The Database

I won't be posting a biography tonight--my pictures are all on the desktop which is currently sitting downstairs in the front room waiting for me to clear enough space on my desk to house it...since my desk is covered in books, that could take a while.  Instead, I'm going to briefly explain part of what I'll be doing once the computer is hooked up.
'The Database' is an Excel file where I plug in certain information gleaned from the pension records.  There are two reasons to have this file.  One is so I can quickly find the file I'm looking for--I know I'm not going to keep all 350 women straight.  If I remember if she was a Special Act or not, where she served, or other details, I can narrow down the possibilities and pull the relevant files.  The other reasons is to look for patterns.  It'll be easier to explain what kinds of patterns if I list off the things I'm pulling:

1. Name
2. Year Applied
3. Status (Accepted, Rejected, Abandoned)
4. Year Dropped (if accepted)
5. Residence
6. Branch (was she in the USSC, the USCC, a contract nurse, a Sister of Charity, a regimental nurse, one of Dix's nursing corps, or was she an independent operator?)
7. Color (white or black)
8. Marital status at enlistment
9. Children at enlistment
10. Occupation at enlistment
11. Family in the army
12. Hospitals served
13. Marital status and occupation at application
14. If she has an occupation, is it a government job?
15. Nature of disability sustained (was it in service, or is it general disability/old age?)
16. Member of the Woman's Relief Corps
17. Member of the American Nurses Assocation
18. Attorney
19. Special Act or 1892 Act application
20. If a Special Act, who introduced the bill to Congress
21. If an 1892 Act app., did they satisfy the 6 months service requirement? The competant authority requirement?  Was it accepted?
22. Subsequent action (any special investigations, increases, or if she was rejected the first time around, did she try again?)
23. Evidence of networking with fellow nurses (did she have other nurses write affidavits, did the WRC or ANA support it?)

You can ask or answer all kinds of questions with the information from this database.  I'm a little nervous about drawing sweeping conclusions from it since it is only 350 women, compared to the 2000 plus who applied for pensions, and the thousands more who served and never applied.  But this will give me strong indicators of patterns, things I need to look into, other questions I need to ask.  For instance, if the WRC and the ANA were pushing so hard for the 1892 Act, it should follow that many of the early applicants were members.  Is that true?  How much did these groups help women apply?  Were there any attorneys whose names keep popping up, like James Tanner and Annie Wittenmyer who I can look into?  What were the problems applicants faced trying to prove their service?  Were there particular branches that had trouble establishing service or competant authority?  What kind of women served?  What kind of women applied?  Essentially, the questions I started out to answer.
This bit goes out to the peanut gallery I know is out there: can you think of any other information I can plug into the database?  Any questions I can ask?  As I was reminded several times in D.C., multiple heads are better than one.  Especially when one is pretty close to not seeing the forest for the trees.  Sing out if you think of anything!