Arkansas Ex-Confederate Pension Records - FamilySearch Historical Records

United States Arkansas

What is in the Collection?
Records of the Arkansas State Auditor's Office consisting of minutes of the State Board of Pensions with lists of pension claims allowed from February 3, 1893 to August 9, 1905; August 5, 1907 to 1916; and June 14, 1929 to September 1, 1939; Registers of Pension Warrants Issued between August 27, 1891 and December 15, 1939 which is a record of payments made.

The U.S. pension law governing claims based on death or disability from military service was passed on 14 July 1862. Later pension laws were based on length of service and disability not necessarily incurred in the service. Beginning in 1892 women who were employed as nurses by the government were also eligible for pensions.

Pensions were granted to Confederate veterans, widows, and orphans by the former Confederate states. Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia have posted indexes and some links to images of Confederate pension records. The Family History Library has an excellent collection of available Confederate pension records. Those for the following states are available on film at the Family History Library.

Pensions were created to provide financial assistance for veterans or their widows after serving in the military. The information in these records is generally reliable.

What Can this Collection Tell Me?
These records may contain the following information:


 * Full Name of pensioner
 * Pension Date Issued
 * Warrant Number
 * Amount Allowed
 * Amount Paid
 * The name of the County

How Do I Search the Collection?
To begin your search it is helpful to know:
 * The name of the soldier or widow.
 * The age of the pensioner.
 * The residence of the pensioner.
 * The date the pension was issued.

Search by Name by visiting the Collection Page: Fill in the requested information in the initial search page. This search will return a list of possible matches. Compare the information about the ancestors in the list to what you already know about your ancestors to determine if this is the correct family or person. You may need to compare the information about more than one person to find your ancestor.

View images in this collection by visiting the Browse Page: To search this collection you will need to follow this series of links: ⇒Select "Browse through images" on the initial collection page ⇒Select the appropriate "Pension Board minutes or Pension Lists" ⇒Select the appropriate "Year Range and County Range" which takes you to the images

Look at each image comparing the information with what you already know about your ancestors to determine if the image relates to them. You may need to look at several images and compare the information about the individuals listed in those images to your ancestors to make this determination. Keep in mind:


 * There may be more than one person in the records with the same name.
 * You may not be sure of your own ancestor’s name.
 * Your ancestor may have used different names or variations of their name throughout their life.

What Do I Do Next?
When you have located your ancestor’s pension record, carefully evaluate each piece of information given. The pieces of information in the record may give you new biographical details that can lead you to other records about your ancestors. Add this new information to your records of each family. This information will often lead you to other records.

I Found Who I was Looking for, What Now?

 * Death dates may lead to death certificates, mortuary, or burial records.
 * Use the age to calculate an approximate birth date.
 * Use the birth date or age along with the residence or place of birth of the deceased to locate census, church, and land records.
 * Compile the entries for every person who has the same surname as the deceased; this is especially helpful in rural areas or if the surname is unusual.
 * Continue to search the records to identify children, siblings, parents, and other relatives who may have filed for the pension.
 * When looking for a person who had a common name, look at all the entries for the name before deciding which is correct.
 * When searching for an application keep in mind that in some cases the applications were filed under the name of the widow or other dependent who submitted an application.
 * Pensions were processed by the state where the veteran or family member lived at the time, which was not always the state in which the soldier had served.

I Can’t Find Who I’m Looking for, What Now?

 * Look for variant spellings of the names. You should also look for nicknames and abbreviated names.
 * Look for an index. There are often indexes at the beginning of each volume. Local genealogical and historical societies often have indexes to local records.
 * Search the indexes and records of nearby localities.

Citing this Collection
Citing your sources makes it easy for others to find and evaluate the records you used. When you copy information from a record, list where you found that information. Here you can find citations already created for the entire collection and for each individual record or image.

Collection Citation:

Record Citation (or citation for the index entry):

Image Citation: