Civil War Families of Gallia County, OGS, Est. 2004 was started in 2004. Any member of the Gallia County Genealogical Society, OGS Chapter, Inc. may join by proving his/her descent from a Civil War soldier who either lived in or served in Gallia County. We currently have 154 members with 166 proven soldiers or nurses. A soldier may either be direct, a grandparent, or collateral, an aunt or uncle of some degree. A woman is acceptable if it can be proven that she provided some service such as a nurse. The fee is $15.00, one dollar of which is payable when the application is picked up or ordered.

     Helpful hints: One must begin with himself and his own birth certificate and continue the lines back each generation to the soldier. There must be proof of the soldier's service whether it be a tombstone marking, a roster, a pension, or a muster roll. Other proofs may be acceptable. With the collateral soldier you actually work from the ancestor down to yourself with the first step being to prove the relationship to you...he/she will be a sibling of your grandparent of some degree and you will need to document that through a will, land record, obituary or whatever else you might have that is a good documentation whether it be great, great-great and so on. Vital records, probate, land records, census, obituaries, cemetery records and Bible records are all valuable tools. What is not accepted is a printed genealogy or information which you can not document. These may be good clues to look for the documentation. Histories such as Hardesty's are considered acceptable as the writing was contemporary to the person's life. If a biographical sketch is used, it is believed that the person should have known his own parents and siblings and children. Other local histories are acceptable if they are contemporary to the facts written.  

     Already proven soldiers may be viewed by clicking on the Ancestors List in the left column. Each soldier is given a number in the order in which he first was proven and is followed by the name of the company and regiment in which he served. The list is updated for each year's new members. The deadline for new applications each year is September 1. The lineage society banquet during which new members are accepted is generally held on the second weekend in October.

     An ongoing project of ours is the publication on this site of as many obituaries for Gallia County Civil War soldiers as we can obtain. The total number of veterans with obituaries as of the spring of 2010 is over 550. Many have more than one and the ones buried in Gallia County are linked to their obituaries from their entry in the cemetery database. You can also read these fascinating excerpts by clicking on the obituary links in the left hand column.

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