Southern Claims Commission: Difference between revisions

Southern Claims Commission records may include information about people of all classes, all races, all political/military backgrounds, and explain their relationships.

[[Image:Southern Claim Commission States Map.jpg|thumb|right|380px|Union loyalists in the grey states on this map who suffered losses could apply for compensation from the Southern Claims Commission.]]Although only a few people per county qualified for a settlement, the application papers of the Southern Claims Commission typically include questions mentioning <u>hundreds of their neighbors</u>. Neighbors of all races, and classes were questioned and discussed in these records.  

While only losses incurred in the twelve states in rebellion at the beginning of the Civil War qualified many claims were made from other states by individuals that claimed to reside in the qualifying states during the war. As a result, records from a total of 24 states and the District of Columbia appear in the "Barred and Disallowed Case Files of the Southern Claims Commission, 1871-1880" (NARA M1407) records.  

Southern Loyalists (those who were Union sympathizers) made 22,298 claims for property losses totaling $60,258,150.44. However, only 7,092 claims (32%) were approved for settlements totaling $4,636,920.69. Each claimant sought to prove their loyalty and loss through the testimony of others. The paper trail created by the claimants and the people who came forward to testify, for or against a claimant, provide a wealth of information about individuals living in the South during the Civil War.<ref>St. Louis County Library website, "[https://www.slcl.org/research-learn/genealogy/american-civil-war/southern-claims-commission-records Southern Claims Commission Records]" (accessed 3 April 2024)</ref>  

Southern Claims Commission records may include information about people of all classes, all races, all political/military backgrounds, and explain their relationships potentially including:  

*personal descriptions, and accounts of events during the war  

*military records of claimants, or their relatives  

The most effective strategy is to search <u>all</u> the Southern Claims Commission records for <u>everyone living in the same Southern county</u> as an ancestor. Any particular ancestor is unlikely to have actually applied to the Commission (only 0.2 percent of population), but he or she is more likely to have testified (2.3 percent) about an applicant, and an ancestor is even more likely to be discussed (about 10percent) in the hundreds of answers to questions in other people's testimony. This is an advanced, time-consuming strategy with a less than 50 percent chance of locating information about your ancestor. But you will learn about the way of life in the county where your ancestor lived, and much about relationships between his or her neighbors.<ref>St. Louis County Library website, [https://www.slcl.org/research-learn/genealogy/american-civil-war/southern-claims-commission-records Geographical List of Southern Claims Commission Claimants], (accessed 3 April 2024). Use this list to find all the applicants in a given county.</ref>  

'''Step 1'''. Determine the Southern county where an ancestor lived.  

:A. Get access to Gary B. Mills, ''[https://search.worldcat.org/title/30591123 Southern Loyalists in the Civil War: The Southern Claims Commission''] (Baltimore: Genealogical Publ., 1994, or reprint 2004). [FS Library book 975 M2s.  

:B. In this book find and copy all data provided for <u>each</u> claimant in the county.