General Correspondence Of The Record and Pension Office, 1889-1904

There are nearly 800,000 records representing the correspondence of veterans with the United States government. While the information for each person varies, General Correspondence of the Record and Pension Office, 1889-1904 usually includes:

• First and last name
• Rank
• Unit name
• Company
• NARA publication number

The Record and Pension Office was a branch of the United States War Department and maintained government service records for decades.

These records can uncover new facts about your ancestors as they trace requests of military discharges, pensions, service, and medical history records. Pension benefits were promised to U.S. military veterans and their families as they aged or after they had died, providing they met the proper requirements. These records represent correspondence between a veteran, their family, and the federal government in the process of obtaining the promised benefits. You may be surprised to discover an unknown relative or family member applying for the records on behalf of your ancestor, sometimes with addresses included. The details you learn will help expand your family history and lead to exciting new research possibilities.

This collection provides index cards of entries from the files of the Record and Pension Office between 1889 and 1904 and includes entries for many soldiers who served in the Civil War. Individual cards can include information relating to an individual’s name, service, and relationships.

For further information, contact the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) at http://www.nara.gov.

• Broaden your search by clicking the “name variants” box in the search bar. This will return a larger number of records with similar names, including possible alternate spellings or the use of initials or middle names.

• To get the most out of each record, look at the image after reading the transcript. The image of the actual document often contains more information that is not always present in the transcript.

• Many people have more than one record in this collection. This can be because people frequently applied for records more than once, or sometimes different family members applied at different times. Read each one to make sure you've found all the information out there.