Heartland Genealogy

Through a Civil War Pension File When we think about Civil War pension files, we often focus on the veteran. Yet many of these records tell an equally compelling story about the widow who spent years—sometimes decades—proving her husband's service and sacrifice. The pension file of Sarah Jane (Thompson) Briles is one of those stories. While Noah W. Briles' military service fills part of the file, Sarah's determination, resilience, and perseverance become its central theme. Through dozens of affidavits, certified records, and personal statements, we can follow her life from a young bride in Iowa to an elderly widow fighting for the pension she believed her husband had earned. A New Beginning Sarah Jane Thompson was born on 7 August 1843 in Warren County, Indiana. Years later, when she needed proof of her age, she turned to one of the most treasured genealogical records a family can possess—her father's Bible. The entry recording her birth became part of her pension appli...

Instead of Chasing It For years, my primary focus with Heartland Genealogy has been the blog itself. I research, write a post, publish it, and then try to remember to share it somewhere on social media. As I've been working on moving Heartland Genealogy to Blogger, I've also been looking more closely at how I share those posts. Moving away from WordPress meant giving up some of the automatic sharing features I'd become accustomed to. At first, that seemed like another disadvantage of making the move. However, it has also forced me to rethink how I'm using social media. Discovering Meta Business Suite One of the tools I'm learning to use is Meta Business Suite . Since Facebook and Instagram are both Meta platforms, Business Suite allows me to manage my Heartland Genealogy Facebook page and Instagram account from the same place. More importantly for me, I can schedule posts . Instead of publishing a blog post and then immediately trying to share it everywhere, I can p...

Have you used family Bibles in your genealogy research? I'm fortunate that my grandmothers and cousins helped me gain a  to several family Bibles over the years. However, I didn't even know a THOMPSON family Bible existed until I transcribed my great-great-grandfather's Civil War pension file. Among the documents was a statement dated 2 October 1916 that reads: Sarah Jane Briles exhibited tome what she claims to be her father's family Bible. That said book bears date on the initial page as follows: "American Bible Society, 1849. That on the page of said book under title of "Family Records" I copied these words: "Sarah Jane Thompson was burned August the 7 in the year of our Lord 1843" While the pension file preserves Sarah's birth entry from the Bible, it contains no information about the rest of the family's Bible record. That raises an intriguing question: What became of the William Thompson family Bible that was in Sarah Jane Briles...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: It’s Saturday Night again — time for some more Genealogy Fun!! Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!): Have you found an unusual, chilling, amazing, or fascinating newspaper article about your ancestors? If so, please share the article and what you learned about your ancestor(s) from it. Provide a source citation too! In 2023, I found a fascinating newspaper item connected to my great-great-grandfather, Washington Marion Crawford . It wasn’t a typical newspaper article, but a poem he had written about his experiences during the Civil War. Titled “My Capture and Imprisonment” the poem was published in the Williamsport Warren Republican on 13 April 1865. In my 27 February 2023 blog post, also titled My Capture and Imprisonment , I transcribed the poem and provided a complete citation for the newspaper item. The poem is particularly meaningful because Washington Marion Crawford had experienced exact...

Bringing Noah W. Briles' Story to Life Through Music One of the most rewarding aspects of exploring my family's history is finding new ways to share the stories hidden within old records. While Noah W. Briles' Civil War pension file provided the facts of his life, I wanted to present those facts in a way that would connect with family members who might never read dozens of pages of pension documents. That led to one of my newest experiments with artificial intelligence. From Pension File to Song After transcribing Noah's pension file, I asked ChatGPT to write song lyrics based solely on the documented evidence. Rather than focusing on battlefield heroics, the song tells the story of Noah's service as a  blacksmith in Company I of the 1st Iowa Cavalry . The lyrics follow the evidence found in his military and pension records: his enlistment in 1861 his service as a regimental blacksmith the illness he contracted during the war his return home to Sarah Jane Thompson t...