Civil War researchers take note! Your hunting has just become a great deal easierŠ.and more interesting.

You will be amazed at what you find on the “Civil War Soldiers & Sailors System,” (CWSS) a unique on-line database located at:

http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/.

The CWSS is an internet database containing the basic facts about servicemen who served on both sides during the Civil War. The initial focus of CWSS is the Name Index Project, which enters names and other basic information from 5.4 million soldier records in the National Archives. Currently there are over 5 million soldier names from over 30 states and territories on file.

The facts about the soldiers are being entered from records that are indexed to many millions of other documents about Union and Confederate Civil War soldiers maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

Other information includes: histories of regiments in both the Union and Confederate Armies, links to descriptions of 384 significant battles of the war and other historical information. Additional information about soldiers, sailors, regiments, and battles will be added over time.

As of this writing, the prisoner-of-war database includes a list of prisoners and a history of the prisons at Fort McHenry (Confederate) and Andersonville (Union).

The National Park Service (NPS) manages 14 National Cemeteries, all but one of which is related to a Civil War battlefield park. In the future, the NPS will be adding all burials in these cemeteries to the CWSS database. At present the only cemetery listed is the Poplar Grove National Cemetery at Petersburg National Battlefield which is located 25 miles south of Richmond, VA. But the database includes not only the written records from Poplar Grove but images of each of the headstones.

Data, but no images, from four other cemeteries will be added later this year.

The CWSS is a cooperative effort by the National Park Service and several other public and private partners to computerize information about the Civil War.

The web site is beautiful constructed and easy to accessŠ.all in all a wonderful example of your tax dollars at work for historic preservation and making research available to the public.

Mark this site as a valuable research link and pass it along to your research buddiesŠ.they will thank you!

DOES ANYONE KNOW …

… Janine J. Robinson (2920 Gordon Road, Chattanooga, TN 37419;

email-Gen-Bug@webtv.net

) is searching for information on CHRISTIAN SCHWARTZ, her great great granduncle who was born in Bavaria, Germany about 1835. When and how did he arrive in the USA? He married Susannah MILLER, daughter of Martin Miller, on 12 February 1861 at the First Presbyterian Church in Natchez, MS. Christian and Susannah never had children, but by 1876 or before had living with them, John C. Schwartz and Katie Marie Schwartz, children of Christian’s brother, possibly named George. George is Janine’s great great grandfather and Katie her grandmother. John (18) and Katie (16)are listed as niece and nephew of Christian and Susannah in the 1880 Adams County census. Katie went to Natchez High School and the family has her composition book and autograph book with “little sayings” of Natchez Friends and schoolmates. At one point she has a crush on Willie G. KENNEDY and his name is sprinkled though her writings. She ended up marrying John William STAUB, in Cincinnati, Ohio. Katie’s brother John married Clara WOLF, a Chicago girl, and lived in Chicago before moving on to Detroit where he died in 1925. Christian died at his residence in Natchez called “White House” now known as “Glen Auburn” on Commerce Street in July of 1890. Janine has many family photos but is interested in finding more printed material or pictures of the family. What about her great great grandfather? Is his name really George? Did he come over with Katie and John and live with Christian for awhile? Where and when did he die? It is believed that his wife died in Germany in 1870 and sometime after that he and his two small children came to America. Where did Christian live before he had “White House” built? Who were Christian’s parents? Can any reader help with this information?

Please send your announcements and queries to FAMILY TREES at 900 Main Street, Natchez, Ms 39120 or email to

Famtree316@aol.com

. All queries printed free of charge. We look forward to hearing from you!