Use this article to help find and use soldier records and memorabilia for ancestry research.
Researching and writing about military service and war experiences before 1900 will be very challenging but not impossible. This article will help provide insights and direction on finding records to help you build and write a narrative about a Mexican War soldier. Civil War soldier stories can be about the individual who served in the military and the individuals who stayed home, such as spouses, children, extended family, and friends.
See these articles to help you find articles for other military records.
| How to Find Other U.S. Military Records | ||
| WWII 1939-45 |
WWI 1914-1918 |
Civil War 1861-1865 |
| Mexican War 1846-1848 |
Early Indian Wars 1815-1858 |
War of 1812 1812-1814 |
| Revolutionary War 1776-1783 |
||
The early Indian wars, also known as the old wars, refer to conflicts between American settlers or the Federal government with Native Americans. The conflicts include the following:
- Northwest Indian War 1785-1795
- Creek War 1813-1814
- First Seminole War 1817-1818
- Winnebago War 1827
- Black Hawk War 1832
- Second Creek War 1836-1837
- Cherokee Disturbances and Removal 1836-1939
- Second Seminole War 1835-1842
- Third Seminole War 1855-1858
Finding Evidence that Ancestors Served in the U.S. Military
The following are some tips to define if my ancestor might have served in the military during this period.
- Please list all the wars that existed during each ancestor’s lifetime and their age during the war. As a rule of thumb, the age range for soldiers during a war period is 16-60.
- Look for clues that might be found on gravestones, family papers, obituaries, and biographies.
- Look where the ancestor lived. Does your ancestor live on what is referred to as the frontier (westernmost land) of the United States in the early 1800′? This might indicate that he received bounty lands.
- Search indexes for military land patents and other military records. If you don’t find an ancestor in one index, try another. It is not uncommon to have ancestors who were veterans of multiple wars.
Search for the Following Early Indian Wars 1815-1858 Records
Pension records
Search for pension applications and records of pension payments for veterans, their widows, and other heirs. The pension applications usually provide the most information. They can include supporting documents such as marriage, birth, and death records/certificates, pages from family Bibles, family letters, dispositions of witnesses, affidavits, discharge papers, and other supporting documents. Indian War records include a family questionnaire that shows the wife’s maiden name, date and place of marriage and who performed the marriage, former wife if any, date and place of death/divorce, names and birth dates of living children. If your ancestor did not receive a pension, see if his pension request was denied. Pension applications, pension-payment records and many other military records for all U.S. forces 1775–1916 are held at the NARA in Washington, D.C.
Bounty land applications also are related to wartime service
The federal government provided bounty land for those who served in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, and the Indian wars between 1775 and 1855. Bounty lands were offered as an incentive to serve and as a reward for service. Veterans or their heirs claimed bounty land. The actual bounty land warrants have less information. Digitized land patents may be found on the Bureau of Land Management.
Land surrender warrants
Many veterans who received bounty-land did not take possession but instead sold them to another party. To find the land surrender warrant, you will need to know the war, the warrant number, the number of acres, and the act of congress under which the persona was eligible. These can be requested using the NATF form 84, “Order the copies of the land entry files,” at order online at www.archives.gov.
Service Records
The service records consist of compiled (CMSRs) formed from various sources (e.g., muster rolls, descriptive rolls, payrolls.) The service records can show the soldier’s name, rank, regimental unit (usually showing the last name of the regimental commander), the company commander’s name, dates of service and pay, whether the soldier was a substitute, date of discharge, and sometimes, distance to the soldier’s home from the place of discharge, date of death, if applicable, and periods of sickness.
Societies
Search for information and records provided by various societies related to the Indian wars, including Continental Society Daughters of Indian Wars and Order of the Indian Wars of the United States.
On the internet
To find records and learn more about the Early Indian Wars, try the following Google searches
- Indian Wars index to pension applications files
- Indian Wars bounty land applications OR warrants
- Mexican War service records
- Indian Wars FamilySearch OR Ancestry.com OR Fold3
- National Archives Indian Wars
- Indian Wars societies
- Texas Indian Wars (Replace Texas with the desired state)
- The United States Indian Wars
- Northwest Indian War 1785-1795
- Creek War 1813-1814
- First Seminole War 1817-1818
- Winnebago War 1827
- Black Hawk War 1832
- Second Creek War 1836-1837
- Cherokee Disturbances and Removal 1836-1939
- Second Seminole War 1835-1842
- Third Seminole War 1855-1858
Search the cemetery
Finding graves of your ancestors is hit and miss. Resources to consider as a starting point follow:
- Department of Veterans Affairs National Gravesite Locator. Search for burial locations of veterans and their family members in VA National Cemeteries, state veterans cemeteries, various other military and Department of Interior cemeteries, and for veterans buried in private cemeteries when the grave is marked with a government grave marker using the Gravesite Locator.
