Jerold,

I absolutely agree that if one lives close to the records, doing it yourself is the least expensive way to obtain this information. For instance, I live in Houston, TX, so the CMSR's and Pension Records of Texas soldiers are very convenient to me. Unfortunately, my CW ancestors are from Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee and Indian Territory. For their CMSR's I'd have to travel to the states and in the case of Union pension records the only place to get them is the NARA or a Federal Repository.

I guess my reason for recommending Alan Pitts so strongly, as a researcher and provider of these records for those who are not close to the microfilms, is due to my own experience. I've been an avid amateur WBTS historian for about thirty-five years. I've had some nightmare experiences with the NARA, "some" state archives and a host of different commercial services. Currently, I have an outstanding order for some Union CMSR's and Pension Records from a highly-recommended and not inexpensive source which is over eight weeks old. My problem with Broadfoot is they are so "pricey", especially for Union records and not particularly fast. In addition, many of the commercial providers and the NARA and state archives especially, are notorious for NOT putting forth a little extra effort. If you get one "dot or tiddle" out of place with these people, they simply respond "No Such Record Exists". Heaven forbid, you have two people with the same name in the unit. Even if you provide a middle initial, they will often choose the wrong "John Smith" or the first one they come to on the microfilm.

Alan has never failed me and I know how he deals with others. Generally, he'll provide a little history of the unit, make sure that the person's ancestor does or does not appear on another unit's roll and will quickly check the "Unfiled Papers and Slips" section of the microfilms to see if they are listed. His usual turnaround is less than a week.

In addition, a lot of our contributors are experts at Civil War research and the use of the microfilms, but many are not. For those people, somebody to trust and rely on like Alan is essential.

Just yesterday I found a website offering surname lookups for twenty dollars apiece. These are not compiled service records, but a surname listing for everybody named "Smith", "Jones" or "Abramowicz" in the Soldiers and Sailors System or from the Broadfoot CDs. Can you imagine someone charging "twenty bucks" to cut-and-paste this information into a MS Word document and email it to you? Unfortunately, some of our compatriots prey on family genealogists and CW "newbies".

Your recommendation was exactly the right thing to offer to a Memphis, Nashville, Chattanooga or Knoxville resident, but in this particular case both Hugh and Clay Simmons live hundreds of miles, in opposite directions from the Volunteer state.

That's the thing about this "darn" internet is that people from thousands of miles away can communicate with you, as though they're next door.

BTW, I grew up in Memphis and am an alumnus of UM (Memphis State Univ.), my wife is also a native Memphian and went to Ole Miss. Tennessee has some excellent resources available for CW research. In Texas, sometimes we forget there was a Civil War and especially that this was a Confederate state.

Thanks,

Jim