July 19, 2014

The Kansas State Historical Society has a wealth of Kansas archives.  Further, they have built an amazing, user-friendly website with links to indexes and databases that provide easy access to many of the collections – not the least of which are the Kansas Civil War Soldiers Records.

I’ve listed and linked with their brief descriptions to the Civil War soldier records indexes they have available for free online.

• Index to Kansas Adjutant General’s Report – The Kansas Adjutant General’s Report, 1861-1865, lists the names of troops who served in the Kansas volunteer regiments during the Civil War. This index includes the name, regiment and company, and place of residence for each soldier. 
• Kansas Civil War Militia Index – During the Civil War, the Kansas State Militia were mainly called upon to help repel Price’s Raid on the Kansas-Missouri border in October 1864.   This index points the user to the ACTUAL muster roll pages, which have been digitized and saved online.  Here’s my ancestor, Jonas (JC) Greenwood, on the muster roll (partial view only).  It gives his unit, where he mustered (Topeka), when he joined and was discharged and his rank.

Jonas Greenwood – Kansas Civil War Muster Roll

• Civil War Veterans in Kansas – This database currently contains over 28,000 names of Union veterans of the Civil War who lived in Kansas after 1865. The names are from rosters or reunion proceedings at the KSHS Library. Many of the rosters were based on the 1889 census of veterans that was authorized by the state legislature. The list of the sources included in this database is listed below. This information was input by KSHS staff and volunteers and includes the name of the veteran, the state in which he served, place of residence when the list was compiled and the source of information.
• Kansas Members of the Grand Army of the Republic – The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) was a volunteer organization, with membership limited to Union veterans of the Civil War, that supported and advocated for veterans’ rights and pensions. This index to members of the GAR, Department of Kansas, is based on the membership lists from northeast Kansas GAR posts published in the 1894 state roster and the 1917 state roster, with additional names added from the annual reports and records of individual posts dating from circa 1880 to 1943. The index was created by donor Robert Wandel.  The index currently includes about 100 of the more than 500 Kansas posts, mostly those in northern and northeastern Kansas.

If your ancestors lived in Civil War Era Kansas – or were on route elsewhere from 1861 to 1865, it’s worth your time to check out these databases.  Who knows what you may find.

Happy Researching!