July 6, 2012 by Blake Scarbrough | Comments Off
What was the human cost of the Civil War? How do casualties from battles compare to today’s or yesterday’s ‘battles’? Check out this great infographic made by The Civil War Trust.
Did your ancestors serve in the Civil War 150 years ago? Search for their records in our Civil War Collection and find more of their story.
June 25, 2012 by Blake Scarbrough | Comments Off
FGS announces a $135,000 donation to the War of 1812 Project as a gift from the estate of Jon Stedman in memory of his mother, Ardath Stedman. 
What will this do for the project? The donation will be used to continue the preservation and digitizing of these records. Currently the project has made available almost 250,000 pages (just over 3% of the total) and with this donation the rate of digitization will increase and you will see a larger number of new pension records added each month. The project makes the records free for anyone to search and view the actual scanned documents. You can read more about the project and how you can donate to this effort on the FGS blog.
On June 18, 1812, the United States declared war on Great Britain officially launching the War of 1812. In the 200 years since, it has become a forgotten war, perhaps best remembered by school children as when The Star-Spangled Banner was written. Yet, the War of 1812 was strategically important to the future of American diplomacy, a reinforced independence from Great Britain, and the country’s westward expansion.
Several events provoked President James Madison to request action from Congress to enter a war with one of the world’s most powerful nations, less than thirty years after the Revolutionary War ended. Uppermost was the unlawful impressment of American sailors into a British Navy eager to replenish its ranks during the lengthy Napoleonic Wars. Great Britain also restricted America’s right, as a neutral country, to trade with France.
On the home front, Americans were embracing the concept of “Manifest Destiny.” Migrations into the Northwest Territory provoked confrontations with Native American tribes. The British supported the rights of the Indians to maintain and defend their territories, but Americans were eager to push them westward and claim their land. The war is best remembered by Canada, a friend to both Indians and Great Britain, and on whose border many battles took place.
Fold3 observes the War of 1812 bicentennial with rich and revealing historical documents within the War of 1812 Collection. They include the War of 1812 Prize Cases from New York’s Southern District Court, Letters Received by the Adjutant General, and War of 1812 Service Records for Lake Erie and Mississippi, and, perhaps most revealing, the War of 1812 Pension Files. The pension files are digitized in color at the National Archives in Washington, DC, with funding provided by the Federation of Genealogical Societies’ Preserve the Pensions! Project. They are brought to Fold3 visitors at no charge.
In commemoration of this highly important, yet overlooked event in U.S. history, we’ve made our War of 1812 Collection free for the month of June. Come explore the many stories of our fledgling nation’s second revolution.
May 23, 2012 by Laura | Comments Off
Last fall, Fold3 introduced Featured Spotlight, a section of our home page showcasing intriguing historical events and images. Updated a few times each week, the Featured Spotlight has become a fresh and engaging focal point for site visitors as we turn the spotlight on unique snippets of history.
Whether momentous or minor, every historical event is made up of smaller events and stories. Within the documents on Fold3, they are immortalized in the official reports and first-hand accounts of the men and women who participated in history.
Recent spotlights offer these historical insights:
If you like a particular spotlight, you can email or tweet it, or post it on Facebook and other sites via the “Share” link once you choose to “Continue reading.” We invite you to share the Featured Spotlight on your website or subscribe to the RSS feed. Simply click the “Embed” link within the Featured Spotlight frame to access the code and subscription options.
Check out the latest Featured Spotlight every time you visit Fold3 and catch a glimpse of history from a unique perspective.
May 16, 2012 by Laura | Comments Off
If you search the Final Payment Vouchers Index for Military Pensions, 1818-1864 and discover Revolutionary War pensioners living in Delaware or Georgia, you now have a way to quickly access their final pension papers—on Fold3. The files may fill in some missing gaps in your family history.
In the index, Francis Freeman’s slip indicates that he received his pension under the Pension Act of 1818, payments were made in Delaware, the last payment was in March (1st quarter) 1832, and he died on December 24, 1831. That information is also reflected on the jacket of Freeman’s final payment record.
Within Freeman’s file, we learn that he had been receiving a pension of $8 per month beginning July 1, 1818, he left no widow, and his only child Mary Johnson was “of full age.” Widows and dependant children typically continued to receive payments after a veteran’s death.
In Georgia, Margery Pinson received pension payments after her husband Joseph died in 1838. His signature can be found on several pages within his file. On Margery’s records we learn that three of their children, Elizabeth Visage, Milla Burch, and Jane Carter, received payments for three years after their father’s death, and that Margery died on June 9, 1852. Although he received his pension in Georgia, Joseph served in North Carolina. His full 97-page pension file reveals a great deal more about his service and his family.
Final pension payment records not only reveal signatures, relationships, and death dates, they also tell us if and where a family moved after the war, and into the 19th century. With the Fold3 Revolutionary War Collection, you can create an enlightening family history through military documents. The Final Pension Payment records from Georgia and Delaware add previously unpublished, possibly unknown details to that story.
If the pensioners you seek are not from Delaware or Georgia, you can order their files from NARA or locate pension abstracts for several states in books listed within the Final Pension Payment Vouchers description.
May 2, 2012 by Laura | Comments Off
President Lincoln signed the Homestead Act on May 20, 1862. It was “an act to secure homesteads to actual settlers on the public domain,” and increased westward expansion through settlement of surveyed government lands in thirty states. The law allowed a homesteader to receive up to 160 acres by applying for a claim, improving the land, and filing for a patent after successfully living on the land for five years. Fold3 has been digitizing the homestead records for Nebraska.
The files, from the Records of the Bureau of Land Management, consist of final certificates, applications with land descriptions, affidavits showing proof of citizenship, register and receiver receipts, notices and final proofs, and testimonies of witnesses. They sometimes contain unique records for a person or family, used to verify their right to make the claim. More details and some intriguing examples are on the Homestead Records description page.
The 1862 Homestead Act had been debated, proposed, and defeated for over ten years, stalled by the issue of slavery. After eleven states left the Union and a civil war erupted on American soil, the act finally passed. Applications were filed beginning on January 1, 1863.
Daniel Freeman, a Union soldier, filed the first claim at the Brownville, Nebraska, land office on that day. In January 1868, he proved his claim. His file includes a statement by neighbors Joseph Graff and Samuel Kilpatrick that Daniel had lived on the land for five years with his wife and two children, and “built a stable, a sheep shed 100 feet long, corn crib, and has 40 apple and about 400 peach trees set out.” He paid $12 for his 160-acre tract of land, or about $226 in today’s dollars (source).
Explore Daniel Freeman’s and other Nebraska Homestead Records on Fold3. To learn more about events surrounding the anniversary of the Homestead Act, visit the National Park Service website.
Did you know there is a short film about The Homestead Records Digitization Project? The film shows how the original records of those who claimed land under the Homestead Act of 1862 are being digitized.
When the boiler exploded aboard the steamer Sultana on April 27, 1865, more than 1,700 people lost their lives. Most of those aboard were recently released Union prisoners from Confederate prisons in Cahaba, Alabama, and Andersonville, Georgia. They were en route from Camp Fiske in Mississippi to Camp Chase, Ohio, but the explosion occurred only a few hours into the journey. In addition to the faulty boiler, the ship was also grossly overburdened with 2,200 passengers on a vessel built to carry 376.
Records relating to the Sultana Disaster, April 1865, are now available on Fold3. They include lists of the former prisoners who survived the disaster, with military service information and brief comments on their injuries. There are also lists of those who perished, yet not of the civilian survivors or those who died.
The enormity of the disaster led quickly to investigations. By January 1866, a court-martial was convened to charge Captain Frederick Speed, the man who volunteered to coordinate the transfer of prisoners, with “neglect of duty to the prejudice of good order and military discipline.” There are 647 documents in the court-martial case with testimonies, witness accounts, and statements by the defense and prosecution. After “nearly six long weary months” the trial came to a close. Capt. Speed was the only person charged in the incident. He was found guilty, yet the charges were later dismissed by Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt.
