New Databases on Fold3

[Fairfield]

Fold3 sent an advertising email: two new ACW databases: Prisoner of War Records and Lists of Persons Employed in Army Hospitals. I don't subscribe to Fold3 but I know that a lot of you do. I hope that this addition proves helpful.

 

[lupaglupa]

That sounds very promising! It may be a new way to search existing records or it may represent new materials. I'll definitely check it out.

 

[Bruce Vail]

Do any of the regulars here on CWT have access to the employees of Army Hospitals?

 

[lupaglupa]

If you mean the list @Fairfield mentioned above, then yes.

 

[lupaglupa]

The explanatory text for the "List of Persons Employed in Army Hospitals" reads:

This item consists of a single volume whose cover title reads "Names of Female Nurses Cooks and Laundresses Appearing on Rolls as Employed in Army Hospitals During the Civil War." This volume certainly does not include all hospitals or hospital transport vessels, nor all nurses, cooks, or laundresses. For each person listed, no information is given about the specific position held or dates of employment. There references to specific volumes and page numbers of "old books" that have not been identified.

In addition to hospitals on land, the information concerning the following hospital transport vessels are also included: Atlantic, Baltic, Ben DeFord, Charles McDougall, D. A. January, Daniel Webster, J. S. Pringle, John Warner, Knickerbocker, and State of Maine.

 

[13 IL Cav & 64 GA Inf]

Fold3 sent an advertising email: two new ACW databases: Prisoner of War Records and Lists of Persons Employed in Army Hospitals. I don't subscribe to Fold3 but I know that a lot of you do. I hope that this addition proves helpful.

Thanks for the heads up. I have it, but don't use it or even Ancestry.com much any more. I need a shot of energy in my old age!

 

[Georgian1950]

I have once cousin who apparently used an alias to throw off his mother-in-law. He had eloped a few years before the war and the couple used aliases. He was Joseph T. B. Shumate of the 39th Georgia infantry, Co. H, but I think he initially used W. F. Spunsite. I have never found that surname ever used by anyone else.

 

[Bruce Vail]

The explanatory text for the "List of Persons Employed in Army Hospitals" reads:

This item consists of a single volume whose cover title reads "Names of Female Nurses Cooks and Laundresses Appearing on Rolls as Employed in Army Hospitals During the Civil War." This volume certainly does not include all hospitals or hospital transport vessels, nor all nurses, cooks, or laundresses. For each person listed, no information is given about the specific position held or dates of employment. There references to specific volumes and page numbers of "old books" that have not been identified.

In addition to hospitals on land, the information concerning the following hospital transport vessels are also included: Atlantic, Baltic, Ben DeFord, Charles McDougall, D. A. January, Daniel Webster, J. S. Pringle, John Warner, Knickerbocker, and State of Maine.

Doesn't sound very promising for my case. A mini mystery on the Vail side of my family is a distant Connecticut uncle who spent 1862-1863 in Union-occupied Louisiana. He wasn't in the army or navy. So what was he doing? Nobody knows.

 

[East Tennessee Roots]

Some (probably not all) of my Ancestors & Relatives who were POWs. If anyone wants to try out the database with them, feel free

Confederate David Land, Hart's Island, NY.

Confederate John Copass Fort Delaware

Confederate Richard Copass Johnson's Island

Confederate William K Hulse Camp Morton

Confederates Jesse H Cox & John P. Hale Rock Island

Union Jackson Blakely Danville, Virginia.

 

[lupaglupa]

Doesn't sound very promising for my case. A mini mystery on the Vail side of my family is a distant Connecticut uncle who spent 1862-1863 in Union-occupied Louisiana. He wasn't in the army or navy. So what was he doing? Nobody knows.

It's all women. Looks like the paid staff so that wouldn't cover soldiers detailed to the hospitals.

 

[lupaglupa]

Some (probably not all) of my Ancestors & Relatives who were POWs. If anyone wants to try out the database with them, feel free

Confederate David Land, Hart's Island, NY.

Confederate John Copass Fort Delaware

Confederate Richard Copass Johnson's Island

Confederate William K Hulse Camp Morton

Confederates Jesse H Cox & John P. Hale Rock Island

Union Jackson Blakely Danville, Virginia.

I put in one of my ancestors who was a POW just to try it out. It gave me some, though not all, of the POW records for him I had already found. The only advantage I could see over what we had before this is you get a look at the actual hand-written pages, as opposed to getting the details on an index. I had already found these by going through the original books. That's a tedious job which this database would partially eliminate.

 

[Bruce Vail]

It's all women. Looks like the paid staff so that wouldn't cover soldiers detailed to the hospitals.

Well, he wasn't a soldier. My thought is he might have been a civilian employee of the US, or perhaps an employee of a civilian organization like the Sanitary Commission. A surviving letter back home doesn't specify, but implies he worked at a hospital.

 

[lupaglupa]

I didn't read every page but I did flip through the whole thing and it seemed to be all female. There may be another roll they will add in the future with male staff. I don't know what all is at the National Archives in this area.