Missouri, Confederate Pension Applications and Soldiers Home Applications - FamilySearch Historical Records

What is in This Collection?
This collection contains digital images of Confederate pension files and applications for admission to the Confederate soldiers' home for the years 1911 to 1938. The applications are arranged in alphabetical order. The pensions are for Confederate veterans who were living in Missouri, although they may have enlisted from another state. The Confederate Soldiers’ Home in Higginsville, Missouri, was open for infirm and dependent former Confederate soldiers and sailors, their wives, widows, and orphans.

Service records were kept for each Confederate soldier. Those records, or abstracts of those records, were compiled into individual files. Each envelope/jacket contains information and cross references to original records relating to the soldier.

These records were created as permanent record of Confederate service and to determine eligibility for benefits and admission to the soldier’s home.

The information in these records is generally reliable. However, some of it depends on personal memory so it still may contain inaccuracies, such as slightly altered spellings and dates or misinterpretations.

What Can These Records Tell Me?
The following information may be found in these records: • 2

How Do I Search This Collection?
Before searching this collection, it is helpful to know:
 * The name of your ancestor
 * The birth date of your ancestor

How Do I Analyze the Results?
Compare each result from your search with what you know to determine if there is a match. This may require viewing multiple records or images. Keep track of your research in a research log.

I Found the Person I Was Looking For, What Now?

 * Add any new information to your records
 * Search for the service record of the soldier
 * Search for vital records, such as birth, marriage, and death
 * Search for the family in census records
 * Search the land and probate records

I Can’t Find the Person I’m Looking For, What Now?

 * Try viewing the original record to see if there were errors in the transcription of the name, age, residence, etc. Remember that there may be more than one person in the records with the same name
 * Collect entries for every person who has the same surname. This list can help you identify possible relations that can be verified by records
 * If you cannot locate your ancestor in the locality in which you believe they lived, then try searching records of a nearby locality
 * Standard spelling of names typically did not exist during the periods our ancestors lived in. Try variations of your ancestor’s name while searching the index or browsing through images
 * Remember that sometimes individuals went by nicknames or alternated between using first and middle names

Research Helps
The following articles will help you research your family in the state of Missouri.
 * US Military Basic Search Strategies
 * Beginning United States Civil War Research
 * Locating a Confederate Civil War Soldier (1861–1865)
 * Missouri Guided Research
 * Missouri Research Tips and Strategies
 * Step-by-Step Research
 * Beginning Research in United States Military Records

Other FamilySearch Collections
These collections may have additional materials to help you with your research.

FamilySearch Catalog

 * Missouri Adjutant General's Office. Confederate pension applications and soldiers' home admission applications
 * Peggy Barnes Fox, comp and edited, Missouri Confederate pensions and Confederate home applications index. Hillsboro, Texas : Hill College Press, c1996. FHL 977.8 M2fp
 * Wade Ankesheiln. The heart is the heritage : the story of the founding of the Confederate Home of Missouri.Coral Springs, Florida : Llumina Press, c2007 FHL 977.8453/H1 M2a
 * Compiled service records of Confederate soldiers who served in organizations from the state of Missouri

FamilySearch Historical Records

 * Missouri, Civil War Service Records of Confederate Soldiers, 1861-1865

FamilySearch Digital Library

 * Commissioner of Pensions and War Records. Office of the Adjutant General in Missouri. Ex-Confederate pensions : list of indigent ex-Confederate soldiers enrolled under the Confederate Pension Act (December 16,1920)
 * Compiled from Biennial reports. Registers of inmates in the Confederate Home

Citing This Collection
Citations help you keep track of places you have searched and sources you have found. Identifying your sources helps others find the records you used.