Civil War Grave Registration Card Index

• Email request per veteran
  

How to use the Surname Index - First, conduct a search for your veteran or various veterans of the Civil War that may be buried in Jefferson County and recorded on the Veterans' Grave Card Registration File. Once you have located your veteran, you have established the fact that your veteran(s) is buried in a Jefferson County cemetery.

What Can You Learn By Using This Source - There were many fields for each veteran card. Caution - some of the cards are full of genealogical information, from their full name, to place of residence, where they were born, next of kin, company and regimental data, enlistment dates, discharge dates, cause of death, burial date, and where they are buried, type of tombstone (and more!). Keep in mind that some of the cards are incomplete.

Access To Copies of Original Grave Card - All the data available for that veteran, from his grave card will be given and a photocopy from the original grave card can be sent to you upon request.

What is the Veteran Grave Registration Card Index - The Recorder's Office in the Jefferson County Courthouse kept a Card Index File of all veterans that served, from the American Revolution, through the Spanish - American War. Flora L. VerStraten, along with Jeff Evans II and Cindy Stock received permission from the Recorder to bring a photocopier to the courthouse and photocopy ALL the grave registration cards from the card index in 2002. We realize that some of the cards may be missing and want all researchers to know, if you are searching for a veteran and his name is not listed on the Master Surname Index above, his card may be missing from the Index Card File or never recorded. Please contact Flora at fverstraten@dishmail.net if you know your veteran served and was buried in Jefferson County. If the necessary proofs are provided, we will add your veteran(s) to the Master Surname Index.

Flora has extracted all the information from each veteran card and converted this data to a spreadsheet, which was converted to a Digital Book (pdf). {Please feel free to submit all corrections to this file.} The file includes ALL veterans listed on the cards that served in the Civil War and are buried in Jefferson County. The information on the cards varies from veteran to veteran.

The fields on the cards include important genealogical information in many cases, and in other instances, very basic information. The chapter felt there was a need for such a project, due to the fact that when we contacted the largest cemetery in our county, Steubenville Union Cemetery and requested a "print out" of all Civil War Veterans buried in the cemetery, they gave us a list of only 156 veterans, which excluded Flora's great-grandfather that served in the Civil War. This was the first red light that many of the cemeteries may not have a correct listing for the veterans buried in their cemetery.

Our list included almost 1,000 veterans buried in Steubenville Union Cemetery alone! We are sure some are even missing from our grave registration card index Digital Book and request your assistance in submitting any veteran that you know who served in the Civil War and is BURIED in Jefferson County. You can submit this information by contacting Flora (listed above).

Helpful in Locating Pioneer Cemeteries - While compiling the information from the grave registration cards for veterans buried in Jefferson County, we were able to discover some OLD pioneer cemeteries. This has proved very helpful for our Cemetery Project. Many times cemeteries are given names by the current land owners at the time the record was recorded. We've been able to search deeds and find several of these pioneer cemeteries using these cards.

The Project Continues - The chapter plans to continue extracting all the data from these grave cards to include a master index of those that served in the Revolutionary War through the Spanish American War. Each conflict (war) will be posted HERE upon completion. Keep checking back often for those added sources.

Copyright Protection - Although the Veterans Grave Registration Cards are public information, the time and effort that went into compiling them all in this one great source was very time consuming, but important to our chapter and fellow researchers. To have this source at a glance can be used as a great source. All proceeds from this source will go to our ongoing Cemetery Preservation Project. Our chapter will work with the local Civil War Round Table Organization, and continue to identify veterans of the Civil War, that are buried in Jefferson County. Many veterans do not have a tombstone or markers. We want to change that! Our goal is to assist local government leaders, and local Veteran Organizations, and identify veterans with no markers or tombstones and get government issued tombstones and/or markers for each veteran. This is a MASSIVE project, but every veteran deserves to be recognized at his final resting place.

Ohio Valley Civil War Roundtable Projects

This update was received August of 2008

These updates are all located in Belmont County, which is immediate south of Jefferson County and was part of Jefferson County at one time. (Check county history for details concerning division and county boundary changes)

1. Restored the tombstones on the Civil War Veterans graves at the Powhatan Point cemetery.
2. Restored the tombstones on the Civil War Veterans graves at the Walnut Grove cemetery, Martins Ferry.
3. Provided the chain link fence around the Walnut Grove cemetery, Martins Ferry.
4. Erected the monument to General Bushrod Johnson at Bark Camp State Park , Belmont .
5. Restored the cannon and rebuilt the carriage that it is mounted upon in Walnut Grove cemetery , Martins Ferry.
6. Coordinated the restoration of the Civil War monument in Bellaire.
7. Erected individual tombstones at various cemeteries in the area.
8. Restored 55 tombstones of Civil War veterans, Union and Confederate, in the cemetery behind the courthouse in St. Clairsville.

NOTE: These were all local projects, for which no one asked for reimbursement for their labor, materials, or transportation.