CW Descendant Application
or
Honor-a-Soldier Application

St. Clair County Civil War Certificate Home

Disposition of Applications and Documentation

Acceptable Documentation and Substitute Sources when you can't find a birth, or marriage, or death certificate.

Some researchers are tempted to search Civil War soldier resources, find a name that matches their own surname (last name), and try to prove descendancy by linking that person to themselves, working from the past towards the present. While a search of databases on this site might help you focus on a particular ancestral line, working from the past to the present is not recommended unless you have a very strong family tradition stating a particular soldier served in the Civil War. Instead, work from the present to the past, building on known facts that provide clues to earlier generations.

First obtain the death certificate, then marriage, and then birth records, for each generation. Collect documents for yourself (excluding death of course), and then do the same for each preceding generation, one at a time. Analyze each document for clues about the preceding generation, and decide (or ask) for sources to help you determine the next place to search or document to obtain.

For living persons, we only need proof of relationship from one generation to the next. For example, your mother's birth certificate need only show her name and her parents' names. In order to protect the privacy of living persons, please make a good quality photocopy of their certificates. On the photocopy, black out or obscure military service and social security numbers, date of birth, and other information you feel necessary. Vital records are usually recorded at the county courthouse. Church records are a good substitute.

Continue collecting documents in this same fashion (death, marriage and then birth) through the grandparent and great-grandparent generations until you hit the ancestor whose age was within acceptable range to have served as a soldier 1861–1865. The vast majority of the men who served were aged 15 through 22! Men could be drafted through age 44.

Confirm a man of the same name (or possible sibling) served in the 43rd or 22nd Regiments, or gave St. Clair as his residence when he was mustered in, (enlisted) by searching the databases on this site compiled for these categories.

Support possible sibling relationships, and differentiate between men of the same name, with further documentation (bible records, census, diaries, muster rolls, or wills may help).

If your ancestor or his sibling is not among the men named in the two databases listed above, continue your search for a soldier who served in a different regiment at the Illinois State Archives Web site. At present their site has the complete Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Illinois online which lists most of the Illinois Civil War Soldiers.

Did your soldier serve from a state other than Illinois? Search the free Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System (CWSS) database online. As a descendant of one of these soldiers, you may be eligible for a Certificate if he (or his sibling) lived in St. Clair at any time during his life. You may also Honor a soldier named in the CWSS. Print out the information on the CWSS web site and mail it in with your Honor-a-Soldier Application.

Military Discharge Papers are usually filed in the soldier’s county of residence. However, filing these papers was a voluntary act, and as such, may have never been recorded. Locally, inquire at the St. Clair County Recorder of Deeds Office at the Courthouse, 10 Public Square, Belleville, IL 62220. The SCCGS Quarterly is currently publishing an index to these discharges.

Now that you have identified a soldier whose name matches the man on your ancestral chart, obtain his official military service and/or pension records.

Original Civil War Military Service Records and Civil War Pension Application files are preserved at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. Turn-around time is currently two months. We suggest you search (or have the National Archives search) for the Pension and obtain those files if found (suggestions below). If no Pension was claimed, search for the Service Record. See also Acceptable Documents. In either case, the National Archives requires special forms which may be ordered online at http://www.archives.gov/global_pages/inquire_form.html. Up to five (5) forms may be ordered at one time. For Service Records you need NATF Form 86. For Pension Files you need NATF Form 85. Order both forms NOW so they are in your hands when needed.

• Each Form contains all the necessary instructions to order a service or pension file. There is no charge to search for a file. If a Pension file is located, different fees are charged to photocopy part of or the entire file. The Pension Documents Packet ($14.75) should contain sufficient evidence to establish or negate a direct connection to your family line. The Full Pension Application File fee is $37.00.
• To expedite your order, it has been suggested you choose the credit card option. This allows the National Archives to send your file upon locating and photocopying it, instead of first informing you they found it, telling you where to send the photocopy fee, receive your fee, and finally mail it to you.

The following two pension searches may be done on your own. By doing the search yourself, you save the time it would take if the National Archives did the search (4 to 6 months). When you are certain a pension was claimed, order the file from the National Archives on NATF Form 85.

• The best Civil War Pension index source is A General Index to Pension Files 1861-1934, available on microfilm series T288. This microfilm is available for rent through interlibrary loan at your local library or Family History Center. Many large libraries have a complete set of the microfilm or have an online subscription to Ancestry.com which indexed these files. When your soldier is located, print 3 to 4 copies of the Index Card, one to send with NATF Form 85, one for your files, one that you will submit with our application, and one "for insurance".
• Civil War veterans who were still living in our county in 1883 are noted in “St. Clair County Pensioners on the Rolls 1883”, published in the SCCGS Quarterly 25:2, 2002. This journal is available at the Belleville Public Library (link below). This list contains all of the information needed to order the Pension Application File from the National Archives. However, one local study showed approximately 75% of soldiers moved away from their home county after the war so the majority will not appear in the article cited.

Military Service Records provide the regiment and company in which the man served, the dates of service, rank, state, and date, place and nature of discharge. It is suggested you get copies of your soldier’s original file from the National Archives, even though you have similar information from the databases on our web site (original Muster Roll photocopies from the Illinois State Archives, or Discharge Papers are also acceptable). Coupled with other documentation gathered in your search, these files may support the hypothesis a soldier and your ancestor are one and the same. In rare instances these files alone may not provide the information necessary to distinguish two men of the same name. Order Service Records from the National Archives on NATF Form 86.

• obituary indexes (Belleville 1840 - present) and (East St. Louis 1889 - c1979)
• St. Clair county newspapers on microfilm (1840 - present)
• county birth index 1878-1914
• county marriage registers 1790 - 1916 and statewide marriage index to 1900
• county death registers 1878 - 1943 and statewide death index 1916 - 1948
• county probate indexes 1790 - 1964
• church records including Catholic Parish records for all of Southern Illinois through 1930, United Church of Christ registers for St. Paul in Belleville and many others throughout the county (available in the SCCGS Quarterly), Methodist and Baptist church registers.
• published and microfilm censuses with indexes
• Civil War books (Compendium, Roll of Honor, Military census for St. Clair)
• microfilm orders and
• Internet database connections including the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System database online.

St. Clair County Genealogical Society (SCCGS)
P.O. Box 431
Belleville, IL 62222-0431

Here you can learn about genealogical resources needed to solve your research problem, have your documents analyzed by helpful members, and receive suggestions to complete the next step on your ancestor hunt.

The Society processes and analyzes all documents submitted for the Civil War Certificate Project. Click here to discover more about the SCCGS or visit the SCCGS Home Page.

Hours: M–F 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

• County Clerk - Vital records (birth, marriage, death). Visit weekdays and search some indexes in person. However, we recommend your search for these records begin with indexes at the Belleville Public Library.
• Circuit Clerk - Wills and Estate records. Indexes are available at the Belleville Public Library.
• Recorder of Deeds - Military Discharges and Land Records. You can phone in advance for availability of a military discharge on a particular Civil War soldier. Deed indexes are available through 1900 at the Belleville Public Library.
  ********************** The Illinois Regional Archives Depository (hosted on the Illinois State Archives web site) preserves many county records, including St. Clair. Photocopies are provided at cost (minimum $1.00). Click HERE to see which record groups they have for any county in Illinois. Turn-around time for St. Clair area documents is about 3 weeks.

Ask questions, find relatives

St. Clair USGenWeb Project, currently features an index to the 1930 census for St. Clair, and Genealogical Research online via Look-up Volunteers

Illinois Trails - St. Clair site, features the 1860 census for our county and miscellaneous transcriptions from a variety of sources.

Illinois State Archives web site hosts the Illinois Regional Archives databases as well as some of its own. See the Illinois statewide marriage index (including St. Clair through 1905), the statewide death index (1916–1950), and scroll down the page to find St. Clair-specific databases to Records Stored at Southern Illinois University - all online!