Slaveholders in your family?

[lrd89]

Sam that is a great post! I must say that $222 is a LITTLE out of my price range, however. I hope the documents turn out to be a genealogical "gold mine" at that price.

[nbforrest]

444 pages, wow! I have done some business with NARA in the past and I wish I could find that much info on my ancestors. I feel a little guilty not fully exploiting my nearness to NARA in DC, but I just don't have the time to sit down and sort through records. Maybe someday.

Respectfully

[lrd89]

I would like to go to NARA too. My recent order of CW pension files came from the Atlanta office, so that must be where they have the CW records. I don't think that my southern ancestors filed a claim after the war, they weren't exactly Unionists.

[nbforrest]

I ordered copies of a couple of my ancestors' service records and got partials on both. I really would like to dive in and find out about my ggg grandfather especially. It has become something of a mission on my part to discover where and when during the war he died. I have some tantalizing clues, but at this point it has become apparant that the truth will only surface with long hours of looking through muster rolls, rosters and the like. NARA is a great resource, but like most people, I don't have the time to use it to its potential.

Respectfully

[samgrant]

Originally Posted by lrd89

I would like to go to NARA too. My recent order of CW pension files came from the Atlanta office, so that must be where they have the CW records. I don't think that my southern ancestors filed a claim after the war, they weren't exactly Unionists.

Ird89, If you check out some of the disallowed claims, you will see that many claims were made by folks who "weren't exactly Unionists".

http://freepages.history.rootsweb.co...c/71index.html

Only 32% of claims were approved and I get the impression that in most cases even where approved, the claimant did not often get the full value of the claim (My GGG claimed for $31,620, but was awarded only a little over $14,000 14 years after the property had been taken.

I guess the records for my GGG's claim run to 444 pages must be that the Commission had to be very strict in it's judgments (again, see some disallowed claims, some of which you might find almost ludicrous), and that much documentation (witness testimony, etc., see questions asked of the claimants and witnesses: http://www.slcl.lib.mo.us/branches/h...uest-final.htm) in support of the claim was needed.

My GGG was apparently a fairy smart guy, based on my info on his business activities subsequent to the war, so he probably put together an impressive claim.

(Unfortunately he was apparently not smart enough to leave a handsome financial legacy to his descendants!)

[unionblue]

samgrant,

My Great-great grandfather, Jacob Lee Hamilton, owned seven slaves, three men, three women and one six month old child.

I must admit, it made me and my wife a bit uncomfortable to find out at least one of our ancestors had owned human beings as property.

Sincerely,
Unionblue

[lrd89]

Originally Posted by unionblue

samgrant,

My Great-great grandfather, Jacob Lee Hamilton, owned seven slaves, three men, three women and one six month old child.

I must admit, it made me and my wife a bit uncomfortable to find out at least one of our ancestors had owned human beings as property.

Sincerely,
Unionblue

In my genealogy papers I have the will of an ancestor who died in Virginia leaving slaves to a son. He mentions the slaves by name. That son later had numerous slaves by the 1820 census. Reading the names of the slaves gave me an odd feeling.
Roger

[Historicaly Correct]

Yep, mine was a slaveholder. My GGGrandfather lived in the southern part of Va and during the mid to late 1800's. I found out doing my geneoligy on my fathers side (Keeling).

[Pogster]

My great-great-great grandfather was a Tennessee Unionist who owned one slave, but freed him before the war. However, Sam stayed on through and after the war and is buried with his former master's family.

My ggggrandfather had six sons who served the Union and six sons-in-law who served in the Confederate army.

Family gatherings during the 1860s must have been interesting.

[samgrant]

Many posts to the fact that some ancestors may have owned slaves. I was wondering not just about that fact of that, but if any one had any information (recollections, reminisscences, accounts) of what that situation was like.