Beginning in 1818, the U. S. Congress enacted service related pensions and bounty land warrants to certain veterans and later to their widows under certain conditions. The National Archives has the applications for these benefits microfilmed in alphabetical order by the soldier's surname. When the soldier made his application, he usually gave his place of residence, his age and place of birth. He frequently gave the names and ages of family members living at home. When the widow made her application, she had to prove she was legally married to the soldier. She had to provide the date and place of marriage, her name before marriage and the date and place of the soldier's death. If she married again, she gave the dates of subsequent marriages and the husbands' dates of death. Widow's applications were rejected for want of proof of marriage; so widows commonly cut or tore pages containing family records from Bibles, ledgers, journals, etc., to submit with their applications. This action taken by the widows unwittingly preserved countless family, bible and marriage records for future generations of genealogical researchers! Here below are two of our Snidow ancestors' pension applications (transcriptions) with thanks to Tammy Collier for sending Jacob's: