The Process

Disclaimer: don’t even bother reading this post if you don’t have an interest in understanding the process. I feel it necessary to explain what I do so that I can feel comfortable using CWCC jargon in later posts. So, bear with me. Or don’t. Like I said in the beginning, I follow the records through the entire digitization project. Here, I’ll try to (as briefly as possible) walk through it step by step.

First, I pull the boxes from the shelves. With a paintbrush, I dust them off, and cough and sneeze violently from the decades of dust I release into the atmosphere. Then, I pull out all the folders from the box (there are anywhere from 30 to 50). Along with folders, boxes will contain loose paper "consolidated cards," which are often in poor condition from being squashed in the back for years. These consolidated cards indicate a situation, for example, in which a widow was receiving a pension, and she either died or remarried, thus making her ineligible to continue. In this case, her children become eligible to apply for the pension (a minor's pension). Those children receive a new pension number, which is later on in the series. Where the widow's pension number was, there will be a card indicating the files have moved. I remove all these loose cards, tab the damaged ones for repair, and place them in mylar sleeves. Then, I look in every folder and remove extraneous pieces of paper, paperclips, etc. I make sure there is a folder or card for every file number represented. If there is not, I make a note of it and must look it up on the microfilm index later. 

I take the consolidated cards and look up each soldier on a database- I prefer Footnote.com, but Ancestry.com and the NPS’s Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System are also good resources. I verify the soldier’s name and regiment information, and I type up a target sheet with this information on it. I put the sheets in with the original document in mylar, and refile them in their boxes.

The task of the 74 CWCC volunteers is to "prep" the files. This involves looking at EVERY piece of paper, taking out certain "selected documents," and putting them in the front. Selected documents are: the brief, original application, proof of service (a form from the Adjutant General’s Office, from now on the AGO), proof of death (an affidavit or a letter from the Surgeon General), proof of marriage (ALL marriages- whether the original soldier or not), and proof of children. The volunteers then fill out a "target sheet" with the vital information-- name, regiment, and pensioner's name information. The volunteers also mark documents for conservation as needed.

Once the volunteers have done their files, they come back to me for QA, or quality assurance. I look through their selected documents, and ensure that the information they extract for the target sheets is correct. I correct any mistakes—most often, mislabeled military organizations—and sometimes rewrite the target sheets in neat block letters. This is because the files, once digitized, will be indexed by data enterers in China/India/Bangladesh, who must be able to read the forms very clearly, as they are (obviously) not in their native alphabet.

Once the files have gone through QA, they are sent to conservation to repair any damaged documents. They then come back to us, and we send them off to the scanners, who image them. From there, the now-digital files are sent to Footnote.com, where they’ll be indexed and eventually posted online. We are about to break the 60,000^th file mark, and Footnote is up to about 38,500 posted online. The end.

The CWCC averages between 20-25 boxes per week. With an average of 40 files in every box, that means we see between 800-1000 files a week. These don’t all go through me—our project manager shares the task of QA—but it is still an almost nauseating number of stories that pass under my eyes every day. And so, this blog will be the place to record these findings, comment on random impressions, and try to honor the hardship of the 1.28 million Civil War pensioners by telling some of their stories.