Don't Miss the Details

  War is boring.  Well, that's what I always thought.  In my college days and in my research except for the acknowledgement of a major war or veteran I would pass it over with just a glance.  I'm a social historian, more interested in the stories that historical people had than names and dates of battles - bleh!  Of course that was until a couple of years ago and then my quest for knowledge of the Civil War veterans in our own back yard forced me into those names and dates that I had so long avoided.  It also made me interested in what could be found in pension records from the National Archives. My first pension was for my own genealogical research and it was a goldmine of information.  My grandpa George R. Marshall served with the 2nd Arkansas, which despite the location was a Union regiment.  It gave me the maiden name of his 2nd wife (my ggg-grandmother) Martha as well as tons of other information.  Actually it pretty much read like a soap opera, but that's another story!
  Because of our work on the local Civil War veterans, I became especially interested in the United States Colored Troops (USCT) amongst them.  There are a few that served with the 1st Kansas Colored, which was the first African-American regiment mustered after the start of the war.  One of "my" guys, George Thompson was especially favored by me.  George served with the 1st Kansas Colored and in his obituary it stated that on his way out of slavery he stayed with a "Rev. McAfee". Well, to me that hinted at an Underground Railroad possibility since most of the 1st Kansas were refugee or runaway slaves.  I did some poking around and found a Rev. Josiah McAfee who was a staunch abolitionist, lived finally in Topeka, and also served with the 2nd Kansas Colored as a chaplain during the war.  So when I finally caved to my curiosity and ordered George's pension record I was looking for a statement from "Rev. McAfee" amongst the file.

Josiah McAfee (courtesy of www.kansasmemory.org)

  I found a researcher who was willing to look up the pension record for me for a cut rate (NARA will do the search for $80 and I was able to get it for $35 - awesome!).  I anxiously awaited its arrival.  The turnaround that this researcher quoted was 10 days and NARA takes at least a couple of months on average, although my ggg-grandpa's took about a month.  My wait was just 10 days, but there is nothing more impatient than a researcher waiting on that key piece of information! Finally it came and lots of fun information but no Josiah McAfee!  I scoured that info for the reason why - I knew McAfee would have been an excellent reference for George and he should be in there! And then I found this...

  Josiah McAfee was listed on the index as one of the statements as an "excellent" source.  Ok, so where was his statement??? I looked back over all the scanned images again - nothing.  I contacted my researcher.  They were amazing and said they'd go check again.  It took a few days, but paydirt!  There was his statement.  The moral of this story...pension files can be HUGE, they can be fragile, they can stick together and researchers are human.  Check the index when you request a pension file.  Make sure all the statements are in what you are sent.  I was specifically looking for Rev. McAfee  or I would have missed it in my excitement to just get this bounty of information.  Every piece counts and might hold that one key to your ancestor's past ;)