What’s Your Most Unique Genealogy Discovery? Mine’s a Left Foot.

So for those who follow An Amateur Genealogist’s Musings, I would first like to thank you and secondly you may be familiar with my great-great-Grandfather, Christopher McNanny. Christopher was the ancestor who led to my interest into my family’s genealogy. As you may know, Christopher fought on the side of The Union during The American Civil War and early on in my research I heavily focused on this aspect of Christopher’s life. This research led me to various websites regarding Christopher’s regiment, Company G – 106th New York Volunteers, in hopes of gathering any information on Christopher. Many websites were extremely helpful detailing the campaign and battles of the 106th, but I really wanted to see if there was any information on Christopher specifically.

I knew prior to conducting this research Christopher suffered some sort of amputation which I learned through family lore. Other than that I really did not know much about his service. Early on in my research I discovered Christopher’s obituary in The Madrid Herald which provided a high level overview of his service, but not the meaty in-depth information that I needed. With that being said, I decided to start asking experts on Company G to see if they had any information on Christopher or could at least steer me in the right direction.

I found an expert, Todd,  through a website I discovered through a Google search (unfortunately this site is no longer or at least I couldn’t find it). I found Todd’s email and sent him a simple email asking for any information he may have on Christopher. I remember I received a reply late at night just before bed and the information in the email was one of the breakthroughs that make your jaw fall to the floor.

The email started off by going through the campaign history of Company G 106th describing when and where they fought. The email then described The Battle of Summit Point in West Virginia on Aug 21st, 1864. According to the email, this battle is where my great-great-Grandfather was wounded by a bullet thru his little toe and exiting through the sole of his left foot which eventually led to the amputation of his left leg below the knee on September 21st, 1864. I remember while reading this email thinking to myself what an amazing amount of detail to have on hand for only a private in Company G. Todd then went on to explain why he was able to provide such detailed information.

The reason I can relate this detailed medical information is that McNanny’s case is included in the “Medical and Surgical History of the Civil War” and I have a copy of the case file from the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology’s National Museum of Health and Medicine, that I’ll be happy to copy and send to you, if you email me your address.And to make matters a little more bizarre, while I can’t provide you an image of McNanny, since I have not come across one in my research on the 106th—it does appear I can put you in touch with McNanny himself—or least with his foot! According to the AFIP’s records, his amputated foot was retained as a teaching specimen after the war and remains in their anatomical collection as number 1000277. There are four such 106th NY soldier specimens in their collection, and I “visited” them about 15 years ago. 

Keep in mind, before I read any of this email I really didn’t have much knowledge of Christopher McNanny’s Civil War service. If you read the above portion of the email not only did I find out  about Christopher’s service, but one of the most strangest unique aspects of my genealogical research and that is Christopher’s skeletal left foot still be preserved at The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology’s National Museum of Health and Medicine (which closed in Sept of 2011).  I still have not found a picture of Christopher, but I have plenty of photos of Christopher’s left foot!

 

“Sheridan’s campaign in the Valley of the Shenandoah–Battle of Summit Point, Sunday, August 21st, 1864.” From Frank Leslie’s Scenes and Portraits of the Civil War (1894)

 

To provide a brief history: The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) was founded as the Army Medical Museum on May 21, 1862, to collect pathological specimens along with their case histories. The information from the case files of the pathological specimens from the Civil War was compared with Army pensions records and compiled into the six-volume Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion, an early study of wartime medicine. Apparently when Christopher’s leg was amputated in Baltimore in Sept of 1864 his leg became part of the AFIP’s (now The National Museum of Health and Medicine) collection on Civil War specimens.

 

Christopher McNanny’s Left Foot (Notice the shattered little toe where the bullet went through)

 

After receiving the email from Todd my next step was to try to locate a photo of Christopher’s foot since I was curious and simply wanted to see it. I called the AFIP and provided all the information I had from Todd’s email. A few days later I received an email with a series of photographs of Christopher’s foot.  While viewing the photos I couldn’t help, but think of the adventures this foot has had. Being born in Ireland, making the voyage across the Atlantic as a child, stepping foot in the United States, farming in Northern New York,  joining the Union to fight for your new home, and eventually losing that foot in battle for your country.  That foot certainly went through a lot and seeing the photographs made me think of what an incredible life my great-great-grandfather, Christopher McNanny, lived.

Happy Hunting,

Donny

P.S. As I mentioned in the blog post the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology closed in September of 2011. Currently the Civil War specimens are being held at The National Museum of Health and Medicine. I just received word the collection is safe and sound since the move.  Also if you had an ancestor, who fought in The Civil War and had an amputation performed on him it may be worth looking in to see if his limb is part of this collection.

 

 

 

Why is it worth obtaining your ancestor’s Civil War pension record?

If you had a male ancestor above the ages of sixteen to eighteen living in the United States in 1861 there is an extremely good chance that he may have been involved in The Civil War in some capacity. The total combined strength of The Union and Confederate forces was around 3,100,000 which was roughly 10% of the total population of The United States in 1860. If you do happen to know of a male ancestor, who lived during that time you may want to conduct some research to determine if he served during The Civil War. In my case, my father knew he had a great-grandfather, who served in The Civil War, his first name, and a variation of his last name. To make a long story short we discovered his last name through a marriage record and where he resided before mustering into service. This was all the information we needed to start researching my great-great-grandfather, Christopher McNanny’s, Civil War service. I could go on for hours and probably will be sharing my knowledge and stories of Christopher in future blog posts, but this blog is about the value of obtaining a pension record which generally is a treasure trove of information.

I received my copy of Christopher’s pension record a few years ago and I still from time-to-time go through the document page-by-page looking for that tidbit of information which may help answer an unanswered question. Christopher’s pension record is about 100 pages long since he lost his left leg below the knee during The Battle of Summit Point on August 21st, 1864. (Christopher of Madrid, New York served in Company G, 106th New York Volunteers) The amount of pages varies for each individual soldier and the length of the record depends if they were wounded during the war and/or if they or wife filed appeals throughout the years after the war. In Christopher’s case he was wounded and his wife Margaret applied and appealed after Christopher’s death.

In general Pension Records provide insight into the following, but not limited to:

• Birthdate and birthplace.
• Wife’s name and marriage date
• Residence prior, during, and after the war.
• In some instances, acquaintances were asked to provide testimony about the claimant and/or soldier.
• Information on the death of the soldier.
• Details about wound if wounded.
• Names of parents of soldier and occasionally wife’s parents.

Each individual pension record will provide a different level of insight and information. I have also heard of some containing pictures as well, but this is rare. Occasionally you will discover shocking revelations that you were not expecting. For example, in Christopher’s pension record it was discovered that Margaret was not his first wife which certainly went against the information that was passed down from in my family.

According to the record Christopher was married to a Rosa Fagan while he was living in Burlington, Vermont. Not much is known about Rosa, but she died young at 26 in 1849.  According to Christopher’s mother-in law in her affidavit, Sarah White, Rosa died soon after childbirth. Sara White Affidavit 1909 I am not certain if there was a child born or the child also died during birth. I may never find out.

After Rosa’s death Christopher moved back to Waddington in Saint Lawrence County, New York. This information was provided by testimony from a James Duffy in 1909, who was an acquaintance of Christopher and Margaret. Essentially the U.S. Pension Office was trying to determine if Margaret was saying who she said she was which was being the wife of Christopher McNanny so she could further claim a pension after Christopher’s death.  James Duffy Affidavit 1909

As I said, each and every pension record will contain various amount of information and bits of knowledge. Some information you may already know and some may crack open that genealogical brick wall which you have been trying to break down for some time. Either way I would certainly invest in acquiring a copy of your ancestors Civil War Pension Record. I believe five years ago which I acquired Christopher’s the cost was $75, but I see now it is $80. Below I am including some information on how to go about getting a copy of a pension record. The good news is process is actually quite simple.

First you have to find the index number which corresponds to a specific pension record. Essentially once you obtain the index number you need to provide this number to The National Archives. From there The National Archives will handle finding the record and mailing a copy to you either hardcopy or CD. There are a couple of routes to take to obtain the index number. First make sure you have the first and last name of soldier as well as first and last name of wife. Residency would also be very helpful.

1. If you have a paid subscription to ancestry.com you can search through their records: http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=4654 2)
2. If you do not have ancestry.com subscription then you will have to go through The National Archives Microfilm Roll T288: General Index to Pension and find the number manually. http://www.archives.gov/research/military/pension-genealogy/1861-1934.html
   

I would recommend taking the ancestry.com route because it is simple and you can find the index number instantly. You can actually go to your local library and use ancestry.com library edition for free to look up the index number. Once you have acquired the index number than you can start filling out an online form to order which is known as  Form NATF 85D. You may find the online ordering form here: Federal Military Pension Application NATF 85D

I also strongly recommend once you receive your copy of your ancestor’s pension record to back it up and may I say it again BACK IT UP! I personally received Christopher’s pension record in hard copy form and I made copies of that. I also digitized the document which is not only stored on my hard drive, but also on http://www.dropbox.com. It is very important to back up all your research and please take the time to do so.

So in closing, if you have an ancestor, who fought in The Civil War, I would strongly advise you to obtain a copy of his pension record because the valuable information you will obtain is priceless.

Happy Hunting!

Donny