Who Can Join?

Membership in the Sons of Confederate Veterans is open to all male descendants of any veteran who served honorably in the Confederate armed forces. Membership can be obtained through either lineal or collateral family lines and kinship to a veteran must be documented genealogically. The minimum age for full membership is 12, but there is no minimum for Cadet membership.

What does lineal and collateral mean?

Lineal - You are a blood descendant of the veteran; grandson, great-grandson, great-great-grandson, etc.

Collateral - You are not a direct descendant of the veteran, but you share a common ancestor; so the veteran is your great-uncle, great-great-uncle, etc.

If you have a blood relative who is a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans or the United Daughters of the Confederacy you should be able to get the needed information from them. They have already performed the research and documented your veteran ancestor.

If you not have a blood relative then you will need to locate and document your Confederate Veteran ancestor. This section of the website will provide useful information on how to do your family research, locate your Confederate ancestor and join the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

Start by downloading printing an application form.

Locating your ancestor, lineal or collateral will require researching your family history. Click here for additional help in a Confederate Ancestor Research Guide.

Once you have located your Confederate ancestor you will need to obtain proof of his service, contact the archives of the state from which the soldier fought and obtain a copy of the veteran's military service record. All Southern state's archives have microfilm records of the soldiers who fought from that state, and a copy of the information can be obtained for a nominal fee. In addition, the former Confederate states awarded pensions to veterans and their widows. All of these records contain a wealth of information that can be used to document military service.