So your ancestors ended up Out West? How did they get there?
Chances are good they came via the Great Platte River Road—the name for the pioneer trail that followed the Platte River. It was actually known by many different names, depending on where an emigrant “jumped on” or “jumped off.”
The Great Platte River Road, by Merrill J. Mattes (Lincoln, Nebr. : University of Nebraska Press, 1987)covers the section of the trail from Fort Kearny (near present-day Kearney, Nebraska) to Fort Laramie (near present-day Laramie, Wyoming).
According to the preface, “It is distilled from the firsthand impressions of several hundred covered wagon emigrants, representing both sexes and all degrees of human latitude, who somehow contrived to leave something for the historical record. It is the story of their unique collective Platte River experience as it emerges from their own unvarnished journals.”
The book is worth it for the detailed maps alone, but the narrative is very informative, as well. The Great Platte River Road—it was just about everybody’s Granny’s Trail!
This is the first in a series of letters I will be posting—letters which were written by WWI Private Allen Lee Millard Gooch to his family back home in Duncan, Arizona. Part of his military service record was already posted in previous weeks. Letters are a wonderful resource for genealogists, as you will see. For a closer look, just click on any of the images. The letter has been transcribed for you at the end of the post.
A.L. was drafted, and entered into service 25 Apr 1918. Here is the first letter in the collection, written—so aptly—from Camp Funston, Kansas (not exactly summer camp, but sounds like one!) on 1 May 1918:
A L Gooch WWI letters 1 May 1818 p1A L Gooch WWI letters 1 May 1818 p2A L Gooch WWI letters 1 May 1818 p3A L Gooch WWI letters 1 May 1818 p4
Transcription of letter from Private Allen L. M. Gooch to his parents, 1 May 1918, Camp Funston, Kansas, letter in possession of Dayna Gooch Jacobs, King City, California. Envelope missing. Transcribed by Dayna Jacobs. [slashes in the transcription indicate line breaks]
Funston,Kansas
May .1. 18
Dear Parents and All:
As my arm is / a little better will / write a little. Am / rather tired tonight / this is our second / day drilling and they / sure put us through / We are at Detantion / camp no 2. Where we / get our first grade / training. expect to stay / here about three week then go back to Funston / to the Barricks where / it will be a little / more comfortable. There / is eight in each tent / get up at 5:45 in the / morning, take our cots / out side scrub the / floor, line up for / the roll to be called / to breakfast get / our mess citts full / of fairly good grub / come back to our tents / and eat, go back and / wash our dishes, Then / then [sic] march to the drilling / grounds and / play afew athletic / games for exercise / then get bussy. I / didn’t think I could / stand it the first / day I was so sore / from vaxinations. / But I feel good today / and don’t think it / will be as hard as / I thought for I know / I can stand it if / others do. And all / that worrys me is / you folks at home.
I am goeing to take / out a ten thousand / dollar insurance which / will cost me about $6.00 / per month and if / I get killed you / will draw $57.50 a / month for 20 years / the government is giving / dependant Parents $10.00 / a month where the / soldier will give $15.00 / of his wages. And I / am goeing to try to / get that don’t know / if I can or not. That / will be 10 apiece for / you and paw and / 15 from me will be / $35.00 a month that / will help you live / and will leave me / about 8 or 9 dollars / for tobacco that’s all / I kneed. So dont / worry about me I /will do just what / others is doing, the / best they can. As I / want to go to bed / will close and write / you latter. Write / me offen for I don’t / have much time. /
Military records are a key record group for genealogists, and pension records in particular can be a rich source of personal information about an individual. The 1883 Pension Roll is a handy index to some of these records. If you have a an ancestor who might have served in the Civil War (Union side only), various Indian Wars, or the War of 1812 (of course, he’d be at least 90 years old by 1883!) you will want to check out this pension roll.
It is available on the subscription site Ancestry.com, but you can find the free ebook online at Google Books. Each volume covers different states. Western States researchers will want to see Volume 4:
Vol 1 Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, District of Columbia
Vol 4 Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, California, Oregon, Nevada, Indian Territory (Oklahoma), Dakota Territory (North and South Dakota), New Mexico Territory, Montana Territory, Washington Territory, Idaho Territory, Utah Territory, Arizona Territory, Alaska Territory, Wyoming Territory
Vol 5 Delaware, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, N. Carolina, S. Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, and foreign countries
U.S. Pension Bureau, List of Pensioners on the Roll January 1, 1883; vol 1, ebook (books.google.com : accessed 13 July 2012), Maine, p 19.
Check out the “cause for which pensioned” column – yikes! “G.S.W.” means “gunshot wound.” Here is a list of other abbreviations posted by the Illinois GenWeb project:
The 1883 Pension Roll lists anyone on the U.S. military pension roll as of 1 Jan 1883, including soldiers, their widows, or parents – whoever was receiving a pension check. It gives a certificate number, pensioner’s name, post office address, cause for which pensioned, monthly check amount, and the date of the original allowance.
Here are your ordering options on the NARA website:
1. Compiled Military Service File (NATF 86): $25.00
2. Federal Military Pension Application – Civil War and Later Complete File (NATF 85A): $75.00
3. Federal Military Pension Application – Pre-Civil War Complete File (NATF 85A): $50.00
4. Federal Military Pension Applications – Pension Documents Packet (NATF 85B): $25.00
5. Military Bounty-Land Warrant Application File (NATF 85C): $25.00
If you are seeking a Civil War pension packet you must choose between #2 and #4. #2 will get you a copy of the entire packet, which can be upwards of 30 pages. It is expensive at $75.00, but cheaper than a trip to Washington, D.C.! #4 will get you 8 documents from that same packet, chosen by the clerk at NARA. They will choose 8 that have genealogical information. If you are on a budget, this will save you some money. If you decide you would like the complete file later, however, you will still have to pay the full $75.00. I know…rip-off!…but still cheaper than that plane ticket.
If you merely want a Compiled Military Service File choose #1. These are valuable, too, but I would go for the pension file first, because there is usually more genealogical information in a pension file.
If you are seeking a pension packet from an earlier war choose #3 or #4, depending on what size file you want.
#5 will get you an application file with potentially great genealogical information, too. Veterans of the Civil War were not eligible to apply, but those who fought in earlier wars might have applied. A subscription site, Fold3, has digitized the pension and bounty-land warrant files for the War of 1812. You can access this site for free at your local LDS family history center. It has the COMPLETE file digitized, so you don’t have to order it from NARA! As of today there are over 255,000 documents online, but this represents only 3% of the total collection. An index to the application files from the Revolutionary War is found at FamilySearch.org.
I recently posted about a little-used resource for researchers who had LDS church members in their family 1914-1960. This is the collection of LDS Church Censuses 1914-1960. The FamilySearch Wiki lists the contents of the censuses for each year. Each family in the worldwide church was counted beginning 1914, continuing every 5 years after 1920. 1945 there was no census taken because of the war.
I had known about this collection but never accessed it until this week. Here are images of the Franklin Thomas Pomeroy family in the 1914, 1925, and 1935 LDS Censuses.
Franklin Thomas Pomeroy family, 1914 LDS Census, FHL microfilm 245255
There are columns for age, gender, priesthood office, marital status, and church record number. There is a category for “where born” with columns for Utah, Arizona, Europe, Asia, Islands of Pacific, and Unclassified. The Ward and Stake is also identified, which can lead one to other LDS church membership records, such as records of ordinances, minutes of meetings, and genealogical surveys.
Since U.S. federal censuses were taken every 10 years–1910, 1920, 1930, 1940–the LDS Censuses falling in-between those years are nice to have. Here is the 1925 census:
Franklin Thomas Pomeroy family, 1925 LDS Census, FHL film 245,255
Notice that Sarah Matilda Pomeroy is enumerated with the family—she is Franklin’s mother—and the additional detail for “when born.” We also now have evidence of Sophia Isadora’s maiden name—Morris.
Here is the 1935 LDS Census:
Franklin Thomas Pomeroy family, 1935 LDS Census, FHL film 245, 255
Included in this census is the city or town of birth, and a street address. You might consider marking a map in Google Earth to show all the places where a family is known to have lived. Also, use the street view to take a walk around their neighborhood! It may have changed, but then again it may not have. At the bottom of each census for every year is, “checked with ward record by [signature].”
I am pretty enthused about this record group and plan to use them to launch into ward minutes and membership records next time I am in Salt Lake City. I expect to find details of my ancestors’ lives, such as service in callings and various ordinances received. If you have any LDS ancestry these church censuses might lead you down some interesting trails!
Explore the new link to online map sites on the menu bar above. Interactive trail maps, territorial expansion maps, downloadable USGS topo maps and hundreds more—all the essentials for your research.
On Granny's Trail 