Full Pension File Pre-Civil War

Ah, yes! Another NARA mystery: Here's some nice historical documents for you, Rorey. We'll let you guess where they come from!

In case you haven't discovered it, QuickLesson 4 outlines the process by which we can get all the essential data to recreate a workable citation. Yes, the subject of that QuickLesson is a naturalization record and you are asking about a pension file; but the process is the same and the kind of finding aid you need (a preliminary inventory) is the same.

If you have searched for a model in EE, you will have found several at 11.40 for citing pension records from NARA. None of them deal with Mexican War service, but the basic format is the same. (The fact that NARA sent them to you on CD rather than paper copies is immaterial.) The basic elements you need to cite—if you intend to cite the whole file*—are these:

Name of applicant/veteran (rank, company, regiment, war), pension file no., collection name, subgroup name, record group name, record group no., archives, location of archives. (Notice that your pattern, here, is from the smallest element to the largest.)

From your file jacket (usually) and the models at EE 11.40, you can get all the data you need except the name of the collection and subgroup. These are the two pieces of data that you can glean by acquiring and scanning the PI for this record group. 

Now, for all you readers who may be thinking Why bother? I'd rather spend my time looking for more records than tracking down citation stuff! here's the reason: In the process of reading that PI, in search of the collection and subgroup that has Mexican War pension files, you'll learn about sooooo many other records that you never dreamed existed.

-------------

*If your intent is to cite just one document from the file, to support a specific assertion in your narrative, then you would begin your citation with the identification of that document, as per example 2 on p. 604, then add the rest of the elements, as above.

Rorey, just when you thought you had this problem nailed, EE is now throwing you a curve—two of them, in fact. On the good news front, let's first note that your identification of RG 15 is good. Just add to it the name of that RG: Department of Veterans Affairs.

Now for the not-so-good news:

1. What you reference above as "Publication #T317 ... Index to Mexican War Pension Files, 1887–1926" is a microfilm publication. Publications—be they film, paper, or digital—are not cited the same as the original documents. (Location and access are different, which means citation formats are different.) Ergo, if you are citing images from this film, the format you would use is the one under EE 11.40 that carries the microfilm icon.

However ...

2. You originally stated that NARA sent you the "full pension file" on CD. In that case, you have not used the film and you would not the cite film publication. (Given that they copied that unfilmed file directly for you onto the CD, just that one file, it's not a publication. It's just a copy for you.) As for that film publication itself, it is only an index. It does not have the documents from the "full pension file." That index is a different critter from what you have. If you damage your CD and go looking for the file on the film, you won't find it.

This puts you back to where we were yesterday, with a need to consult the Preliminary Inventory to RG 15, to identify those last two pieces of data you need for your citation to the original: the collection (or series) and the subgroup.

Question: In your original query, you used the phrase "Pre-Civil War (Mexican War)."  Is this, perhaps, a cryptic notation that NARA used on the photocopies sent to you? If so, it is likely that the subgroup name carries some wording about "Pre-Civil War" (with a time frame appended), and the series within that subgroup is 'Mexican War Pension Files' or something similar (with a time frame appended). But the only way to produce an accurate citation would be to get that PI—in which case, as we mentioned yesterday, you will have the marvelous added benefit of discovering the existence of more records.

All this is confusing, yes. It would help (if you haven't had time already) to read the fundamental discussions at EE 11.1 and 11.8. This provides much-needed grounding for understanding how NARA's original records and microfilm publications are organized.

Rorey, it’s good that you’re exploring NARA’s finding aids. Your difficulty here is that you don’t have online access to all that you need.  Let's back up to your posting of 8-1-2012 at 12:02. There, you write:

“From Records Group 15 Preliminary Inventory:

15.7Records Relating to Pension and Bounty-Land Claims 1773-1942  

<snip>

15.7.2Pension and bounty land application files based upon service prior to the Civil War”

Now duck, Rorey! Here comes your curve ball. . . .

What you have consulted is not the preliminary inventory to RG 15. Going back to QuickLesson 4, under “Archival Finding Aids,” you will see a discussion of two of the several kinds of guides that NARA offers:

• The general guide
• Preliminary inventories

Under the “general guide,” QuickLesson 4 provides a hotlink to its online edition. That online page for RG 15 has provided the data you extracted about 15.7 and 15.7.2.   But the information you have found online is not what the PI offers and it’s not what you need to find any specific file or series. When using the “general guide” we need to remember three things:

• Those numbers are meaningless when it comes to locating record series or collections at NARA. Those numbers represent nothing but the chapter, page, and verse in that general guide (i.e., chapter 15, page 7, section 2). 
• Those descriptions of records are nothing but that: general descriptions. Many different collections or series can be lumped together in one catch-al phrase. Copying that phrase, in probably most cases, will still not pinpoint the specific series that needs to be searched for a specific file or register.
• The “general guide” covers over 500 record groups. But it has only a few pages on each. The preliminary inventories to the individual record groups can have hundreds of pages for each record group.

It’s still the PI that you need. So how do you find it?

As QuickLesson 4 points out, when you access the general guide, you do two things: (1) find the record group you are interested in; and (2) look for the sections that says “Finding Aids.” In this case, under the 15.7.2 that you flagged above, you’ll find this:

Finding Aids: Evelyn Wade, comp., "Preliminary Inventory of Bureau of Pensions Correspondence and Pension and Bounty-Land Case Files Relating to Military Service Performed Between 1775 and 1861," NM 22 (1964).

This is what you need to get from NARA—and study. QuickLesson 4 tells you how to do that. It also cites several other means of access, in the event that the PI you need is not currently in print at NARA.

Yes, all this seems like a lot to go through “just to create a citation.” But there’s something much bigger going on here: a wonderful learning process! NARA has thousands of types of records dealing with military service and benefits, very few of which are available online as digital images.  To access the others, to even learn that the others exist, we do have to understand and use those finding aids. They are a wonderful Open Sesame! to NARA’s trove.

In the meanwhile, in the example you have crafted, EE suggestion’s would be to (1) put square editorial brackets around the series name and subgroup name that you have put there as a placeholder and (2) use, there in your working notes, a different color for those pieces of information that still need fact-checking. For example:

     1. Alvin Cassity (Pvt., Co I, 2nd Kentucky Volunteers, Mexican War), Pension file 16011, [Records Relating to Pension and Bounty-Land Claims 1773‒1942; Pension and bounty land application files based upon service prior to the Civil War]; Department of Veterans Affairs, Record Group 15; National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.