General Affidavit of July 14, 1904

This General Affidavit is found in the Civil War Pension File of my third great-grandfather.  He had earned a pension by serving in the Union Army in Company I of the 215 Regiment of the Pennsylvania Infantry Volunteers.  

This form was filed over two months after he had died as my third great-grandmother was trying to receive a Widow's Pension.  She was unable to provide a marriage certificate as proof of her marriage, so she needed to provide other evidence.

This evidence is provided by Margaret Stewart, a 69 year old acquaintance of my third great-grandparents.  She was a resident of Collingdale, Delaware County in Pennsylvania.

She testified that she knew my third great-grandmother for 50 years and my third great-grandfather for 51 years.  She also declared that neither one of them had been married before their marriage to each other and that they had cohabitated as husband and wife from December 1854 until his death.  She also said that my third great-grandmother had not remarried.