FAQ's

Over 300,000 Ohioans served in the Civil War. If your ancestor served, you would expect to find them in the Official Roster of the Soldiers of the State of Ohio in the War of the Rebellion. It will tell you the regiment and company in which a volunteer served, rank, age, the muster in and muster out dates, and a very brief (one or two sentences) description of service. You will find the roster in our library and online on FamilySearch, HathiTrust, and on Ancestry.com.

The National Park Service also has an online Civil War Soldiers and Sailors database. You can search for a soldier by name and state, and this may provide information about their regiment and company.

Military service records and pension records are held by the National Archives and Records Administration.

Fold3 is a genealogy resource for historical military records. Some public libraries have in-library or remote access available.

U.S., Civil War Pension Index: General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934 and the 1890 Veterans Schedules of the US Federal Census are also available on Ancestry.com

Published county histories may include information about the people from the area who served in the Civil War.

On Ohio in the Civil War, Larry Stevens has compiled a bibliography of known published sources for each Ohio regiment.

Issues of The National Tribune listed there are available online at Chronicling America from the Library of Congress. 

Please visit our research guide for more information on Civil War resources at the Ohio History Connection.