A friend is trying to find out about civil war veterans from her town:
West Bath, Maine
Anyone out there have a resource I could refer her to for that kind of info?
Most genealogical libraries will have big books which have rosters of soldiers for both sides of the Civil War.
They are always broken down by state.
You could also try a local historical or genealogical society as they have a tendency to keep track of such things. It’s actually relatively easy to find Civil War veterans.
I found this address:
BATH HISTORICAL SOCIETY
33 Summer St.
Bath, ME 04530
443-5141
It’s much harder to find WWI or WWII vets because the government has lost many of those records.
Ironically, that is just down the street from me (literally). She said she had exhausted all the local resources, but I’ll make sure that this one is included.
Thanks for the response. Anyone else out there?
Oh, by the way, the secondary purpose of posting here was to show her the value of the SDMB as a jumping off point for almost any bit of information, no matter how obscure, and the caliber of people posting here.
Finding Civil War ancestors is not obscure. People do it almost everyday at the library where I work.
I just find it hard to believe that a town in Maine doesn’t have a monument to its soldiers who fought in the Civil War. Mainers fought in a lot of important battles (particularly Gettysburg) with great distinction.
Did the town of West Bath exist during the Civil War?
I tried to post this yesterday, but I kept getting disconnected.
It won’t be obvious to people from away, but we Mainers know that the town of West Bath, Maine (pop. 1700), is a completely a separate municipality from the city of Bath, Maine (pop. 10,000), although they are right next door to each other. There is no rhyme or reason to this sort of thing, at least in Maine. North Bath, instead of being a separate town, is part of the city of Bath. Go figure. So getting a good source of information for Bath may or may not be of much help for West Bath. I don’t know if West Bath was part of Bath during the Civil War or not.
I wouldn’t necessarily expect West Bath to have a Civil War monument. My home town is about three times bigger and doesn’t have one as far as I know.
Local libraries can be a good source, but it looks like West Bath shares a library with Bath and several other towns. I’d suggest asking to use the Sagadahoc History & Genealogy Room at the Patten Library. They have “Civil War military rolls (Maine soldiers)” and “1890 Civil War Schedules.” The latter was , I think, part of the 1890 census that listed Civil War veterans and widows who were alive in 1890. A similar historical room at a New Hampshire library was very helpful in my efforts to track down genealogical information.
If that doesn’t do it, you might try contacting the Maine State Archives (which has muster-in and muster-out rolls) or The Maine Military Historical Society Museum, both in Augusta.
If the library is fairly large, look for the 5-volume “Pensioners on the Roll” publication. It lists all US military pensioners as of Jan 1, 1883 by county. Most on the list are from the Civil War.
For a particular pensioner, you can order a photocopy of the orginal pension application from the National Archives:
http://www.archives.gov/research_room/obtain_copies/military_and_genealogy_order_forms.html
State archives generally have a wealth of Civil War information.
Here’s the Civil war page for the Maine State Archives. If you contact the good people there (or even better, pay them a visit), I’m sure they’ll be able to point you in the right direction.
Thanks all for the pointers. I’m sure she’ll ind more than enough informatin (an embarrasment of riches).
You also might want to try checking with the Pejepscot Historical Society on Park Row in Brunswick. As I recall, they try to address the history of the whole region.
Also, perhaps the library at Bowdoin College and the Joshua Chamberlain Museum in Brunswick, too.