Do you have ancestors who served in the Civil War? April 1–15, Fold3 will be allowing free access to our Civil War collection to remember the commencement of the Civil War and commemorate Confederate History Month. With more than 85 million records, Fold3’s Civil War collection provides a wealth of information for both ancestral and…
One of Fold3’s popular World War II collections is the WWII US Air Force Photos (via the National Archives). Among other things, this collection is great for finding photos of American women who served in certain capacities during the war. Although women served in a wide variety of roles at home and abroad during WWII,…
On March 8–9, 1862, the ironclad CSS Virginia attacked the Union blockade squadron in Hampton Roads, Virginia, changing the course of naval warfare forever. The CSS Virginia had formerly been the USS Merrimack, but when the Federals had been forced to abandon Gosport Shipyard (the modern-day Norfolk Naval Shipyard) in 1861, they had scuttled the…
The Medal of Honor is the United States’ highest military decoration for valor. There are currently more than 3,400 recipients of this medal, stretching back to 1863 when it was first awarded. This Black History Month, let’s take a closer look at a few of the African-American recipients. Robert Blake. Blake was the first African-American…
In honor of Black History Month, Fold3 is making the records in its Black History collection available for free through the end of February. Whether you’re looking for your ancestors or doing broader research, the Black History collection gives you access to more than a million documents, records, and photos that help to capture the…
On February 16, 1804, American naval lieutenant Stephen Decatur led a covert mission to burn the USS Philadelphia, an American ship that had fallen into Tripolitan hands, during the First Barbary War. At the time, the Barbary states—Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli—made money through state-sponsored piracy in the Mediterranean, raiding merchant ships unless their governments…
On the morning of January 8, 1815, British forces attacked American positions outside of New Orleans, Louisiana, resulting in a bloody defeat for the British in the last major battle of the War of 1812. In the days leading up to January 8, the British and Americans (under Andrew Jackson) had clashed in a series…
