Tracing Your Civil War Ancestry

Looking for information about a “reb” or “yank” in your family tree? This how-to workshop will give you the skills to successfully search for your Civil War ancestor. Learn how to make sense of muster rolls, service rolls, pension records, and other primary and secondary sources. Find out what Civil War genealogy Web sites are worth your time. This is the third in a series of four genealogy workshops held at HSP this fall. This workshop will be taught by Dr. Daniel Rolph, the military historian and head of reference services at HSP, as well as a senior lecturer at Montgomery County Community College. Dr. Rolph has a doctorate in folklore and folklife from the University of Pennsylvania and specializes in the Civil War and the American frontier. Originally from Kentucky, Dr. Rolph had three great-great-grandfathers who fought in the Civil War (two for the Union and one for the Confederacy), and he has been a Confederate reeanctor in the 4th VA, Stonewall Brigade. He has written for Genealogy Digest and is the author of My Brother’s Keeper: Union & Confederate Soldiers’ Acts of Mercy during the Civil War. Dr. Rolph is working on his next book, The War That Won’t Go Away: The American Civil War & Family Folklore in the 21st Century.

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