Tracing Your Civil War Ancestors: Book Review

Tracing Your Civil War Ancestors is a handy little tool for genealogy research in this era of United States history. The publication is presented in magazine format, with 84-pages and a UV coated cover. By appearance and weight, it feels like a double-size genealogy magazine with a stronger cover.

Author David Norris has written extensively on the subject, including books and over 250 articles for various publications.

The design of Tracing Your Civil War Ancestors is similar to the Family Chronicle and Internet Genealogy magazines published by Moorshead Magazines. Numerous research topics are presented in 28 articles, each covering a different aspect of Civil War era research and records. Article subjects include:

First steps to finding a Civil War ancestor

Learning how armies are structured

Ancestors in the navies

U.S. Colored Troops and African-American sailors

Medical records, pay records and parole lists

Pension records, civilian records, tax records and Southern claims.

Newspapers, photos, maps and flags

Many more topics

Tracing Your Civil War Ancestors stays true to the magazine format and does not contain an index or suggested reading list at the end of the publication. However, each article includes many mentions of books, record groups or links readers can access for more information on a given subject.

Black and white photos are peppered throughout the publication. Subjects include soldiers, documents and maps. Most articles have a least one photo in them.

David Norris packs a lot of information in one spot. Tracing Your Civil War Ancestors is a good introductory resource for the various records that are available with regards to Civil War ancestors. A complete cover-to-cover read of Tracing Your Civil War Ancestors will give you a basic understanding of Civil War resources and suggestions for further research.

Tracing Your Civil War Ancestors

ISBN 978-0-9781592-7-6

$9.95 US/CDN

Available at FamilyChronicle.com through this page.

Also available at Barnes & Noble and Books a Million in the USA, and Chapters/Indigo in Canada.

Disclosure: I received a review copy of this publication from Family Chronicle. I was not compensated for this article.