Gopher Records - Record Retrieval from the National Archives

07/21/2025

The latest post from our blog:

We’re often asked whether a soldier’s Civil War records will include information about his parents. The answer is maybe! There are a variety of contexts in which his parents might be found in his records. Here are a few examples: These examples are drawn from the records of Union soldiers but .....

07/01/2025

In the 16th-century, the administration of Charles V, King of Spain, used red ribbon to bind important documents, distinguishing them from mundane records that were tied with ordinary string. The practice spread to England and, by the 19th century, to the U.S. where the government continued to use red tape or ribbon to bind military records.

The term "red tape" came into common usage as Civil War veterans struggled to meet the government's requirements to document their eligibility for pensions. The term is still used today to symbolize bureaucratic obstructions and government inefficiency.

We encounter this "red tape" every day but we know how to navigate through it. Let us help you discover your ancestors' military records!

06/25/2025

NOTICE: If you see chatter online about the National Archives facility in College Park, Maryland being closed to the public, please nip that rumor in the bud. There was such an announcement but it neglected to say that the intended subject of the notice is the PARKING GARAGE at NARA II. Some people may be required to use the "side lot" instead. When the omission was noticed, the announcement was removed. Presumably, a revision will be posted.

I am at NARA in D.C. now and have it on absolute authority of the supervisors that there are no plans to change the rules regarding access to _records_ at NARA II.

06/14/2025

June's winner of a free "Civil War Soldier's Bundle" is Sally Kimbel. Congratulations, Sally!

Remember that once a month - EVERY month - we randomly select a member of our site to receive a gift certificate for our most popular product, the “Civil War Soldier’s Bundle”. This bundle includes digital copies of a Union soldier’s service record, pension record, and medical records, if any, from the National Archives (Retail value=$76.50).

Tell your friends! It is one of the great benefits of being a member of Gopher Records. Membership is FREE, includes an automatic 10% discount on every purchase, and you won't get any unwanted marketing emails. There really is no downside.

For more information or to become a member, please visit https://gopherrecords.com/free-records/

05/19/2025

If you'll be at National Genealogical Society conference in Louisville, KY next weekend (23-26 May 2025), then be sure to stop by our booth ( #211) in the exhibit hall to say hello. If you're a member of GopherRecords.com can also get a free gift (while supplies last). Membership is free and entitles you to at least 10% off every order, among other benefits. For more information, see:
https://gopherrecords.com/ufaqs/member/

04/15/2025

The Civil War “Soldiers and Sailors” system is no longer supported.

Researchers have long relied on the National Park Service’s online “Soldiers and Sailors Database” to search for Civil War ancestors. Many of those same researchers have discovered, however, that there are significant problems with that system and the search results are often unreliable.

Now the NPS has officially abandoned the effort to resolve those problems and have announced on the site that the system will no longer be maintained or updated.

Fortunately, a free replacement is already available to researchers. Over the past two years, thousands of researchers have switched to BetterSoldiersAndSailors.com which allows searching of the same soldiers and sailors database but with a modern search engine. The new system supports “sounds like” searches, wildcards, logical sorting of search results, and other modern features that were missing from the old system. It also recognizes common abbreviations in the data like Geo., Wm., and Sam’l that caused many searches on the old system to fail. For those reasons, if you ever failed to find a soldier on the old system, it would be a good idea to try again with BetterSoldiersAndSailors.com.

But there are even more advantages to the new system. If appropriate, it will point you to the online sites where you can find your soldier’s military records. If those records aren’t online, it offers an easy option to order copies from Gopher Records which is much faster and much less expensive than ordering them directly from the National Archives. In fact, orders have typically been filled in about two weeks and Gopher Records guarantees that its prices are lower than those of any record retrieval service.

BetterSoldiersAndSailors.com is developed and supported by Gopher Records, LLC.

Please share with your researcher friends and relevant Civil War groups.

03/23/2025

At Gopher Records, we are hugely gratified by the growing popularity of our FREE research web site, BetterSoldiersAndSailors.com.

Thousands of Civil War researchers have discovered the many advantages of BSS over the "Soldiers and Sailors" site provided by the National Park Service. Our site uses the very same databases of soldiers, sailors, and POWs but it adds modern search features (like phonetic searches, wildcards, and automatic handling of abbreviated names) and it includes other databases that are not found on the NPS site.

Perhaps best of all, you can search each database separately but - unlike the NPS site - the default is to search ALL of the databases at the same time. So in addition to finding their Civil War ancestor, many researchers have been surprised to discover that he is among nearly 200,000 Court Martial case files or more than 700,000 Civil War burials in 16,000+ cemeteries around the country.

Please tell your researcher friends and relevant Civil War groups about BetterSoldiersAndSailors.com.

03/06/2025

I'm at the Rootstech conference in Salt Lake City for the next few days but we still have staff on duty at NARA so the fulfillment of orders should not be affected. I may be somewhat slower to respond to inquiries, however.

If you're coming to Rootstech, then stop by our booth ( #1232) to say hello!

-Bob

02/28/2025

Some new databases were recently made available on Fold3 regarding Civil War Prisoner of War records from four NARA microfilm series.

If you don't have a subscription to Fold3, then remember that there are a variety of legal ways to access it for free as detailed on our blog here:
https://gopherrecords.com/blog/free-access-to-ancestry-and-fold3/

Here is the description of the four microfilm series in question from Fold3:

Microfilm series M1303

Contains records relating to Federal or Union POWs that were held by Confederate authorities at Camp Sumter, Andersonville, Georgia between February 1864 and April 1865. Records contained in this series include:

- Register of departures of prisoners from Andersonville
- Register of admittances to the prison hospital (original and copy)
- Register of prisoners confined at the prison hospital
- Register of prisoners’ deaths and burials (original and copy)
Burial lists of prisoners
- Lists of prisoners claiming reimbursement for money taken from them by Confederate authorities
- Consolidated monthly strength reports of prisoners (original and copy)
- Series of provision returns of the prison hospital
- Name index to the original hospital register of admittances
- Partial name index to one of the burial lists

Microfilm series M598

Contains records relating to Confederate POWs that were held by Federal authorities at various prisons and stations from 1861 to 1865 (with a few records from 1866). These records are arranged in three sections: (1) records of POWs and political prisoners with no specific prison or place of confinement, (2) records of individual prisons and stations, and (3) records of several prisons. Records contained in this series include:

- Registers of prisoners
- Registers of deaths of prisoners
- Registers of prisoners’ applications for release and decisions
- Descriptive lists of prisoners and deserters
- Register of prisoners ordered to be released
- Register of applications made for release of prisoners
- Register of unclaimed money and valuables belonging to prisoners
- Register of the effects of deceased prisoners
- Permits granted by the Commissary General of Prisoners for clothing for the prisoners
- Lists of prison camp records received
- Letters sent and received
- Numeric report of prisoners received, transferred, paroled, released, and deceased
- Register of Confederate and Federal soldiers and civilians sentenced
- Register of prisoners discharged and released
- Register of prisoners transferred and escaped
- Morning reports of prisoners
- Ledgers of prisoners’ accounts

Microfilm series M2072

Contains lists of Confederate soldiers who were captured at Vicksburg, Mississippi on 4 July 1863. These records are arranged alphabetically by the name of the state each unit was from, then by type of unit, regiment number, and company.

Microfilm series M918

Contains a register of Confederate soldiers, sailors, and citizens who died in Federal prisons and military hospitals in the North between 1861 and 1865. The register is generally organized alphabetically by name of prison or hospital and then alphabetically by name of the deceased.

What Information can I Find in these Records?

The amount and type of information available for an individual will vary according to record types and forms. Each individual’s name has been indexed and is searchable in this database. However, additional information such as their rank, company, regiment, state where from, or date of death may be listed on the original document and may be found by viewing the image.

Fields may include admission or entry date, name of prison or hospital, location of prison or hospital, date and place of capture, rank, regiment, company and state, date of death, exchange, parole, or release, and location of grave.
https://www.fold3.com/publication/1443/us-civil-war-prisoner-of-war-records-1861-1865

This database contains records relating to Civil War Prisoners of War (POW). The database is comprised of four National Archives (NARA) microfilm series (M1303, M598, M2702, and M918).

02/19/2025

I'm sad to report that my friend of more than 35 years and mentor, Robert Charles Anderson, has passed away. RCA was a scholar of the highest order, a prolific author, and a pillar of the genealogical community. He will be remembered as the Director of The Great Migration Project, a marvel of scholarship and the unquestioned authority for researchers of colonial New England.

But he was a remarkable man in so many other ways. When admiring his “library” which filled every room of his house, I once asked, “Wow, Bob, have you read all these?” He looked at me with a cheeky grin and responded, “All those and many more, my boy.” And it showed. If you had colonial ancestors, then he could recite several generations of their family history from memory as flawlessly as he could recite the lineup of the 1916 Boston Red Socks.

I had the great honor to serve with RCA on the Board of Directors of the National Genealogical Society and of GENTECH, Inc. And I worked closely with him and a handful of other professionals to develop the Genealogical Data Model, a roadmap for the communication of genealogical data. That was way back in 1995 by which time he had already been a genealogical rock star for some 20 years.

When the genealogy world recognizes you by your initials, you know that you've made an impact that will not soon be forgotten. He will be greatly missed by all those who had the privilege to know him.

02/01/2025

Happy Gopher Day!

Gopher Day is this Sunday so we're celebrating with a flash sale of 10% off our most popular product, the "Civil War Soldier's Bundle." This bundle includes a Union soldier's service records, pension file, and carded medical records for the combined price of just $76.50 - or $68.85 with a free membership to our site. (This offer does not apply to Confederate records because they are not available at the National Archives).

If the same records were ordered directly from the National Archives, it would cost at least $140 - and maybe much more depending on the number of pages in the pension file. That's at least a 45% discount compared to NARA prices!

The sale ends on Sunday night so check your records for those Civil War ancestors to take advantage of this special Gopher Day sale price!
https://gopherrecords.com/

Please share and tell your friends!

("Gopher Day"?? I know. Close enough.)

01/14/2025

January's winner of a free "Civil War Soldier's Bundle" is Carolyn Rowland. Congratulations, Carolyn!

Remember that once a month - EVERY month - we randomly select a member of our site to receive a gift certificate for our most popular product, the “Civil War Soldier’s Bundle”. This bundle includes digital copies of a Union soldier’s service record, pension record, and medical records, if any, from the National Archives (Retail value=$76.50).

Tell your friends! It is one of the great benefits of being a member of Gopher Records. Membership is FREE, includes an automatic 10% discount on every purchase, and you won't get any unwanted marketing emails. There really is no downside.

For more information or to become a member, please visit https://gopherrecords.com/free-records/