Ancestor with few Records...

[Evan]

Well I just got started researching more Civil War Ancestors, and even though you heard this before, I'm going to say it EVERY time I post a new thread. I am Canadian, and most my ties come from Scotland.

Well I've so far found 4 ancestors deep inside my Dads side so I decided to go for a hunt on my Mothers side- which right now, I am still working on building.

So on my hunt I went through one of my grandpa's relatives, the McRae family, in which my middle name is "McRae" and I started to find some ties from them to the US. Well I went to Donald McRae's (<-- My middle name is named after this guy) daughter, who's husbands father's father is Nathan Salyards. (Basically he's my paternal grandfather of husband of 1st cousin 2x removed). Now this is where it got tricky, Nathan was born in the US (b. 1825) so I'd thought I would have more luck maybe finding out he served.

Before we get into anything else, I'll give you some info on Nathan Salyards.

Nathan Salyards
Born 1812 in Virginia, Shenandoah, Virginia, United States.
Died 27 Jul 1884 in Sullivan, Indiana, United States.
Married Christine Stocker (m. 1832)
Married Sarah Rennecker (m. 1844)
Married Harriet Jane Johnson (m. 1865)

The first file that popped up was a Pension file.

The information matches- including his Widow and the date of filing.

And so I don't get confused, he was a LADY'S MAN! I just looked through the family tree, he had 3 different wives and a lot of children..

Alright, so you may think I've gotten pretty far eh? Well here's the hard part. I couldn't find any Service/Soldier Records at ALL. I also use the Soldiers and Sailors Database (http://www.nps.gov/civilwar/soldiers-and-sailors-database.htm) and couldn't find any names under Nathan Salyards.

I believe he fought because there are no other Nathan Salyards out there. Not at-least in this time period!

Hope ya'll can help me out once again!

-Evan
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I'll probably be editing this thread quite a bit, I notice he's very confusing. He has birth year's listed as 1825 and 1812. But I believe 1812 is right because his first child was born in 1832.

 

[Nathanb1]

If you can get the pension file it should have the info you're looking for.

 

[Evan]

I believe this is my Ancestor. I haven't found any other records of different Nathan Salyards.

 

[Nathanb1]

Duh. You probably knew that. Texas has a great system....other states are different. Good luck!

 

[Evan]

Not bad for being a Canadian! That is... lets see, six now!

 

[James B White]

Try the NPS database again with the spellings:

Nathan Salycars
Nathan Salyears
Nathan Salliers

He shows up under those names in Co. F, 60th IL, same as the pension.

 

[Evan]

Alright thanks! Must of been several spellings of the name I guess...

 

[AndyHall]

Fifteen kids, the last being born right before his death, when he was in his 70s? Criminy, no wonder he needed a pension.

 

[AndyHall]

Duh. You probably knew that. Texas has a great system....other states are different. Good luck!

You know those Texas pensions are obtainable directly through Ancestry now?

 

[Nathanb1]

You know those Texas pensions are obtainable directly through Ancestry now?

Saw that. I don't really need any now, of course!

 

[Evan]

Fifteen kids, the last being born right before his death, when he was in his 70s? Criminy, no wonder he needed a pension.

How did you get the exact count of kids? I'm always not sure if other people's family trees are right.

 

[AndyHall]

How did you get the exact count of kids? I'm always not sure if other people's family trees are right.

I looked him up on Ancestry. No idea if the number if kids is really fifteen, as someone has him. But fifteen is a lot more interesting than, say, eight, and that's what's important, right?

 

[Evan]

I looked him up on Ancestry. No idea if the number if kids is really fifteen, as someone has him. But fifteen is a lot more interesting than, say, eight, and that's what's important, right?

Yea, I counted fifteen as-well in someone's family tree and it seams legit.

 

[Nathanb1]

My dad (left) was one of 15 children--all of whom lived to adulthood. His uncle, who lived nearby, had 9 or 10 (can't remember exactly). So it's not out of the question at all!

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

I thought I'd see if Illinois had a good look-up, like PA and NY do, and they do. It looks like the only Salyards ( in those records, which don't always have every soldier ) would be a Marshall, of Long Point, Ill, Co H, 20th Ill. Who knows if that's a lead or not- it sounds like you're extremely good at running this stuff down.

 

[Evan]

I thought I'd see if Illinois had a good look-up, like PA and NY do, and they do. It looks like the only Salyards ( in those records, which don't always have every soldier ) would be a Marshall, of Long Point, Ill, Co H, 20th Ill. Who knows if that's a lead or not- it sounds like you're extremely good at running this stuff down.

I did see the Marshall but I don't believe he's related, or he could be one who I haven't found yet. I find the longer you use Ancestry, the better you get at it and know what to look for. I went from six to ten ancestors last night.

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

Have you tried just typing in the surname to the Public Member Tree search? It's sometimes wierd what you'll come up with after a few pages of scrolling through that. I can't figure out how their softwear works- as in at ALL because just when it looks like your search has moved on to 'sounds like' names, it goes right back to THE name. Something else which has been sucessful in kind of meandering sideways to hits is just asking the photo/document section to give you results. Of course, it's always frustrating to get a 'hit' and it's from a private tree, isn't it?

Please excuse if these are things which of course you've already picked up on- sounds like you know perfectly well how to get the most out of Ancestry!

Wanted to say Fold 3 is doing a free 7 day membership- I don't know how extensive their collection might be but I played with it myself briefly and found a ton of documents. I already had them, just was trying to see how good the resource might be.

Congrats on finding more ancestors! It's such a kick, uncovering them, isn't it?

 

[donna]

It sounds like you are doing an excellent job on your research. I been at it for over 4 years now and enjoy it so much. One of my families they had 15 children. Most families were very large at that time. They also lost many children at birth and when young. Good luck on your research.

 

[shanniereb]

Well I just got started researching more Civil War Ancestors, and even though you heard this before, I'm going to say it EVERY time I post a new thread. I am Canadian, and most my ties come from Scotland.

Well I've so far found 4 ancestors deep inside my Dads side so I decided to go for a hunt on my Mothers side- which right now, I am still working on building.

So on my hunt I went through one of my grandpa's relatives, the McRae family, in which my middle name is "McRae" and I started to find some ties from them to the US. Well I went to Donald McRae's (<-- My middle name is named after this guy) daughter, who's husbands father's father is Nathan Salyards. (Basically he's my paternal grandfather of husband of 1st cousin 2x removed). Now this is where it got tricky, Nathan was born in the US (b. 1825) so I'd thought I would have more luck maybe finding out he served.

Before we get into anything else, I'll give you some info on Nathan Salyards.


The first file that popped up was a Pension file.

The information matches- including his Widow and the date of filing.

And so I don't get confused, he was a LADY'S MAN! I just looked through the family tree, he had 3 different wives and a lot of children..

Alright, so you may think I've gotten pretty far eh? Well here's the hard part. I couldn't find any Service/Soldier Records at ALL. I also use the Soldiers and Sailors Database (http://www.nps.gov/civilwar/soldiers-and-sailors-database.htm) and couldn't find any names under Nathan Salyards.

I believe he fought because there are no other Nathan Salyards out there. Not at-least in this time period!

Hope ya'll can help me out once again!

-Evan
------------------------------------------------------------
I'll probably be editing this thread quite a bit, I notice he's very confusing. He has birth year's listed as 1825 and 1812. But I believe 1812 is right because his first child was born in 1832.

It appears he fought in the same regiment as my ancestor William Minson . 60th Ill. I will do some proding and see what I can come up with!

 

[shanniereb]

Just checked ancestry.com and fold 3 the only thing of significance coming up is the pension application with Harriet. He lived in Indiana and apparently fought with the 60th Illinois co. E. I am still working on it though.