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Stumpage Reports
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Thursday, July 22, 2004 :::
People Will Think I'm Dead . . .
... if I don't write something here.
I'm sorry to inform Ed that I don't have anymore stories about people playing with my dingus. At least not any I can tell here.
What's been going on at work, I'm sure you're wondering.
A legislator's staff member called the other day and wanted "everything" we had on a guy who was a former state representative and Confederate militia officer. "Uh, can you be more specific? Did you want to prove his military service? Find out about his family?"
"I said I want EVERYTHING."
Okay. When a legislator or member of their staff call, we jump. The lady who took the call did a little footwork and then I went to work. I found an estate file (record of your estate being divided up if you die without a will), a marriage bond, some mentions of him being in the militia in the Adujant General's files, a bunch of deeds, and someone else's pension application with a mention of him being an officer in the 69th North Carolina Regiment, commonly known as "Thomas' Legion."
As my boss and I like to say, Thomas' Legion truly must have been legion. I think if you lived in western NC and applied for a pension, you just put "Thomas' Legion" on your pension application wether you were in it or not. I checked Clark's Regiments and Moore's Roster and found no record of him being in the 69th. I could not check our microfilm of the NARA Compiled Service Records because the publications people had it, since the next volume of their troop rosters will feature the 69th. (Thank God the next volume will have that regiment, I can't even begin to list the problems with Moore's Roster) But a quick phone call to their office had them check it, and it was no go for our man in "Thomas' Legion."
So it looks like the pension file was wrong, its always fun finding something and then having to verify it, and it shows just because something is a primary document, it is not always correct.
I hope our customer was happy, the best part is I got to dig around and learned a few things.
If you stuck it out this long, my hat is off to you. I also spent some time today researching Revolutionary War service for some people, that's one of the harder things we do for people and I'm happy to be learning it. Most staff members run in horror when confronted with it. I'll spare you the details and nifty little things I learned.
Bonus Conversation Related to Above Research:
Me: Damn, I guess that pension file was wrong about that guy being in Thomas' Legion.
Coworker: Well, they were legion . . .
Me: If everyone who said they were in that unit really was, we would have won the damn war.
Coworker: That's real cute you say that, considering you're from up North an' all.
Me: (Sheepishly) Well, I have lived here for 20 years now.
::: posted by tom at 9:17 AM
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