I recently inherited a box of old family stuff. Going through it I found letters from one of my great uncles from the Civil War, plus some old photographs. Two of the pictures are Civil War era. I'm curious to learn more about this Civil War sergeant. I did grow up hearing a couple stories about him, but I'm not certain how accurate they are (for example, growing up I was told one of my ancestors was a general in the civil war, which isn't quite the same rank). There's also a letter informing his wife that he died at Gettysburg and says there's a medal included, but the medal was not in the box and the letter didn't say what medal he earned. What are the best ways to go about researching this part of my family history? He fought for the Union, if that's relevant. And would a museum be interested in copies of either the letters or the pictures? I'd like to keep the originals.
The rest of the pictures and letters and mostly from the 30s and 40s, though a few photos are dated as early as the 1910s. They're just normal family life pictures, so I assume that they have little historical value. But if I could get advice on how to investigate that part of my family tree too I'd appreciate it.
Also any tips on how to preserve this stuff best is welcome. I've bought acid-free plastic sheets to put them in and I've been told that to digitize them I should avoid a scanner and just take their picture without using a flash, but if there's anything else I should do I'd love to hear it.
You have a few options available to you to try to track your ancestors down. For a paid option, Fold3.com has most of the digitized service records for the Union army and you can check out a whole host of sources from regimental records to the Pension Index etc. For a free resource, the National Parks Service has a Soldiers and Sailors database wherein you can search people by name, as well as find a brief history for each regiment during the war that can help you start to look at specific engagements etc. Additionally, if one of your ancestors was high ranking, you can look at the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (which you should be able to access for free online - Cornell digitized them and they can also be found on Google Books) and search his name. If you know of engagements they were involved in and their regiments, it should prove helpful. There is a ton out there, so even just starting with a Google search might set off a lot of paths for you to go down. Take notes so you don’t forget where you found information!
Good luck!