Civil War Soldiers and Sailors (CWSS)
by Lisa South, Certified Genealogist
Over this past year, Lisa has provided
OneGreatFamily members with valuable information and
tips on how to find their ancestors. This is her last
article for the weekly OneGreatFamily newsletter. We
wish her the very best and will miss all her expert
advice and entertaining articles!
Years ago, I walked around the Vicksburg Civil War
site and was awe struck at what had occurred there so
many years before. While in the visitor's center,
I was given a handout. It talked about a new
program the National Parks wanted to implement.
They were making plans to have a data base that included
the name and basic information for every person that
served in the Civil War, both Union and Confederate.
I was awe struck again—what a boon it would be for
genealogists! I could hardly believe that day would ever
come, but it did!
The Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System can be
accessed at: http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/
The summary of the site states: “The Civil War
Soldiers and Sailors System is a computerized database
containing very basic facts about servicemen who served
on both sides during the Civil War. The initial focus of
the CWSS is the Names Index Project, a project to enter
names and other basic information from 6.3 million
soldier records in the National Archives. The facts
about the soldiers were entered from records that are
indexed to many millions of other documents about Union
and Confederate Civil War soldiers maintained by the
National Archives and Records Administration.”
“Other information includes: histories of regiments
in both the Union and Confederate Armies; links to
descriptions of 384 significant battles of the war; and
other historical information. Additional information
about soldiers, sailors, regiments, and battles, as well
as prisoner-of-war records and cemetery records, will be
added over time.”
Some prisoner of war records for Fort McHenry
(Confederate) and Andersonville (Union) have already
been added, as well as the Poplar Grove National
Cemetery.
Since new data continues to be added, you may want to
add this site to your favorites if you have civil war
ancestors. Unfortunately, there is not a Soundex
for the search, so be creative in using various
spellings when you enter your ancestors name(s).
I have enjoyed writing for OneGreatFamily and regret
that time restraints prevent me from continuing.
As a genealogist, I see much value and possibilities of
OneGreatFamily.
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