Comments for Fold3 Blog

Comment on Fold3 Turns Five by Military Service

Military Service — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 19:44:57 +0000

This is a great way to get started when looking up an ancestor or relative’s military service. Military research in general is an exciting tool for understanding one’s family history and uncovering the mysteries surrounding a veteran’s military service. In addition to using online records I recommend actually tracing the footsteps of individual veterans during their military service which is an option that few folks are aware of. This process can help to uncover one’s military heritage and preserve the memory of our heroic soldiers during wartime. The best way to accomplish this is by accessing personnel records like unit rosters, morning reports, and medical records which are not available online.

Comment on Fold3 Turns Five by Susan Brook

Susan Brook — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 16:06:00 +0000

Many thanks Fold3 for 5 wonderful years of success in searching through the Revolutionary War and Civil War records. These priceless images add so much to both DAR and UDC lineage applications! To be able to view an ancestor’s Revolutionary War service deposition and see their handwritten signature is just amazing! I recently renewed my subscription for another year of “personal history mystery” solving! Keep up the great work!!

Comment on Fold3 Turns Five by Brian

Brian — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 17:04:40 +0000

Jenny,

Let me echo Peter’s thanks for your suggestions and your willingness to help. To further clarify, some sites have search systems that require indexing for any given collection to be fully completed before the index can be posted to the site. Fold3, on the other hand, has a search system that accommodates continuous rolling updates for any given collection as new images are created and indexed. So in the case of the War of 1812 Pension Applications, for example, there is a short elapsed time between the day the camera takes the photo of the page at the National Archives in Washington D.C. and the day the indexed image is available on the Fold3 web site. The best way for us to speed the flow of the War of 1812 Pension files is to add more cameras and camera operators. We will add cameras as soon as our partner on the project (FGS) is comfortable increasing the pace based on their fundraising efforts. We appreciate your input and both FGS and Fold3 share your desire for an accelerated pace of production.

Comment on Fold3 Turns Five by Peter

Peter — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 15:44:15 +0000

Jenny, Thanks for your comment and your offer of help.

Putting images up in a browse only mode is a pretty good option in some cases. Here at Fold3, we haven’t run into a lot of cases where the indexing was a real bottle neck, so we haven’t used it yet.

In the case you mention, the War of 1812 Pension files, the images are being created by filming paper documents for the first time. Each page needs to be prepped, filmed and then indexed. The indexing can easily keep pace with the prepping and filming, so putting up a browsable image collection wouldn’t really speed things up for these files.

The fund raising for the project is actually being done by our partner in the project, the Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS). We are splitting the cost of digitization with them and they are doing some fund raising for their part.

I’m not sure if there are ways that a volunteer could help speed things up, but we’ll certainly pass your offer along to the folks who are working on the project. Thanks again.

Comment on Fold3 Turns Five by Jenny Stephenson

Jenny Stephenson — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 15:18:40 +0000

Re: the War of 1812 pension files: Looking at a different part of the blog, I now see that you are soliciting funds to have the records microfilmed. I don’t have money to give, but I do have time. I’m a D.C. local. Do you need help microfilming or doing prep work for the microfilming?

Comment on Fold3 Turns Five by Jenny Stephenson

Jenny Stephenson — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 15:04:53 +0000

Here’s a suggestion for dealing with impatient subscribers: I know that you have a “browse” function; however it only allows subscribers to browse images that have already been indexed by fold3. Why not just upload all the images and allow us to browse databases which have not yet been indexed? Familysearch.org allows people to do that for many databases. An example of how this could spare fold3 headaches: I keep looking to see if there are any more War of 1812 pension files indexed, and it’s still stalled at 1% complete. I would like to pester you with all sorts of questions about it, but if you had the full database there–all the reels for subscribers to search through on their own–I would do it and leave you alone. I would also not be considering cancelling my subscription because the things that I want to look at are so slow to come online. Give us an interim solution like this–one that’s not difficult for you to put in place but will keep subscribers coming back.

Comment on Fold3 Turns Five by D. Sperry

D. Sperry — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 14:40:08 +0000

I have been trying to unsubscribe. This is my work email address. PLEASE DO NOT SEND FURTHER EMAILS TO THIS BUSINESS ADDRESS!!!!!!!

Comment on The Battle of Cowpens by Bill Butler

Bill Butler — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 17:06:51 +0000

I was fortunate to have attended the 200th anniversary of the battle. Reenactment held 1/17/1976. The printed program pays tribute to Morgan troops from Maryland, Deleware, Virginia, Georgia, North and South Carolina and says 970 men from the American side particapated. . I can refer you to a Poem by a late friend Arthur Magill entitled “BATTLE AT THE COWPENS’ published in 1980 by Reedy River press of Greenville, SC

Comment on Season’s Greetings by Ann Spiess

Ann Spiess — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 17:54:51 +0000

Hello,

Since you are now Fold3 and not Footnote there is nothing for me to find on here. You say that all the Footnote files are all still here. I cannot access anything anymore. No census, not even the 1930 census gives me anything when I click on it. I tried clicking on WWI for info on my father and uncle, but up comes WWII.

I guess I will have to give up as I think many have done. Too bad, too sad.

Comment on Getting From A to B by Mary Hawley Sasse

Mary Hawley Sasse — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 01:40:04 +0000

I’ll be happy when you reach “H” ! One of my ancestors, Gideon Hawley, and 3 of his sons fought in the War of 1812. According to family stories, his widow received a pension, but I’ve never been able to uncover anything else. Nor could I get any response from the “Daughters of the War of 1812.” Help!

Mary H. Sasse