{"id":2201,"date":"2020-08-21T13:53:39","date_gmt":"2020-08-21T20:53:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/?p=2201"},"modified":"2020-08-21T15:40:32","modified_gmt":"2020-08-21T22:40:32","slug":"matching-sources-for-best-evidence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/2020\/08\/21\/matching-sources-for-best-evidence\/","title":{"rendered":"Matching Sources for Best Evidence&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Match the Military Evidence for your Ancestors in Traditional Revolutionary War Records to other Genealogy Sources for Best Evidence:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>More than 425,000 males aged 16-60 (some even younger who lied about their age), and some women served in the Revolutionary War (1774-1783). Over 85,000 drew pensions from the Federal Government. This means they survived the War long enough to file an application after the first full pension act was passed in 1832.<\/p>\n<p>1. Personal statement of<strong> migration<\/strong>\u201385% of Revolutionary War soldiers died in a different place than born. Place of birth, residences before service and up to the payment of pension including length of residence, place of marriage, place of death. Match with census records, biographical sketches, family Bible dates.<\/p>\n<p>2. Important source of <strong>birth, marriage, and death dates<\/strong> before official vital records are kept. Ages at dated events. One of the best sources to trace ladies: maiden surnames, names and ages of children, proof of marriage, other marriages and surnames, family origins. Match with marriage records, cemetery tombstones, family Bible records, personal diaries, biographical sketches, indigent payment lists, rosters of military dependents.<\/p>\n<p>3. Interview your ancestors\u20131st-person<strong> narratives and stories <\/strong>in affidavits, applications, and personal statements. Often in the handwriting of the ancestor: \u201c\u2026even the color of his eyes.\u201d Match with portraits, family traditions, biographical sketches, personal memoirs, letters written to family members, diaries, and journals.<\/p>\n<ol start=\"4\">\n<li>May include <strong>2-5 generations of pedigree ancestors<\/strong> \u2013with statements of personal knowledge of relationships. Match with compiled genealogies and pedigrees. Also compare with genealogies outlined in family histories, local heritage books, county, and local histories.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ol start=\"5\">\n<li>Sworn affidavits by <strong>people who personally knew your ancestor<\/strong>. This is a \u201cmini-census\u201d approach: \u201cI knew him for more than 20 years.\u201d Match with tax rolls, inhabitant lists, voter\u2019s registration, local census enumerations, lists of first settlers, and land grant lists.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ol start=\"6\">\n<li>Fill in gaps when <strong>government records <\/strong>do not survive. The majority of military records are not kept in the courthouse. If the courthouse burns, these records do not burn with it. Match with DAR transcripts of local records\u2013wills or deeds or court records, conscript lists, military census listings, obituaries (\u201dAnother Revolutionary Soldier Gone,\u201d), pay, and muster rolls, official casualty lists. DAR transcripts are available for every state.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Be careful using just the printed Revolutionary War Pension transcripts easily available in most genealogy libraries. While they are good locator sources and enable you to determine which original cases to check, they may not reference and index all of the papers filed in each case. Much of the printed stuff is based on <strong>M805\u2013Selected Records<\/strong>. This microfilm program filmed 10 documents selected from the case file. Most of them came from the first dozen or so documents in the file. <strong>M804\u2013non-Selected Records<\/strong> \u2013includes <strong>all the papers<\/strong> in the case file. I recommend that you read all of the documents on microfilm before copying those needed for your genealogy. Some of the best documents are at the end of the case file. You can also access these records on <strong><em>Fold 3.<\/em><\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/fold3.com\">http:\/\/fold3.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Checklist of Sources most often used by authors who write about Military Affairs, Battles, Soldiers, Sailors, and Wars:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>__Correspondence<br \/>\n__Letter books<br \/>\n__Copybooks<br \/>\n__Diaries<br \/>\n__Journals<br \/>\n__Ships log books<br \/>\n__Orderly books<br \/>\n__Narratives<br \/>\n__Commentaries<br \/>\n__Business accounts<br \/>\n__Depositions<br \/>\n__Affidavits<br \/>\n__Gazettes<br \/>\n__Newspaper clippings<br \/>\n__Pamphlets<br \/>\n__Official proceedings<br \/>\n__Official reports<br \/>\n__Legislative papers<br \/>\n__Public records<br \/>\n__Court minutes<br \/>\n__Petitions<br \/>\n__Arguments<br \/>\n__Official instructions<br \/>\n__Council minutes<br \/>\n__Documentary histories<br \/>\n__Maps<br \/>\n__Biographies<br \/>\n__Autobiographies<br \/>\n__Personal papers<br \/>\n__Collections<br \/>\n__Dissertations, Theses<br \/>\n__Official histories<br \/>\n__Historical articles<\/p>\n<p>These are basic categories and can exist at all levels of society from officers down through all participants to local townspeople. Comparing journals written by officers, soldiers, and government commissioners can fill in a narrative of who participated and what happened. One journal alone is almost never enough. Your favorite genealogist, Arlene Eakle <a href=\"http:\/\/arleneeakle.com\">http:\/\/arleneeakle.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>PS As you read what others have written, their notes and bibliographies can alert you to other sources that also apply to the same events and people. Add these categories to your checklist.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Match the Military Evidence for your Ancestors in Traditional Revolutionary War Records to other Genealogy Sources for Best Evidence: More than 425,000 males aged 16-60 (some even younger who lied about their age), and some women served in the Revolutionary &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/2020\/08\/21\/matching-sources-for-best-evidence\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1729,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[328,327,183],"class_list":["post-2201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-checklist-of-sources","tag-fold-3","tag-military-records"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2201"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1729"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2201"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2204,"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2201\/revisions\/2204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}