Southern Claims Commission: Difference between revisions

''[[Portal:United States of America|United States&nbsp;]] &gt; [[African American Research|African American Research&nbsp;]] &gt; Southern Claims Commission''<br>

Although only a few people per county qualified for a settlement, the application papers of the Southern Claims Commission typically include questions mentioning '''hundreds of their neighbors'''. Neighbors of all races, and classes were questioned and discussed in these records.<br>

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.  

The most effective strategy is to search '''all''' the Southern Claims Commission records for '''everyone living in the same Southern county''' as an ancestor. Any particular ancestor is unlikely to have actually applied to the Commission, but he or she is more likely to have testified about an applicant, and is even more likely to be discussed 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.  

[[Category:United_States|United_States]] [[Category:African_Americans|African_Americans]]