Daily AncestorRejected pension claim
A rejected pension claim was a military pension application the government refused; it kept its original application number and never became a certificate.
Civil War and later claims that failed stayed in the soldier's original (SO) or widow's original (WO) series and never received a certificate number. NARA keeps separate series of disapproved applications for veterans and for widows and other dependents, and disapproved Revolutionary War claims are filed with the War of 1812 bounty land series.
Rejected files tend to be thin, but not always: some soldiers and widows reapplied each time Congress loosened the pension laws, and those files can be rich in family evidence.
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Rejected pension claim." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/military/rejected-pension-claim. Last checked 2026-10-12.