Research and stories involving military service, from the Revolutionary War through later conflicts, using service records, pensions, and related documentation.
Hazel B. Green, interviewed Ben C. Williams in 1937 for the Federal Writers Project, a Depression-era Works Project Administration (WPA) project. I compared Ben’s interview with documentary evidence in an article published by the Illinois State Genealogical Society. The article is now available in Kinship Papers: Volume 1.Ben was quite …
The past few weeks my genealogical research has led to the western frontier of America during the Revolution and just afterwards. I’ve been looking at the area around Louisville, Kentucky. Working through records means keeping an eye on maps because it was a rapidly changing area, In the 1770s white …
DAR applications can be tricky when a patriot ancestor is associated with a “burned county.” What does that mean? It means that a spark from a wood-burning stove, glowing ash from a clerk’s clay pipe, a lightning strike, or in times of war a courthouse was set on fire. There …
In remembrance of Pearl Harbor I’m posting about my great-uncle who served aboard the U.S.S. Arizona when it was a new ship during World War I. “A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,” card from the U.S.S. Arizona, in the author’s collection, from grandmother’s photograph collection. James “Luster” Roberts was …
I took a field trip to White Plains, New York to access probate files from the Westchester County Surrogate’s Court. On the return trip I saw a historical marker at Armonk, New York. The marker at Smith Tavern commemorates the thousands of French troops who marched past that location during …
