THE CIVIL WAR ONLINE

The following magazine articles are available online to our cardholders in the History Reference Center database.

5 REBELLIOUS LONG ARMS. Civil War Times (August 2016) Vol. 55, Issue 4.

Southern arms manufacturers turned out thousands of serviceable, reliable muzzle-loading muskets to issue to Rebel troops, including the five discussed in this article.

TEMPEST AT COOL SPRING. Civil War Times (August 2016) Vol. 55, Issue 4.

Union pursuers caught up with Confederate soldiers under Jubal Early’s command along the Shenandoah River in July 1864. A bloody contest ensued.

THE SOUTH'S ACHILLES HEEL. Civil War Times (October 2016) Vol. 55, Issue 5.

How did the South’s agricultural strength become a devastating weakness? R. Douglas Hurt, head of the History Department at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, tackled that question in his 2015 book Agriculture and the Confederacy: Policy, Productivity, and Power in the Civil War South (UNC Press). His research is the first comprehensive look at the topic since 1965. A Civil War Times staffer interviews Hurt in this article.

THE DARK TURN. Civil War Times (October 2016) Vol. 55, Issue 5.

It has become fashionable among scholars to emphasize the "dark side" of the Civil War. Troubled by what they consider a literature gone stale with sanitized questions and topics, these historians seek to revitalize the field by examining the conflict's often disturbing underside. The “overlooked” war, they note, featured brutality, atrocities, cowardice, vicious guerrilla activity, and physical and psychological wounds that left many veterans profoundly damaged.

PERIODICAL SPOTLIGHT: FAMILY TREE MAGAZINE

Their January/February 2014 issue features these articles:

Playing to the Crowd (crowdsourcing) Write On! (the history of handwriting)

Bright Ideas (41 ways to revitalize your research/break through brick walls in 2014)

Family Tree Harvest (utilizing online family tree databases)

Photographic Memories (all about daguerreotype)

Finding Russian Roots (eight strategies for finding Russian roots)

Workbook: Land Records

The Toolkit: House Histories; Privacy plug-ins; Newspaper Searching on GenealogyBank; review of Family Tree Builder 7.0

Headstone Heirlooms (getting all the info possible from headstones)

1921Canada Census (what you can find in it)

You can read this magazine (and past issues of this title) in the Genealogy Room at Central Library (St. Louis).

Link to Genealogy Pages on the SLPL website

PERIODICAL SPOTLIGHT: FAMILY CHRONICLE

Their January/February 2014 issue features these articles:

Locating German Parish Records (these records are often vital when researching kin from Deutschland)

Does Anybody Have a Question? (structuring research questions to get the best results)

The Mysterious Letter (solving the riddle posed by a letter written 175 years ago)

Patricia Evans’ Happy Days (examining the childhood of one lady to highlight the importance of preserving memories for future generations)

Kook, “Krock,” or Klansman (you never know what you’ll find in the attic)

First Looks: Family Tree Builder 7.0 (a look at the latest software release from MyHeritage.com)

Beyond the Book: Family History Slide Shows (a new series looks at innovative ways to share your family history)

Gifts From the Grave: Ukranian Research (a woman’s quest to find out more about her grandmother’s childhood)

Your Family’s Baggage (you never know what you’ll find in old trunks or suitcases)

Getting Payment for a Family History Book: Resolving the Dilemma (recovering the cost of publishing a family history book)

The Back Page (raw data—birth, marriage, death—doesn’t tell the whole story)

You can read this magazine (and past issues of this title) in the Genealogy Room at Central Library (St. Louis).

Link to Genealogy Pages on the SLPL website

PERIODICAL SPOTLIGHT: FAMILY CHRONICLE

Their November/December 2013 issue features these articles:

Wide-Angle Census Searches (scan the whole neighborhood, not just the people you searched for)

Forwarding Addresses from the Past (a closer look at letters, postcards, and other documents that provide addresses)

Christmas Cards: a New Christmas Tradition (they can sometimes provide genealogical clues as well as great memories)

Special Collections: a Source Worth Exploring (a look at special collections of libraries and other institutions)

Finding My Family from Wales: Where to Begin? (Welsh ancestors research strategy)

Wooden Shoe Genealogy, Part II: Grounding Your Family in the Netherlands (researching those Dutch and Frisian ancestors)

The Empire of Death (review of a new book about ossuaries and charnel houses)

Dating Old Photographs Through Fashion (style clues can help you date family photos)

The Strangling Angel: Diptheria (it almost certainly killed at least one of your ancestors)

This VC is Still a Mystery, a Century Later (John Leak was a war hero, but what about his life before the war?)

You can read this magazine (and other issues of this title) in the Genealogy Room at Central Library (St. Louis).

Genealogy pages on the SLPL website

PERIODICAL SPOTLIGHT: FAMILY TREE MAGAZINE

Family Tree Magazine

Their December 2013 issue features these articles:

Going Home (the new Red Star Line Museum in Antwerp, Belgium)

Thanksgiving Then and Now (differences in food; utensils; entertainment; and attire)

Typewriter (they used to write using these things!)

Great State Sites (75 outstanding state-specific websites)

Teaming Up (brick walls topple faster if two of you are whacking away at them)

Workbook: Passenger Lists (getting all the info you can from these records)

Trace Your Filipino Roots (a beginner’s guide to tracing ancestors from the Philippines)

Incredible Journeys (tips for making that trip to the ancestral homeland a dream and not a nightmare)

Talk the Talk (genealogists, like other specialists, like to use acronyms and abbreviations)

Holiday HeritageFest (how to include family history in holiday gatherings)

City Directories (tips for efficient use of these resources)

Translation Tools (guide to online translation tools)

Canvas Photo Printing Services (online services that offer printing of photos or family trees on canvas)

Software Review: Storylava (thumbs up—or thumbs down?)

Using NARA’s Online Public Access Search (it will make searching their website much easier—once you get used to it)

You can read this magazine (and other issues of this title) in the Genealogy Room at Central Library (St. Louis).

Genealogy pages on the SLPL website

PERIODICAL SPOTLIGHT: ISGS QUARTERLY

Illinois State Genealogical Society Quarterly

Their Fall 2013 issue features these articles:

Wish You Were Here: Travelers’ Postcards Sent to Illinois (article by postal historian James R. Miller)

Peter Miller’s Civil War Years (Miller served in the 79th Illinois infantry, Co. E)

William Stewart Harvey, 1851-1880 (article about life and family of this Scottish immigrant)

Fitting Tributes: Military Headstones, Certificates, and Stamps (article about acquiring free government grave markers, Presidential Memorial Certificates for vets, and the Civil War Sesquicentennial Stamp Series)

Faces From the Past—Identifying Photos With Marge Rice (ISGS member Rice collects unclaimed family photos in hopes of reuniting them with the right family—five such finds reproduced here)

Confessions of a Hero-Appreciating Genealogist (article about genealogist Charlotte Goldthwaite)

Family Bible Collection (transcribed entries from Riggs; Blane; Clarke; Allen; Sykes; Bates; Hindman; and Herbert family bibles)

The Steve Neal Reading Room Collection at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library (article about the ALPL’s open stacks area, named for Chicago Sun-Times columnist Steve Neale)

New Headstones for Civil War Veterans (lengthy article about securing free government grave markers for Civil War vets buried in Lyonsville Cemetery, Lyons Twp., Cook County, IL)

You can read this magazine (and other issues of this title) in the Genealogy Room at Central Library (St. Louis).

Genealogy pages on the SLPL website

PERIODICAL SPOTLIGHT: NGS MAGAZINE

NGS Magazine

Quarterly publication of the National Genealogical Society. Their July-September 2013 issue features these articles:

Online Newspapers (covers both free and subscription sites featuring digitized newspapers)

Creating Memoirs (as the author notes, if you don’t stop researching long enough to write up the story of your own life, you will deprive your descendants of this important record)

Finding Facts to Support a Family Tradition (many families have a family “legend”—and these family traditions are sometimes [at least partially] true)

Five Tips for Starting Research in a New Locale (a little time spent researching that new locale can save you hours of dead-ends and genealogical dry wells)

Native Americans on the Trail of Tears, Part I—Census Rolls Relating to Indian Removals, 1817-1857 (information about existing records of these removals)

Headstone Records for US Military Veterans, Part II—Records for Headstones Requested 1925-1985 (article about government headstones requested for veteran burials in private cemeteries during the period noted)

Family Bible Collection (transcribed entries from Riggs; Blane; Clarke; Allen; Sykes; Bates; Hindman; and Herbert family bibles)

It You Build It… (creating genealogical websites, blogs, and online family trees)

German Town Anniversary Books (there may well be a celebratory book about a significant anniversary of the German town your ancestors came from—article describes five such books the author has managed to acquire)

History, Content, and Format of German Church Records (church records are often the only sources of information about the lives of German commoners prior to 1800)

Big Data and Genealogy (what Big Data is, and why it’s going to be increasingly important to anyone with an interest in genealogy)

You can read this magazine (and other issues of this title) in the Genealogy Room at Central Library (1301 Olive Street, St. Louis, MO 63103).

Genealogy pages on the SLPL website

PERIODICAL SPOTLIGHT: FAMILY TREE MAGAZINE

Lots of articles of interest in their October/November 2013 issue:

Rediscovering Slave Burial Sites (a new project is cataloging such locations)

Cutting Teeth (how your ancestors cared for their teeth)

Migration Melodies (how did they get from there to here?)

Burned Out? (a five-step plan to rebuild your tree from archival ashes)

Time-Saving Tech Tools (17 apps and online tools for organization and time management)

Death Records Workbook (what are they; how do you find them; and what other types of record can provide death info)

Going to Church (a guide to German church records)

Movie Moments (converting old home movies to digital format)

Top Free Sites for Online Newspapers (includes a guide to digital yearbooks)

You can read this magazine (and other issues of this title) in the Genealogy Room at Central Library (1301 Olive Street, St. Louis, MO 63103).

Genealogy pages on the SLPL website

PERIODICAL SPOTLIGHT: FAMILY CHRONICLE

Family Chronicle: the How-to Guide to Tracing Your Ancestors

If you’ve never read an issue of this bi-monthly magazine, I think you’re in for a pleasant surprise. Each issue features articles designed to help you research ancestors from a particular country, state, or locality; work with particular types of records; or generally become a better, more skillful genealogist.

For example, the September/October 2013 issue features these articles (to name just a few):

Five Reasons Why the Records Aren’t in the Courthouse (some reasons are obvious, others not so much)

Wooden Shoe Genealogy: Finding Your Dutch and Frisian Ancestors, Part I (Frisians reside in the northern parts of the Netherlands and Germany and—naturally—speak Frisian)

How to Find Dead People in Chicago (in cemeteries, of course)

Processioners’ Books (a closer look at a record with roots in medieval England)

Follow the Luther Trail (discovering your Lutheran ancestors)

You can read this magazine (and other issues of this title, plus numerous other genealogy periodicals) in the Genealogy Room at Central Library (1301 Olive Street, St. Louis, MO 63103).

Genealogy pages on the SLPL website

CIVIL WAR SOLDIER RESEARCH CHECKLIST, PART VI

XV. Burials
1. U.S. Roll of Honor
2. State rolls of honor
3. State archives veteran burials lists
4. State home/hospital records
5. DAR cemetery lists
6. Headstone records
7. NCA Nationwide Gravesite Locator
8. SUVCW Nationwide Graves Registration Database
9. Local cemetery records

XVI. Photographs
1. U.S. Army Military History Institute in Carlisle Barracks, PA
2. Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library at Springfield, IL
3. Library of Congress- American Memory

XVII. Correspondence
1. County historical societies
A. State archives
B. University special collections departments
C. WHMC at Columbia, MO
2. Letters to local newspaper from soldier
A. Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library at Springfield, IL
B. State Historical Society of Missouri at Columbia, MO
3. Letters to Adjutant-General/Secretary of War asking about status of soldier
[National Archives- RG 94, Series M725, Index to Letters Received, 1846, 1861-1889, 9 rolls]
4. Letters to and from Pension Board and soldier [National Archives- RG 94, Series M686, Index to General Correspondence of Records & Pension Office, 1889-1920, 385 rolls]
5. Letters to/from spouses/parents about dead/badly wounded/captured soldier (State Archives)

XVIII. Newspapers as Sources of Civil War Information
1. Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library at Springfield, IL
2. State Historical Society of Missouri at Columbia, MO

XIX. Periodical Articles as Sources of Civil War Information
1. Confederate Veteran
2. Journal of Southern History
3. Popular current Civil War magazines:
A. America's Civil War
B. Blue & Gray
C. Camp Chase Gazette
D. Civil War Times Illustrated
E. North & South
4. County historical & genealogical society publications
5. State historical & genealogical society publications