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Sunday, November 22, 2009

What to do when searching online records fails

Cornelia's Question (one of several):
Jonathan L. Hudson b. 1814-1816 Reading, Berks, PA m. 12 Oct 1848 Wayne Co., Michigan Charlotte Ransom d. 7 Jan 1876 Trenton, Wayne, MI. I know he was a chaplain in the civil war, but his claim to have been in Andersonville cannot be proved from online indexes.

Olive Tree Answer: Hello again Cornelia - Not all genealogy records are online and that means not all genealogy research can be done online. You must be prepared to slog through OFFline resources - microfilm, books, etc. Since you have not found your ancestor in online records of Andersonville Prison, it's time to do your research the old-fashioned way - offline.

NARA holds records for Civil War Prisioners of War. They are called Records of the Commissary General of Prisoners. The records found in Record Group 249 include records relating to the parole of Federal prisoners, records of prisoners held in Confederate prisons including Andersonville, records of Confederate prisoners of war held in Union prisons, and records of claims filed by Union prisoners of war.

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