Three new video tutorials and a variety of help topics are now available in the new Fold3 Training Center.
The first of several planned video tutorials include:
Each video is 4-5 minutes long and designed to provide tips and strategies to help you make the most of your Fold3 membership.
Report to the Fold3 Training Center to find helpful video tutorials and links to one-page explanations of the most common how-to topics. Keep checking back as we add more video tutorials and help topics.
We are excited to announce that we have begun adding the following new titles to the site, covering 5 wars and 130 years of U.S. military history:
Records in the War of 1812 Pension Files reveal details of each soldier’s service and family. In a declaration made by widow Mary Abbott, she elaborates upon her late husband’s engagements in Ohio after stating that he was "out three times in the War of 1812."
From 1846 to 1848, the war with Mexico determined the southwest border of the U.S. as we know it today. The Mexican War Service Records launch Fold3′s commitment to bringing records of this strategic war to our members.
From skirmishes to major battles, documents within the Confederate Casualty Reports describe a unit’s role in the conflict and detail casualties, from killed to missing to “slightly” wounded. A few reports from the Battle of Sharpsburg (also known as Antietam) on September 17, 1862, relate the action from several units, beginning with the report of the 13th South Carolina Infantry.
The World War I Officer Experience Reports reveal intriguing accounts by engineers in the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF). Some reports go beyond military and engineering terms to provide remarkable, sometimes poetic insights, like this January 6, 1919, account of a torpedo attack on a convoy hours after the writer described “the dark forested shores of North America” as “a mere fringe on the horizon.”
In 1942, men between the ages of 45 and 64 were required to register for the draft in order to create an inventory of those who could provide essential skills to the home front during World War II. The “Old Man’s Draft” Cards are the result, complete with addresses, dates, and physical descriptions of each registrant.
Watch for more to come as these titles continue to grow and others are added.
September 1, 2011 by Peter | 29 Comments
On September 15th we will be removing from Fold3 some of the newspapers that came from two of our partners, SmallTownPapers® and Gannett. This is due to contractual issues and we have no plans to remove any other content from the site.
Here are a few questions that you may have about this change:
Which titles will be removed and which will still be available on Fold3?
All titles from SmallTownPapers and Gannett will be removed. Nearly all of these titles are from our newspaper collection. To help you see which titles will be affected, we’ve collected those that will be removed into a category called “SmallTownPapers and Gannett” in the “Other Records” category of the browse on the site until they are removed on the 15th.
Only titles from SmallTownPapers and Gannett will be removed and we will still have great historical newspapers on the site including The Chicago Tribune, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Washington Post, The Atlanta Constitution and The London Times.
What about images from these titles that I have added to my Gallery or downloaded?
All Gannett images will be removed from the site and will no longer be accessible on Fold3. From the SmallTownPapers collection, we have negotiated ongoing rights to images to which users have contributed (for example, bookmarked, commented on, annotated, spotlighted or added to their Gallery or to a memorial page). All other SmallTownPapers images will be removed from the site. Of course this will not affect any copies of images you have downloaded to your hard drive.
How does this affect other titles on Fold3?
This only affects titles from SmallTownPapers and Gannett. We have ongoing rights to all the other titles on the site and have no plans to remove any other content.
August 19, 2011 by Brian | 41 Comments
Members Of The Crew Of The Boeing B-17 "The Bad Penny" Are Interrogated After Their Return From A Mission Over Enemy Territory.
Thank you to everyone who has responded so passionately with comments and questions about the change from Footnote to Fold3. The fact that so many have responded is a positive reminder that many of you have grown to love the site and the content we offer. It would have been much more discouraging if no one had cared. Here is some additional clarification to address some of the concerns we’ve seen posted:
August 18, 2011 by Peter | 153 Comments
Today we announced our intention to create the finest and most comprehensive collection of U.S. Military records available on the internet and changed the name of the site from Footnote to Fold3.
July 28, 2011 by Peter | 13 Comments
Adding millions and millions of images to the site has finally caught up with us. Our servers have outgrown their home and we need to move them to a larger facility.
We’re planning to make the move in the morning hours of August 4, and it may take up to 12 hours to complete. The Footnote website will be unavailable from midnight through about noon Mountain Time on August 4. We’ll use our twitter account to post any updates to the schedule as we work on the move.
We’re sorry for this inconvenience, but are looking forward to having the space to keep adding images to Footnote by the millions.
June 2, 2011 by Laura | 2 Comments
Henry L. Wyatt, the “first Confederate soldier slain in battle,” died at the Battle of Big Bethel, in Virginia, on June 10, 1861. His service record confirms this, and that he was 19 years old when he enrolled as a private in Company A, 1st North Carolina Volunteers, less than two months earlier. It also includes a petition from his mother to “obtain the pay due him” of $35.63 ($922.15 in 2011 US dollars source).
William B. Taylor, a corporal in Company C, 1st N.C. Volunteers, was also at the battle. Taylor drew a descriptive and colorful “Plan of the Battle of Bethel” which is archived at the Library of Congress, and available in the Civil War Maps collection at Footnote.
In his “Topographical sketch of the Battle of Bethel, June 10th, 1861,” Taylor honored his mother by presenting the map to “Mrs. M.E. Taylor with filial respect by her son Wm. B. Taylor.” He also paid tribute to Henry L. Wyatt by marking where Wyatt was killed and noting the “Blacksmith’s shop burned by Wyatt who was killed here.”
Taylor drew Confederate and Union flags on the map depicting where each set of troops fought. He also included details of woods, breastworks, and marshes. His comments identified a howitzer that “arrived late not used” and the spot where “Col. Winthrop of the N.Y. 2d. Reg. [was] shot while standing on the fence flourishing his sword.” Winthrop, actually Major Theodore Winthrop, of the 7th New York, was one of the first Union soldiers killed in the Civil War.
William B. Taylor was initially a corporal in Company C of the 1st North Carolina Infantry. He enlisted on April 20, 1861, and mustered in on May 13, less than a month before the first battle. The 1st North Carolina later became the 11th North Carolina (Bethel Regiment) Infantry.
What was it like to head to war in 1861? Union officer Theodore Winthrop, identified in Taylor’s map above as another casualty of Big Bethel, was also a respected author. In “Our March to Washington” Winthrop relates his regiment’s trek southward in April 1861, at about the time that Wyatt and Taylor were enlisting. A few weeks later, their paths would tragically meet.
