Quick Question Regarding CW Pensions

[Gary Morgan]

When it says that a dependent pension was $8.00/month, then lists all of a man's children and the date that they would age out, does that mean they paid $8.00 per month per child, or $8.00 total for all of the kids, no matter how many there were?

 

[Blessmag]

My ancestor's claim. $8 per month for the wife. $2 per month per child.

 

[lupaglupa]

Wow - I only really know the rules for Confederate pensions so I can't be sure about this. Anybody else?

 

[Gary Morgan]

View attachment 428477

My ancestor's claim. $8 per month for the wife. $2 per month per child.

Not 100% sure, but I think the $2.00 was a later addition and not in play in 1865.

 

[Bob Velke]

Unless it says a specific accommodation for his family, $8.00 per month means $8.00 per month (although he actually may have been paid $24.00 quarterly.

(That's small but maybe not as small as it seems. $8.00 in 1863 would be worth $183.27 today.)

The actual amount of each pension check is recorded on Page 2 of a veteran's record in the "United States Veterans Administration Pension Payment Cards" database on FamilySearch.org but those records aren't digitized before 1907.

(The same database is on Fold3.com and other places but Fold3 only shows you Page 1 so you don't see the individual payments).

For more information about these versions of the database see my blog HERE.

 

[Gary Morgan]

Unless it says a specific accommodation for his family, $8.00 per month means $8.00 per month (although he actually may have been paid $24.00 quarterly.

(That's small but maybe not as small as it seems. $8.00 in 1863 would be worth $183.27 today.)

The actual amount of each pension check is recorded on Page 2 of a veteran's record in the "United States Veterans Administration Pension Payment Cards" database on FamilySearch.org.

(The same database is on Fold3.com and other places but Fold3 only shows you Page 1 so you don't see the individual payments).

For more information about these versions of the database see my blog HERE.

Thanks, Bob!

 

[Blessmag]

Thanks, Bob!

Form is preprinted and printed/dated in 1862.....Look at the top.

 

[Gary Morgan]

Form is preprinted and printed/dated in 1862.....Look at the top.

I read it as a reference to the first Act of Congress authorizing the payment of pensions, rather than the year the form was printed, because of the phrase "and subsequent acts," plus the fact that the pension amounts did change over time. By the time the last dependent child of a Civil War soldier who was collecting a pension died, sometime in the last couple of years, she was being paid something like $72 or $73/month.