I had the privilege of interviewing Brian Rhinehart, a professional genealogist, who researches U.S. Civil War records at the National Archives for family history research. He has a plan you can follow to find your Civil War ancestors, how to research them and an excellent case study showing how he found a clients’ ancestor “William Smith” among hundreds of soldiers by the same name.
Brian Rhinehart is a professional genealogist and speaker and is the owner of CivilWarRecords.com. He is a graduate of Boston University’s Certificate of Genealogy Research and his work has been featured in the PBS television show “Finding Your Roots.” A direct descendant of seven Civil War soldiers, Brian specializes in research and record retrieval for Civil War and War of 1812 soldiers at the National Archives in Washington DC and has retrieved military files for hundreds of clients there.