Mexican American war

[Pennsylvania]

Hello, I am researching my 5th great grandfather and I'm trying to figure out if he served in the Mexican American war. His name is Abraham B Kauffman he was born on Jan 1st 1822 and died on June 8th 1889 in Snyder County Pennsylvania where I currently reside. The military records show there was a man that had the exact same name and was born the same year. The regiment my 5th great grandfather may been have part of was the 2nd Pennsylvania Infantry Co.A
Unfortunately the records don't mention any other information such as the name of a spouse or place of residence. I would really appreciate any help. Thanks

 

[GELongstreet]

The Soldiers and Sailors System is equally brief, saying there was a Private Abraham B. Kauffman in Company H, enlisting on 1846-12-01 aged 24.

 

[GELongstreet]

And a few more cards right over here.

 

[Pennsylvania]

Yeah that's why I'm not sure how to find out if my 5th great grandfather and this man are the same guy.
The name and age are the same but there is nothing I can find to connect them

 

[Story]

died on June 8th 1889 in Snyder County Pennsylvania

One way to do this is to find an overlap between his known Location/Date of Death and a primary source proof of veteranhood.

1) Find someone with a newspapers.com account to do a search from 08JUNE89 to about the end of June 89, for an obituary in Pennsylvania papers (you might find him mentioned in a publication some distance from the county and veteran status was often part of the writeup).

2) The PA records are here, but might be a forelorn hope
The records provide little genealogical information.

Mexican War Records

Mexican War Records

www.phmc.pa.gov

3) Post a request on FindAGrave for someone to take a photo of his headstone (if he has one). Might be a government issued one.

Abraham Kauffman (1822-1889) - Find a Grave...

Calculated date of birth from age at death.

www.findagrave.com

4) See also https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/8750/

5) An 'Abraham Kauffman' shows up as a hit on Synder County's listing of war veterans, but under CIVIL WAR.

https://www.snydercounty.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/War-Veterans-Listing.pdf

This gives you more data points to work with, since a 40-ish veteran would be an ideal candidate for an NCO/Officer slot during the mad scramble of 1861. If A.B. Kauffman turns out to be Abraham Kauffman Synder Co civil war guy, then his pension package might mention Mexican War service (and you'd get a two-fer from your efforts).

Note - not to be confused with this Abraham B Kauffman of PA

Abraham Brenner Kauffman (1829-1910) - Find a...

The son of John & Elizabeth (Brenner) Kauffman, Abraham married Elizabeth Smith on February 13, 1853, and fathered the children you see linked below. In 1860, he was a cooper living in Millersville, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and stood 5' 4 tall with brown hair and blue eyes. A Civil War...

www.findagrave.com

6) Look for Abraham Kauffman Civil War guy's service to be in a regiment with a term of enlistment / discharge date in mid-to-early fall 1864, as baby Abraham came out of the oven in June 1865. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/173824717/abraham-g-kauffman

Note: he doesn't appear on this Snyder County list from Bates (usually pretty accurate) so he might have enlisted in a Regiment from outside the county http://genealogytrails.com/penn/snyder/military/3yr_records.html

7) IF there's a widow's pension packet on FOLD3, expect your MexWar/ACW candidate's second wife Annie's name to be all over it.

Annie Schaeffer Kauffman (1872-1957) - Find a...

Pennsylvania, Death Certificates, 1906-1964 Name: Annie M Kauffman [Annie M Schoffer] Gender: Female Race: White Age: 85 Birth Date: 29 Jan 1872 Birth Place: Port Trevorton, Pennsylvania Death Date: 30 Apr 1957 Death Place: Decatur, Mifflin, Pennsylvania, USA Father: Jacob Schoffer Mother...

www.findagrave.com

 

[Pennsylvania]

Thank you very much guys I really appreciate it.

 

[lupaglupa]

Fold3 says that Abraham made a land bounty application based on his service which was denied. That application can be requested from the National Archives, either directly or through a service. Usually those applications have more information on them than the service records.

 

[lupaglupa]

@Story gave you an excellent list of tips. I'll add one more (in addition to the information about the land bounty above) - One way to prove that someone is your ancestor is to prove it isn't someone else. If you can find another man with the same name (and there was one in Lancaster County) who has definite links to the military record, then you know it's not your ancestor.

I did do the newspaper search and found only a mention of his funeral. There may have been an obituary but the paper for the correct date doesn't seem to have been preserved.

 

[RedRover]

Here's some history of the 2nd Pennsylvania in the war...

Amazon: 2nd PA letters, Co. E...

 

[Pennsylvania]

I actually tried getting his pension records but he never got any. So they offered to pull his land bounty records and I told them not to pull them. i regret not getting them now.

 

[Story]

I actually tried getting his pension records but he never got any.

For the Mexican War, right?

6) Look for Abraham Kauffman Civil War guy's service to be in a regiment with a term of enlistment / discharge date in mid-to-early fall 1864, as baby Abraham came out of the oven in June 1865. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/173824717/abraham-g-kauffman

This FindAGrave entry - as many can be - is garbled. Follow me on this

Warbaby Abraham G Kauffman Jr (born 09JUNE1865) a spouse Annie Kauffman and his mother was Ellavina Goss.

When you run Abraham Kauffman in Ancestry's U.S., Civil War Pension Index: General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934, the very first hit for that name is from Pennsylvania with a spouse named Elina (close enough to Ellavina, since Ancestry's transcribers can be woefully sloppy at times). That's per warbaby's transcribed PA death certificate, which is pretty good evidence.

abraham kauffman - U.S., Civil War Pension Index: General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934 - Ancestry.com

Also, if you check the photo requests at that Lutheran Cemetery where Abraham is buried you'll see there's someone else asking about him back in December 2016. Might want to reach out to them and compare notes.

Photo Requests - Find a Grave

The World’s largest gravesite collection. Contribute, create and discover gravesites from all over the world. .

www.findagrave.com

 

[Pennsylvania]

Yes I should have clarified that I meant he never got a Mexican American War pension. I have seen the civil war pension. I will look into him some more. Thanks