CIVIL WAR VETERAN 
David C. Bartshe

David C. Bartshe’s gravestone simply records that he served with the 2nd Iowa Cavalry, in Company F, and belonged to the G.A.R. (Grand Army of the Republic), a fraternal organization of Union veterans.

photo: QHGS

To find genealogical information about him—date of birth, date of death—several online databases were visited in the following order:

1. To establish the fact that David C. Bartshe served in the Union Army, we consulted National Park Service U.S., Civil War Soldiers, 1861-1865 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007. 

This source provided the following information: 

“David C. Bartshe served in the 2nd Regiment, Iowa Cavalry, in Company F. He entered the Union Army as a Private and left the service as a Private.”

2. To find out if David was a Civil War pensioner, we looked for him in the National Archives and Records Administration. U.S., Civil War Pension Index: General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000. 

This source provided the following information:

“David C. Bartshe filed for a Civil War pension on 6 October 1891 as an Invalid. He filed this application in the state of Washington. His widow, Clarissa S. Bartshe, filed for a Civil War Widow’s pension on 13 April 1913, in California.”

3. Using information from source two, we looked at the California, Death Index, 1905-1939 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013. 

This source provided the following information: 

“David C. Bartshe, born about 1844, died on 18 March 1913, in Los Angeles county.”

4. Finally, using information from source three, we found a digitized image of David’s death certificate on the FamilySearch® website at California, County Birth and Death Records, 1800-1994, index and images, FamilySearch, Los Angeles, Long Beach > Death certificates 1911-1915 no 140-220 > image 835 of 2208. 

This source provided the following information: 

“David C. Bartshe was born on 21 September 1843, in Ind[iana]. His father, Henry Bartshe, was born in Penn[sylvania], and his mother was Anna Bier. David died, aged 69, of tuberculosis, on 18 March 1903 [sic] (this entry should read 1913), at his home in Long Beach, California. He had resided in California and lived at 1015 Newport Street for 2 years. David was buried in Sunnyside Cemetery on 19 August 1913, and the mortuary in charge of his interment was Holton & Son. The informant was Clar[iss]a S. Bartshe.”

NOTE: There are several numerical errors on the death certificate.

The four sources cited above create only the barest outline of David C. Bartshe’s life. To find out more about him—to make his story “come alive”—we can use U.S. Census records to trace his journey from Indiana to Iowa, to Washington and thence to Long Beach, California. We can also examine marriage records to find out when and where he married Clarissa. Information about the 2nd Regiment Iowa Volunteer Cavalry, is available at http://www.civilwararchive.com/Unreghst/uniacav.htm#2ndcav. We can also search Ancestry.com to see if there is information about him in public family trees.

RESEARCH TIP: The Library of Congress has transcribed letters written by Civil War soldier Newton Robert Scott, Private, Company A, of the 36th Infantry, Iowa Volunteers online at http://www.civilwarletters.com/. Read these letters to get a sense of what David C. Bartshe might have experienced.