FREE ACCESS TO REVOLUTIONARY WAR RECORDS AT FOLD3 JULY 1-15

Do you think one of your ancestors may have fought in the Revolutionary War? You can find out free for the next two weeks as the Fold3 website is giving researchers free access to their Revolutionary War collections. I received an email from them this morning with the details. Be sure to read the terms and conditions at the bottom of the notice:

Access Revolutionary War Records for Free*

Do you have ancestors who fought in the Revolutionary War? Now is the perfect time to learn more about them, as Fold3 is giving free access* to our Revolutionary War Collection July 1–15.

There are 20+ titles in our Revolutionary War Collection. Popular ones include:

Revolutionary War Pensions
The records in this collection include entire pension files for soldiers and sailors who served in the Revolutionary War. Unlike selected records, which were typically chosen subjectively for genealogical content, these records reveal more details about each veteran's history and service, as well as more information about his family, state of health, and life after the war. Every name mentioned in the pensions has been indexed, not just the soldier’s name, which makes finding people even easier.

Revolutionary War Service Records
These are compiled service records for the regular soldiers of the Continental Army, and for the militia, volunteers, and others who served with them. The records are arranged under the designation "Continental Troops" or a state name, then by organization, and then alphabetically by a soldier's surname. Records consist of card abstracts of entries relating to each soldier from original records. Also included are regimental lists including muster rolls, pay lists, and caption cards.

Revolutionary War Rolls
The primary function of the many Revolutionary War rolls maintained by the American Army was to provide basic information about the identities, numbers, condition, equipage, and pay status of the men and units that comprised the Army in order to facilitate administrative control. Browse these rolls by state and name of organization (regiment, battalion, guard, company, etc.). Find names of soldiers with the help of annotations supplied by other Fold3 users and feel free to add your own. Thousands of records from 138 rolls of microfilm provide names and details about the men who fought for independence.

Final Payment Vouchers Index for Military Pensions, 1818–1864
Pension payment records are not typically found in pension application files. These cards were created as an index for the final payments made to either the veteran or his widow. They provide additional details on where a family may have moved in the early- to mid-19th century, death dates of veterans, widows, or dependent children, and sometimes the maiden name of a widow.

Get started searching or browsing the Revolutionary War Collection on Fold3!.

*Access to the records in the featured collections will be free until July 15, 2017 at 11:59 p.m. MT. Free access requires registration for a free Fold3 account. After the free access period ends, you will only be able to view the records in the featured collections using a paid Fold3 membership.

THE SHAKING LEAF AND THE MISSING FILE

I've been concentrating on my Ellingwood/Ellenwood/Ellinwood lines lately in my
research work on Ancestry. Usually when I sign on there now the majority of "shaking
leave" hints have to do with someone from those lines, but today there was a record
hint for my 3x great granduncle Caleb Benson Barrows. When I clicked on it, it turned out
to be for an entry in the War of 1812 Pension Application Files Index.

This puzzled me. Let me explain why.

The Fold3 website has been scanning & posting the War of 1812 Pension files for awhile
now and making them available for FREE on the site. As with any project of this size it is
a slow process, and they've been posting  them alphabetically by surname. In fact, it
was a little over a year now that I discovered the file there for my 3x great grandfather
Nathaniel Barker.  When I found that, I immediately checked for other relatives who
lived during the period and might have served, and kept checking back as more surnames
beginning with other letters were added. (They've now moved on into the names beginning
with the letter E). But at no time had I seen Caleb Benson Barrows listed under the B's.

So when I saw the hint from Ancestry, I immediately went over to Fold3 site and checked
the "Browse All Records" function for the War of 1812. I narrowed my search down to
just the 1812 Pension Files for Maine, Letter B, surname Barrows, and still came up with
the same two names that have been there for awhile. This is how the screen looks:

Still no Caleb Benson Barrows. I checked under Massachusetts, since the family came
from Plympton, then New Hampshire, where Caleb's father Asa Barrows had moved,
and still no luck.  Finally, I entered Caleb Benson Barrows in the Search box, and  nothing. Then I went back to the Fold3 main page and tried the Search box there using different variations on the name until finally I just tried Barrows and then the 1812 files
on the site wide search.

And voila, there he was, thirty images for Caleb B. Barrows' 1812 Pension file, and just
before him,  twenty images for the pension of his brother Asa. I was able to verify they
were my relatives by the included statements of their widows and siblings. Both files
are for their widows' survivor claims.

There's two lessons here: the first, I need to remind myself to go the extra step when
searching a site and use the Search functions and not just rely on indexes.

The second has to do with Ancestry. A lot of people are worried about  the recent
purchases of Fold3 and Find A Grave and what they might mean for our research. Well,
if I hadn't seen that shaking leaf hint over at Ancestry I might have found the files for
Caleb B. and Asa A. Barrows eventually, but this way, I found them much sooner! 
   
Now I need to contact Fold3 and let them know about this.

CH-CH-CH-CHANGES IN THE ONLINE GENEALOGY LANDSCAPE

I was doing my genealogy online tree building routine last night at Ancestry.com
last night. Right now that involves adding data from the Florence O'Connor
Ellingwood genealogy book and checking the Ancestry records and trees
for additional descendants. I try to source as much as possible so I cross
reference each name at FamilySearch Record Search and add the records 
I find there to my Ancestry tree.

Sometime last night this appeared on my screen when I clicked my Record
Search link.:

August 23: Last Day for Record Search Pilot!

Record Search Pilot will be replaced by FamilySearch.org

Thank you! Record Search Pilot has been a great success. Your feedback 
led to the first phase of an improved search experience on FamilySearch.org. 
Look for more of your ideas to be implemented in the coming months.
Why is Record Search Pilot ending? The Pilot website was never intended
to be permanent—it was a place to gather and test ideas. It was never designed
to handle more records, more features, or more visitors. In order to fully
implement improvements, we need to end the Pilot and shift resources to
our main website.

Now I know most people would wonder why I'd be unhappy about this.
After all, there's more records on FamilySearch.org. But I've found on
the times I've used the new site that it's not very user friendly. It takes
too long to narrow the search parameters down and it seems to me in
that respect to mirror the same process on Ancestry. I liked that all I had
to do in  most cases at Record Search was enter the name, place and
exact, partial or close (or all three) and I was good to go.  I also think
the green background on Record Search was easier on the eyes(well, mine
at least.) than the white background of FamilySearch.org



Then this morning I started seeing references on Facebook from my genealogy
friends to something called Fold3. It turned out that Footnote.com also
changed over night.It's now focusing on Military Records and changes at
the website now reflect that move  The menu that was formerly divided
into periods of American history now has war headings such as "Revolutionary
War" "War of 1812", "Mexican & Indian"and so on. The other records such
as newspapers and censuses are at the end of the menu bar under "Other
Collections". Now I am a Footnote..er...Fold3 subscriber and will be forever
grateful to it for all the Revolutionary War Pension files I found there of my
ancestors, but I must confess that trhis change has me confused. There is
quite a bit more there than just military records and the changes don't let
genealogy newbies know that very well.

And then there's the name, "Fold3".

This is what they say about it at the Footnote.com blog, now known as
"Fold3HQ" (why do I feel like I should be wearing a helmet and camos
reading that name?):

 Footnote Becomes Fold3
One change that won’t impact how things work, but is significant and will 
probably get a lot of attention, is the site’s new name.  Footnote has been 
a great name, but it doesn’t relate to military records and can carry a 
connotation of insignificance which doesn’t seem appropriate for a site 
focused on records related to the great sacrifices associated with military 

We wanted a name that would show respect for the records we are 
working on and for the people who have served in the armed forces.  
The name Fold3 comes from a traditional flag-folding ceremony in which
the third fold is made in honor and remembrance of veterans for their 
sacrifice in defending their country and promoting peace in the world.

Now my Dad participated in military funerals as a member and Commander of
the Abington VFW and I've never heard of "fold 3". Neither have others with
military backgrounds who commented about the change over on Facebook,.
As someone said(sorry, can't find the name again) it sounds like an origami
instruction. They could have picked a much better name, I think. Nor am I
happy as a historian and genealogist with the idea in their explanation
that footnotes are items of "insignificance"

All this comes on the heels of the Geni.com controversy of this past weekend
which has already been well covered by others. Randy Seaver over at his
Genea-musings blog has a list of blogposts on that subject. If I were a guy
who believed in conspiracies O'd wonder about that but it's possible that the
folks at FamilySearch and Foot...er....Fold3 were hoping to take advantage of
Geni.com uproar to announce their own changes with minimum flak.

To be fair, the FamilySearch move to close down Record Search has been
 known to bescheduled for some time now. Since Footnote.com was
bought byAncestry change had been expected there as well. Both companies
have every right to make whatever changes they want, even lamentably poor
name changes. It doesn't mean that I, geneafuddyduddy that I am, have to
immediately like them.

 I suppose in time I'll get used to the changes eventually.

And when I do, they'll change again....sigh.