How to read a RecID

A couple of people tried to tell us RecID numbers over the telephone, and they said the numbers in such a way as to lose all meaning for Noelle and me. We confuse easily. So, I thought it would be a good time to review what the parts of a RecID mean.

The RecID, or Recruit Identification number consists of 10 digits. This number will tell you the soldier's Civil War service unit.

• 2-digit state code
• 3-digit regiment number
• 2-digit company code, corresponding to the letter of the company
• For example, A=01, B=02, C=03, etc
• 3-digit unique identifier
• This distinguishes a soldier from all the others we collected from his company

So, if Sydney Carton is the 15th person we collected who served in company H of the 110th regiment of the Pennsylvania infantry, or H 110 PA, his RecID would be:

• 1411008015

If fellow company member Charles Darnay was the 20th person we collected in that company, his RecID would be:

• 1411008020

Some of you have work on the Andersonville or the Oldest Old Samples. These samples were not collected by company as the original UA, the Urban, or the USCT samples were. So they were given "dummy" regiments and unique identifiers that could be more than 3 digits.

• Andersonville - 111
• Oldest Old - 999

So when Sydney Carton died a prisoner, and we collected him in the Andersonville sample, his RecID might have been:

• 1411108015

When Charles Darnay lived a long and happy life, maybe living past 95 years old, and we collected him in the Oldest Old sample, his RecID might have been:

• 1499908020

Any questions?