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MARYLAND HEIGHTS — The Civil War Sesquicentennial, which begins next year, is
expected to heighten interest about what happened on and off the battlefields
150 years ago.
That means archivists are scrambling to post information online to feed that
curiosity.
Missouri State Archivist John Dougan detailed the effort to those at the St.
Louis Genealogical Society's 40th annual family history conference, the largest
such gathering in the Midwest, on Saturday.
Organizers said about 300 people were at the conference at the Maryland Heights
Centre, and some wanted to learn what role their families had played in the
Civil War.
The war has always been a popular subject among historians. The role of
Missouri, which trails only Virginia and Tennessee in the number of battles on
its soil, is of special interest, Dougan said.
"During the Civil War in Missouri, every member of every household was
affected," he said. And that means that mountains of documents remain — a
treasure trove for those looking to track down records of ancestors. Such
records include pension papers, court claims of damage to property, loyalty
oaths and military prison data.
Dougan hopes to make it easier to access such documents by getting as many of
them posted to the website missouridigitalheritage.com. The site was launched
about two years ago and has received more than 100 million hits since then,
Dougan said.
For the last five years, one full-time employee of Dougan's office has been
devoted to posting documents from the Office of the Adjutant General, a
constitutional office created in 1820 to oversee the state militia, to the
website. But much work remains, and Dougan said not all the information would
be posted even by the time the sesquicentennial ends in 2015.
That means that thorough research will involve paper records, he said.
Ann Fleming, treasurer of the St. Louis Genealogical Society and a
ninth-generation St. Louisan, said less than 5 percent of the records available
to genealogists can be accessed online. Members of her group have made it their
mission to gather St. Louis and St. Louis County records, walking through
graveyards to document burial sites and wading through mountains of public
documents and microfilm.
Pat Gatz, 70, of Des Peres, knows about chasing a paper trail related to the
Civil War. She obtained the pension records of James Jenkins, her
great-great-grandfather who died in 1862, just months after being discharged
from the Union Army because of chronic dysentery. Gatz said her family saved
his letters, in which he described Cairo, Ill., as a "swampy mudhole" and told
of his fury when someone stole almost all his possessions.
Pete Piotrowski, 76 and a self-described "full-time RVer," said his interest in
the Civil War stemmed from learning about his great-great-uncle John Wimer, who
served two terms as mayor of St. Louis before being killed in 1863 in a battle
in Hartville, Mo.
He said everything he learned about the Civil War made him want to learn more,
both about his family and what led to the war itself.
"You can be a good historian without being a genealogist," Piotrowski said.
"But you can't be a good genealogist without being a historian."
expected to heighten interest about what happened on and off the battlefields
150 years ago.
That means archivists are scrambling to post information online to feed that
curiosity.
Missouri State Archivist John Dougan detailed the effort to those at the St.
Louis Genealogical Society's 40th annual family history conference, the largest
such gathering in the Midwest, on Saturday.
Organizers said about 300 people were at the conference at the Maryland Heights
Centre, and some wanted to learn what role their families had played in the
Civil War.
The war has always been a popular subject among historians. The role of
Missouri, which trails only Virginia and Tennessee in the number of battles on
its soil, is of special interest, Dougan said.
"During the Civil War in Missouri, every member of every household was
affected," he said. And that means that mountains of documents remain — a
treasure trove for those looking to track down records of ancestors. Such
records include pension papers, court claims of damage to property, loyalty
oaths and military prison data.
Dougan hopes to make it easier to access such documents by getting as many of
them posted to the website missouridigitalheritage.com. The site was launched
about two years ago and has received more than 100 million hits since then,
Dougan said.
For the last five years, one full-time employee of Dougan's office has been
devoted to posting documents from the Office of the Adjutant General, a
constitutional office created in 1820 to oversee the state militia, to the
website. But much work remains, and Dougan said not all the information would
be posted even by the time the sesquicentennial ends in 2015.
That means that thorough research will involve paper records, he said.
Ann Fleming, treasurer of the St. Louis Genealogical Society and a
ninth-generation St. Louisan, said less than 5 percent of the records available
to genealogists can be accessed online. Members of her group have made it their
mission to gather St. Louis and St. Louis County records, walking through
graveyards to document burial sites and wading through mountains of public
documents and microfilm.
Pat Gatz, 70, of Des Peres, knows about chasing a paper trail related to the
Civil War. She obtained the pension records of James Jenkins, her
great-great-grandfather who died in 1862, just months after being discharged
from the Union Army because of chronic dysentery. Gatz said her family saved
his letters, in which he described Cairo, Ill., as a "swampy mudhole" and told
of his fury when someone stole almost all his possessions.
Pete Piotrowski, 76 and a self-described "full-time RVer," said his interest in
the Civil War stemmed from learning about his great-great-uncle John Wimer, who
served two terms as mayor of St. Louis before being killed in 1863 in a battle
in Hartville, Mo.
He said everything he learned about the Civil War made him want to learn more,
both about his family and what led to the war itself.
"You can be a good historian without being a genealogist," Piotrowski said.
"But you can't be a good genealogist without being a historian."