Fold3 Blog

In 1976, President Ford designated February as Black History Month to highlight the achievements of African Americans in U.S. history. He encouraged the nation to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”

In honor of Black History Month, we invite you to enjoy Fold3′s Black History Collection. This collection includes many enlightening historical records documenting African American achievements since the earliest days of our nation. Of particular interest are those from the Civil War era as we continue to observe the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.

As soon as black soldiers were recruited to serve the Union in 1863, records were generated to document their service including Compiled Service Records for the U.S. Colored Troops and, ultimately, pension files. The pension file index cards, like this one for Joel Bedenbaugh, include a soldier’s rank, company, and regiment within the U.S.C. Infantry, his pension numbers, and sometimes a death date, 24 August 1913, in this case. Private Bedenbaugh’s 16-page service record also includes his enlistment record from when he joined up in Dayton, Ohio, in 1864.

Southern Claims Commission files are petitions by southerners who lost property to Union troops during the Civil War, including many blacks, like William and Louisa Ferguson. Though freeborn, Louisa was not only the wife of a slave, but also the daughter of George Washington’s carpenter, also a slave. Their claim for compensation of $150 for the loss of a horse was denied, but Louisa’s tales of Union and Confederate troops in the vicinity includes her encounters with the rebels and her service to the Union hospital nearby. View the transcription.

Explore these and thousands of other records documenting the history of African Americans in the U.S., from before the Civil War to the War in Vietnam. Join us as we recognize Black History Month with free access to our African American Collection during the month of February.

Five years ago, January 10, 2007, the Footnote website was born with a mission to provide convenient access to original source documents. We celebrated with a cake so orange that it probably shortened our lives.

When we launched, we had industry-leading digitization tools, a dedicated team and several great partners, including the National Archives, to provide content for us to digitize. We had about 5 million images including a complete and fully indexed set of the Revolutionary War Pensions, an Index to the Civil War Pensions and the Pennsylvania Archives.

Pension request for the widow of Elihu Stow

List of soldiers who served the pre-revolution province of Pennsylvania

Over the past 5 years we’ve worked hard to provide a place where genealogists, historians, students and curious people of all kinds could find and use original source documents to understand the past and the people who lived it.

We’ve had great reviews from people like Dick Eastman, PC Magazine and Kim Komando. More importantly, we hear great stories from people who use the site, like this one Janet Carlson recently posted on our Facebook page: ”I love your record collection! I just found CSA records on my gg grandfather and found out that he was wounded in action and was taken prisoner during Price’s Raid in 1864.”

We’ve seen good times, tough times and even some times that were a little of both, like in March of 2008 when CNN featured the then newly launched Interactive Vietnam Memorial on their home page and so many people came to see it that we had trouble keeping the site going.

The last year or so has brought big changes. In October of 2010, Ancestry.com acquired our parent company, iArchives and with their help we’ve been able to add more content to the site more quickly. It’s been great to work with the world’s largest online family history resource.

US Military records have always been at the heart of the site, and in 2011 we decided to focus our efforts on them. In August, we changed the name of the website from Footnote to Fold3 to honor those who have sacrificed to defend their country and promote peace in the world.

We’re still chasing our goal of providing convenient access to original source records. Today we have over 85 million images including Civil War Service Records, World War II Missing Air Crew Reports, Marine Corps photos from Vietnam and many more.

US Air Force photo of an air crew that participated in the battle of Midway

Muster card from the Civil War service record of George W Allen who served with the US Colored Troops

Firsthand account of the sinking of the USS Arizona from the World War II War Diaries

And we’re adding more all the time. Among the projects we are working on are some that will provide access to some of the large paper collections at NARA like the Civil War Widows’ Pensions, War of 1812 Pension Files and the Homestead Records.

Marriage Certificate of Jacob and Ann Seiber in the Civil War Widows' Pensions

Death information for Thomas Abbott in a War of 1812 pension file

What are your favorite titles on Fold3? Which would you like to see us work on in the next 5 years?

We’re excited to celebrate our 5th anniversary and we know that none of this would have been possible without your support.

Thank you.

This week we reached an important milestone in the War of 1812 Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Applications project we’re working on with the Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) and the National Archives.

The files are arranged in alphabetical order by the last name of the soldier, and this week we’ve finished with the A’s and started work on soldiers whose last names begin with B.

Prepping, filming and indexing these paper documents is slow and expensive work, but FGS has been raising money, we’ve been matching it and we’re making our way through the boxes of paper.  There are now over 95,000 images available on the site.

Getting the images from paper takes more work, but the end result is beautiful color images that tell amazing stories and provide helpful insights.

Here are a few images from the file of Joseph Babb:

After September 4, 1887, Joseph's widow Elizabeth's pension was "dropped because of her death."

According to another document in the file, Elizabeth Babb died on 14 September 1887, but there was "no public record of this death."

This document from the file includes a letter from Elizabeth's daughter, confirming her mother's death date and providing more details.