assign a quality code "9" to the date found on the envelope indicating that on the particular date recorded the recruit lived in Constantia, NY. The "9" is the code for "at present time."
Viewing the pension as a whole document allows us to roughly reconstruct a veteran's life. We do this by recording different places of residence, occupations, levels of labor force participation, health problems, family relations, and standards of living throughout the veteran's pensionable lifetime.
The U.S. Constitution requires that a population census be taken every 10 years in order to apportion seats in the House of Representatives and determine the number of votes in the electoral college and appointments in state and local legislatures. The first census was taken in 1790. Though originally conceived as simply a population count, the censuses evolved to include much more information, such as age, marital status, occupation, birthplace, disability, nativity, etc. This additional data is very useful to historians, economists, demographers, genealogists, etc.
Because of privacy issues, Congress has stipulated a 72-year restriction to access of Federal Census schedules. Because of this restriction, the latest census manuscript we have access to is 1940. The 1850 census was the first to list people other than the head of household, as well as age, occupation, birthplace, and value of real estate. The majority of Civil War soldiers in our sample were born around 1840, so the 1850 census gives us a good idea of the early life of these men.
Census collection begins by extracting information from the Military, Pension, and Medical Records data set to guide us in making the strongest link possible to census schedules. We collect information on the households of the soldiers from the U.S. Federal Censuses of 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, and 1930. All the information listed on the census manuscripts is collected. Early samples, such as the Union Army data set, were collected before the 1920, 1930, and 1940 census manuscripts were made public. Additionally, the Union Army sample was not linked the 1870 and 1880 censuses.
We try to link each soldier to all censuses for which he is alive. Since these men all served in the Civil War (1861-1865), we know they were alive in 1850 and 1860. If a soldier was born in a foreign country and we know from the military information and/or the 1900-1930 censuses that he did not enter the U.S. until after 1850 and/or 1860, do not search for him in those years. If the soldier served in the United States Colored Troops (USCT), he may have been a slave before the war. Slaves were not enumerated on the 1850 and 1860 censuses. If the military records indicate that a soldier was a slave, he is not searched for on the 1850 and 1860 censuses. If a black soldier was born in or enlisted in a free state or a border state (DE, KY, MD, MO, TN, WV), he is searched for in 1850 and 1860.
A "quality code" is assigned to every census link which ranks the strength of a match based on the information found in the military records. The quality codes range from 1 to 4, 1 indicating the strongest link and 4 the weakest.
In the absence of a death date, all soldiers are searched through 1880. When there is no death date in the military record, we use the last living date: application date, residence date, marriage date, discharge date, etc., that proves the soldier was alive, and search for the soldier in all census years including one decade after the last living date.
3.2 Variables
In collecting the military data, multiple instances of residence information were input. Each instance of these house address variables must be linked together by numerical suffixes. For example, r_str01 is the recruit's residence street address which links to the same instance of the city, county, and state—r_city01, r_cnty01, r_stat01. This also applies to the dates of residency.
4. User Guide Table
| Variable Label | Variable Name | Data-Set | Source |
| r_str01 - r_str15 | Recruit's residence street address | MIL | PEN:Affidavit, Letter, Deposition Pension Application Pension Ruling CMSR: Certificate of Discharge for Disability |
| r_city01 - r_city15 | Recruit's residence city | MIL | PEN:Affidavit, Letter, Deposition Pension Application Pension Ruling CMSR: Certificate of Discharge for Disability |
| r_cnty01 - r_cnty15 | Recruit's residence county | MIL | PEN:Affidavit, Letter, Deposition Pension Application Pension Ruling CMSR: Certificate of Discharge for Disability |
| r_stat01 - r_stat15 | Recruit's residence state | MIL | PEN:Affidavit, Letter, Deposition Pension Application Pension Ruling CMSR: Certificate of Discharge for Disability |
| r_fmdt01 - r_fmdt15 | Beginning date for recruit's residence at a location | MIL | PEN:Affidavit, Letter, Deposition Pension Application Pension Ruling CMSR: Certificate of Discharge for Disability |
| r_fdqc01 - r_fdqc15 | Quality code for beginning date for recruit's residence at a location | MIL | Quality codes for date and place variables |
| r_todt01 - r_todt15 | Ending date for recruit's residence at a location | MIL | PEN:Affidavit, Letter, Deposition |
| r_tdqc01 - r_tdqc15 | Quality code for ending date for recruit's residence at a location | MIL | Military Quality Codes |
| pr_fmpt1 - pr_fmpt3 | Parents' residence | MIL | PEN: Affidavit, Letter, Deposition Pension Application Parent CMSR: Hospital Bed Card |
| pr_city1 - pr_city3 | Parents' residence city | MIL | PEN: Affidavit, Letter, Deposition Pension Application Parent CMSR: Hospital Bed Card |
| pr_cnty1 - pr_cnty3 | Parents' residence county | MIL | PEN: Affidavit, Letter, Deposition Pension Application Parent CMSR: Hospital Bed Card |
| pr_stat1 - pr_stat3 | Parents' residence state | MIL | PEN: Affidavit, Letter, Deposition Pension Application Parent CMSR: Hospital Bed Card |
| pr_plqc1 - pr_plqc3 | Quality code for parents' residence place | MIL | Military Quality Codes |
| pr_fmdt1 - pr_fmdt3 | Parents' residence from date they lived there | MIL | PEN: Affidavit, Letter, Deposition Pension Application Parent CMSR: Hospital Bed Card |
| pr_fdqc1 - pr_fdqc3 | Quality code for parents' residence from date | MIL | Military Quality Codes |
| pr_todt1 - pr_todt3 | Parents' residence to date they lived there | MIL | PEN: Affidavit, Letter, Deposition Pension Application Parent CMSR: Hospital Bed Card |
| pr_tdqc1 - pr_tdqc3 | Quality code for parents' residence from date they lived there | MIL | Military Quality Codes |
| ctynam | County name (1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930) | CEN | U.S. Federal Census (1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930) |
| dwlnum | Enumeration dwelling number (1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930) | CEN | U.S. Federal Census (1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930) |
| recfmn, hfmn | Recruit/Household member farm schedule number (1900, 1910, 1920, 1930) | CEN | U.S. Federal Census (1900, 1910, 1920, 1930) |
| hosnum | House number on street (1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930) | CEN | U.S. Federal Census (1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930) |
| istnam | Residential institution name (1900, 1910, 1920, 1930) | CEN | U.S. Federal Census (1900, 1910, 1920, 1930) |
| twnnam | Town name (1850, 1860, 1870, 1880) | CEN | U.S. Federal Census (1850, 1860, 1870, 1880) |
| twpnam | Township name ( 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930) | CEN | U.S. Federal Census (1900, 1910, 1920, 1930) |
| supdis | Supervisor's district (1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930) | CEN | U.S. Federal Census (1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930) |
| endist | Enumeration district (1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930) | CEN | U.S. Federal Census (1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930) |
| blcnum_3 | Block number (1930) | CEN | U.S. Federal Census (1930) |
| subdiv | Name of subdivision (1900) | CEN | U.S. Federal Census (1900) |
| incnam | Name of incorporated city, town, or village (1910, 1920, 1930) | CEN | U.S. Federal Census (1910, 1920, 1930) |
| unincp_3 | Name of Unincorporated place (1930) | CEN | U.S. Federal Census (1930) |
| wardnm | Political ward (1900, 1910, 1920, 1930) | CEN | U.S. Federal Census (1900, 1910, 1920, 1930)) |
| pstoff | Post office district (1860, 1870) | CEN | U.S. Federal Census (1860, 1870) |
| stanam | State name (1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930) | CEN | U.S. Federal Census (1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930) |
| stradd | Street address (1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930) | CEN | U.S. Federal Census (1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930) |