The Examination Sample is a 20 percent sample of all men examined for service under the draft laws from September 1864 through April 1865.(The documents are part of Record Group 110, the Records of the Provost Marshal General’s Bureau at the National Archives.) These reports of examinations included name, age, residence, personal description, and result of examination (exempt or held for service). Workers inputting data recorded all this information for 70,800 men.

A sub-sample of 10,000 of these men who were rejected for service was linked to the 1860 and 1870 US Federal Censuses. Additionally, a sample of 1,000 rejectees with uncommon names was linked to all census years and death records available. Online sources, including Ancestry.com, were used to do the census linkage.