Research Links

The Beneficiary Identification Records Locator Subsystem (BIRLS) database was originally created and maintained by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (the VA). It provides an index to basic biographical information on more than 19.5 million deceased American veterans who received some sort of veterans benefits in their lifetime, including health care, disability or life insurance policies, educational benefits (the GI Bill), mortgage assistance (VA loans), and more.

The Confederate Citizens File, 1861-1865 (known as the “Citizens File”) is a collection of records related to Southern civilians and businesses who provided goods and services to the Confederate government during the Civil War. The Citizens File collection contains over 650,000 vouchers and other related documents filed in over 350,000 alphabetically arranged jackets. The vouchers and accompanying records are alphabetized and organized by Business or Citizen. A Fold3 collection.