Cousins in the Civil War

My 2x great grandfather, John Cope Louthan, was a Union soldier from Washington county, Ohio.  He, along with his brother, Oliver Perry Louthan, fought in the 36th OVI.  His younger brother, James Fife Louthan, fought in the 73rd OVI along with a future brother-in-law, Alexander M Ellis.  Many years ago, I ordered all four pension files from NARA.  I am so glad I did that as they have a wealth of wonderful information allowing me to glimpse into their lives and their struggles.

I decided to search for their cousins, both full and half.  You see, the father of the Louthan boys died when they were young, about 1845, and their mother remarried.  Their mother was a Hayes/Hays.   She married an Ormiston in Washington county, Ohio. After the Civil War, John Cope Louthan married Anna Jane Haddow.  Anna Jane's mother was an Ormiston.

I focused my search for Hayes/Hays, Ormiston and Haddow.

My first stop was the National Parks website for Soldiers and Sailors.  Technical difficulties prevented searching their website this morning.  I opened my Bookmarks in Chrome and found the Ohio Genealogical Society's Civil War Soldiers database link.  That is where I began my search.

First I searched for Ormiston and found these soldiers:

Surname	First Name	Company	Regiment	Beginning Rank	Ending Rank	Other Names	Notes
Ormiston	Alexander	G	63rd Regiment, Ohio Infantry	Private	Corporal
Ormiston	Archibald	F	63rd Regiment, Ohio Infantry	Private	Private
Ormiston	Isaac A.	F	148th Regiment, Ohio Infantry (National Guard)	Private	Private
Ormiston	James F.	F	148th Regiment, Ohio Infantry (National Guard)	Private	Private
Ormiston	Joseph A.	A	36th Regiment, Ohio Infantry	Private	Private	Joseph/Ormiston
Ormiston	William	D	148th Regiment, Ohio Infantry (National Guard)	Private	Private

 

James, Archibald and William are names of son's of David Ormiston, Anna Jane's uncle.  These could definitely be cousins.  I need more information to make an informed decision.  I decided to check a cousins family tree on Ancestry.com. Unfortunately he doesn't have this line completed on his family tree.  

Now, let's take a look at the Hayes/Hays surname in the OGS database.  There are 210 Hayes/Hays.DeHayes in the database.  I need to narrow the search results so I am going to take off the "fuzzy" and use "Exact."  An exact search for Hayes resulted in 206 results.  Too many, still so I need to do more research. In my Hayes line are three brothers, William Oliver Perry Hayes, Caleb Hayes and David Hayes.  They are my 4x great grandmother's brothers.  They were born between 1797 and 1824.  The youngest, David born in 1824, would be the most likely to have served himself.  However, sons of William and Caleb very well could have served in the Union.  Since I found so many results, I will need to search for each individual by first name in addition to the surname. Caleb had only one son, Samuel born about 1835. William married in 1830 and I don't have any information on his children.  Before I can do more research, I need to check the US Federal Census to find more information.

That will wait for another day!  Always loving the hunt for ancestors!