Best database?

Someone sure did a lot of work on this database! Was it you?
Actually I have a difficult time remembering how to navigate the webpage (it is not mine). I have gone places I can't return to, wish I could, and then close out. By the time I find my way back on some places it is overdue to respond for an answer I desired to share. Anyway I remain silent on behalf of surety unless I can prove my point.
Thanks, though.
Lubliner.
 
I pretty much always use the National Archives, at least as a gateway to research about a specific soldier. A lot of times, the enlistment papers will have info like the soldier's age at enlistment, what county they enlisted from, things like that to help tie it to the correct person. This is especially useful if they have a common name, as sometimes just searching their name on the NPS database yields 30 people with the same name, and little information to differentiate between each of them. After finding paperwork in the archives, I branch off to various different county archival websites and such.
 
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I don't know that there is a "best database". I use fold3, Ancestry and the NPS database. Sometimes it takes a combination of all 3, sometimes I find information on a soldier in one source and zilch in the others. For some Texas soldiers, the Texas State Historical Association is useful too.
 
I don't know that there is a "best database". I use fold3, Ancestry and the NPS database. Sometimes it takes a combination of all 3, sometimes I find information on a soldier in one source and zilch in the others. For some Texas soldiers, the Texas State Historical Association is useful too.
Fold 3 is another good resource. I have had mixed results using Ancestry.
 
I have had mixed results using Ancestry.
I've had pretty good results with it. I use it mainly to search for pension records, headstone applications and Texas State Troops Muster Records. Census Records and an occasional death certificate found there have been very helpful too.
 
Consider using www.familysearch.org as a starting point. It is free and has excellent tree building, sources and other tools. You can use it as a "front end" search engine for Fold3 and the National Archives. Also it might help you locate other useful sources which are not strictly military related. For example for one of my civil war relatives I located a state historical marker which mentioned him. The ability to link your ancestor to existing trees can help you find other sources.

Fold3 an Ancestry are fee services, but most municipal libraries offer a free portal You can access the Fold3 or Ancestry data from your home computer using the library portal web site and your library card. When using the free library portal there are some restrictions, such as you can only download one page at at time, not an entire document. So to download a five page document you would have five separate pdf files, not one.

Cheers
 
Consider using www.familysearch.org as a starting point. It is free and has excellent tree building, sources and other tools. You can use it as a "front end" search engine for Fold3 and the National Archives. Also it might help you locate other useful sources which are not strictly military related. For example for one of my civil war relatives I located a state historical marker which mentioned him. The ability to link your ancestor to existing trees can help you find other sources.

Fold3 an Ancestry are fee services, but most municipal libraries offer a free portal You can access the Fold3 or Ancestry data from your home computer using the library portal web site and your library card. When using the free library portal there are some restrictions, such as you can only download one page at at time, not an entire document. So to download a five page document you would have five separate pdf files, not one.

Cheers
Re Family Search: not just the main search page--if you slide over to the right hand site (to Collections) and enter "civil war", you can pull up all sorts of pension records etc. If you enter the name of your state, you'll get a list of all the collections for that state (I use the Maine Collections for enlistment papers, service cards and veteran burial information).

IMO: stay away from the trees. Many contain really serious errors and confusions of identity.
 
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