Civil war medals?

Question

i have gotten intrested in the civil war recently and i looked up "unclaimed medals" from the civil war on the internet. so i found some with about 7 of them having my same last name the problem is that i dont know IF my ancestors served in the war and WHAT his name is! but im pretty sure one of them did because almost all american men served in the war at that time well most anyways. and my question is this. how can i find out if there is a medal waiting for me to claim? Or where can i find a good website to look that ancester up and DO NOT say ancestry.com cause im not paying 14$ a month for that. thanks for your help

Answer 1

Hi, first you need to figure out who was alive (and in the USA) in your father's ancestry tree in the 1860's.  The best way to do this is to start with yourself, then add your Dad, then your grandfather, and keep working backwards in time.  There are many free sites available for that research.

It would really help if you could provide a last name, the town/state you think your ancestors lived in, and maybe even some approximate dates.  (If you can't go all the way back to the 1860's, perhaps you could tell us who your grandfather or great-grandfather on your Dad's side of the family might have been, many of us would be willing to do some research for you to find out who your ancestor/s might have been during the Civil War).

Do you know when your ancestors came to the USA?  If it was after 1865, of course there won't be any Civil War medals waiting for you!

There are lots of searchable Civil War-related sites listed at this website:  http://www.cyndislist.com/cw.htm

Best of luck!