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The Featured Spotlight

May 23, 2012 by | Comments Off on The Featured Spotlight

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.

Revolutionary War Final Payment Vouchers: Delaware and Georgia

May 16, 2012 by | Comments Off on Revolutionary War Final Payment Vouchers: Delaware and Georgia

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.

The Homestead Act

May 2, 2012 by | Comments Off on The Homestead Act

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.
Homestead record from 1863
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.

Homestead Records Digitization Project

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.

The Sultana Disaster

April 18, 2012 by | 1 Comment

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.

Using Fold3 on your mobile device.

April 6, 2012 by | 1 Comment

Fold3 on mobile devices
Over the past year we have been noticing an increase of mobile devices accessing Fold3. Likewise, we love using our mobile devices like the iPhone, iPad or others to access our favorite sites. It certainly can be convenient when you are on-the-go or want to quickly check something. So today we’re announcing a few updates we’ve been assiduously crafting behind the scenes for:

  • Responsive layouts that render Fold3 well on most web-enabled tablet devices (iPad & various Android tablet devices).
  • View a record image’s source information and member contributions. Simply click icon to view more info icon near the bottom left of an image. See here.
  • Easliy read our Featured Spotlights from any mobile device.

Try it out now: There is no need to download an ‘app’ from an App Store, simply visit Fold3 from your web browser and we format it for you device from there. We hope you enjoy and look for more to come.

Finding survivors from the Titanic Disaster 100 years later

April 4, 2012 by | Comments Off on Finding survivors from the Titanic Disaster 100 years later

Survivors from the RMS Titanic disaster in 1912

When the RMS Titanic sank on April 15, 1912, the disaster altered the world on many levels. Even now, 100 years later, the legacy of the Titanic still fascinates. The stories of those who survived and those who perished continue to be revealed.

At least four male survivors of a certain age (15-35 years old in 1912) lived to 1942 when they were required to register for the “Old Man’s Draft” in World War II. They completed and signed registration cards with their personal information:

The last on the list, William Bertram Greenfield, accompanied his mother Blanche on the Titanic. They both survived and are enumerated with their family members and servants in the 1930 U.S. census.

Millionaire Isidor Straus and his wife perished with the ship. Isidor, as a young man, is listed in the 1860 census in Georgia. He and his father reportedly ran blockades for the Confederacy in the Civil War with their dry goods business. In 1888, Straus became part owner of Macy’s department store in New York City.

Francis D. Millet, another Titanic victim, was a renowned sculptor. When only 17, he was a drummer for 100 days in the 16th Massachusetts Regiment. His father, Asa Millet, served briefly in 1861 as an Army surgeon but left due to ill health. While there are no documents on Fold3 for either service, Asa Millet’s signature appears in the Civil War “Widows’ Pensions” three times. Once in his role as a physician providing an affidavit, and twice witnessing signatures of widows Julia A. Saunders and Sarah B. Gould.

Like his son, Asa appears to have traveled abroad as evidenced by two passport applications. One in 1855 and another in 1873, both with particulars of his physical features, including that he had no sight in his right eye. Francis’ great grandfather, Thomas Millet, fought in the Revolutionary War. His pension file is on Fold3.

Although he perished aboard the Titanic, Francis left a legacy to U.S. military history. He designed the now obsolete Civil War Campaign Medal. It was issued to Union or Confederate soldiers and sailors for service during the war.

The Hesse Crown Jewels Court-Martial Case

March 28, 2012 by | 1 Comment

It reads like a story taken from a best-selling crime novel, yet it is a true criminal case of a jewel heist staged in a castle in the 1940s, starring U.S. military officers, German royalty, and $2.5 million in treasure. The tale is rife with deception, conspiracy, and international intrigue. The records are on Fold3.

Major David F. Watson, Colonel Jack W. Durant, and Captain Kathleen Nash were the perpetrators. The court cases for the three defendants, brimming with documents, photos, testimony, and correspondence, can be viewed in the Court-Martial Case Files Relating to the “Hesse Crown Jewels Case“, 1944-1952.

As the Allies moved into Germany toward the end of World War II, Prince Wolfgang of Hesse abandoned his family’s castle in Kronberg, north of Frankfurt, Germany. Before leaving, he placed family heirlooms and jewels in a zinc-lined box, buried it in a hole in the castle basement, and covered it with concrete, hoping it would be safely hidden until the end of the war. It wasn’t.

In April 1944, American Forces occupied the castle to use as an officers’ club. Shortly thereafter, Capt. Nash discovered the cache. She, along with Watson and Durant conspired to steal the valuables. Many of the items were sold in Switzerland and Ireland, the rest were mailed or smuggled to the U.S. The property—including jewelry, silverware, gemstones, and books—is identified in lists and photos within the court records. Details of how the heist came about can be found within Kathleen Nash Durant’s testimony at her trial, as well as in depositions by those who either stayed at the castle or encountered the trio at some point after the theft.

Col. Robert Q. Brown, in charge of the staff running the officers’ club in the castle, testified during Capt. Durant’s hearing that he “knew firsthand that the Castle was jam-full of valuables – pictures and all sorts of things.” But, “never heard secondhand or otherwise of any buried valuables.”

Many of the treasures were never recovered. Kronberg Castle was eventually returned to the royal family and became a luxury hotel. View the Hesse family chart to see where Prince Wolfgang, a descendant of Kaiser Wilhelm, fits into the German royal line.

Dozens of friends, colleagues, and family members sent pleas for clemency in Watson’s case beginning with this letter from Lt. Col. H.T. Peery, a vice president at Bank of America. Ultimately, Watson was sentenced to three years, but paroled early. Nash received five years and Durant fifteen. More of the story can be found in the Hesse Crown Jewels Case description and, of course, within the documents themselves.