{"id":98,"date":"2007-09-25T13:11:45","date_gmt":"2007-09-25T20:11:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/2007\/09\/25\/98\/"},"modified":"2007-09-25T13:13:58","modified_gmt":"2007-09-25T20:13:58","slug":"98","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/2007\/09\/25\/98\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

October 2007 Research Trip Sold Out! And a waiting list for 2008 started!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia Trip sold out! <\/strong> This is one of the most tightly organized trips I have ever done. With a cross-country itinerary and stops along the way in Denver CO, Republic County KS, St. Louis MO, Fort Wayne IN, Cleveland OH, Carlisle PA, Baltimore MD, Richmond VA, Wytheville VA, Blacksburg VA, and Pikeville KY.<\/p>\n

These places represent key research libraries and centers where we hope to conquer some of my most difficult research problems.<\/p>\n

I will also meet with clients, attend an important marketing meeting, pick up 300 genealogy volumes for my library, gain new insights into hard-to-trace genealogy, discover new and reworked and now available sources which I can share with you in this Genealog<\/em>y News Sheet<\/em>. Stay tuned between 9 October and 3 November for the newest, the best, the latest, and the most relevant genealogy research tools.<\/p>\n

Mercenaries in the American Revolutionary War\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

24 September 2007 is the 250th Anniversary of the birth of Marquis De Lafayette. He loved America and served her and her cause–at great personal expense and with considerable risk to himself and his family. The Marquis and the men he enticed to serve with him were military mercenaries. Paid lackeys sought by our fledgling new country to fight our motherland.<\/p>\n

The French were just one group of mercenaries involved in a fight for what your ancestors believed were inalienable rights–rights given us by God. Actually mercenaries served on both sides of the conflict.<\/p>\n

On the British side:<\/strong> “Hessian” troops–16,992 including those from Hannault, Waldeck; Iroquois Confederacy and their Indian allies–13,000; runaway Black slaves (promised liberty and freedom from seizure–8500; German Mercenaries from Duchy of Brunswick-Luneburg–2000; estimated 40,000 Loyalists including military units from each Colony. Forces were negotiated from other foreign powers: Lapland, Persia, Japan, Croatia, Spain, and Russia. Total troop strength was estimated at 92,000, although we have no facts concerning these additional foreign auxillaries.<\/p>\n

On the American Patriot side:<\/strong> Troops with Marquis De Lafayette–12,000; Rochambeau’s men–6,000 counted at Yorktown; Regulars from the Spanish Empire and Dutch Republic; Independent Corps, including Polish volunteers, Irish, French, and German troops; Prussian volunteers; volunteers from Quebec and other parts of Canada; Oneida, Tuscarora, and their allies; and the Irish Brigade from Spain (Irish mercenaries served in the armies of Spain). The total troop strength was estimated at more than 250,000 although on a good day, Washington fielded about 25,000 at a time under his direct command.<\/p>\n

Does it seem a strange concept<\/span> to you, that withdrawal of allegiance to a government is treason? An act that requires government military action to squash? An act that brands and condemns those who withdraw as criminals of the worst sort?<\/p>\n

How does this political event affect your genealogy?<\/p>\n

Records are created, lots and lots of records. <\/strong>Today’s new crop of Genealogists normally check online <\/strong>pension <\/strong>files, <\/strong>printed muster lists, and bounty land records if they are indexed. Once in awhile, I find a researcher searching for casualty records or service records files.<\/p>\n

As I reviewed the materials I wanted to search in the Maryland Historical Society (Baltimore), I discovered a list of military records for Maryland’s participation in the Revolutionary War that had originally been miscataloged<\/strong> as part of the Thomas J. Scharf Collection: Alphabetical lists of soldiers, muster rolls, clothing accounts and issues, transfers and recruits, deserters lists, advances of funds to officers, payrolls, pensions and half-pay rolls, receipts for pay received, and discharge lists for militia who served. These are just for the state of Maryland, and stray titles acquired by the Maryland Historical Society–not inventoried with the regular collection at the Maryland Hall of Records.<\/p>\n

One of the research problems I hope to solve–the family tradition that “11 brothers all served in the Revolutionary War.” And the tale handed down several generations, the ancestor had “22 sons and they all served in the Revolutionary War on both sides of the conflict.” Since in each case, we have not identified all 11 brothers nor all 22 sons, we clearly need to look at other military records.<\/p>\n

What if…<\/span> What if the ancestor you are looking for and cannot find is one of these mercenaries who fought on a side or in a unit you never thought to check? What if the surname under which he served was different or an unanticipated variant of the surname your ancestor carried?<\/p>\n

Can you imagine my surprise when I discovered that Harmon Eakle, who was recruited by George Rogers Clark for his Illinois Expedition, had also served as Herman Ekel with the “Hessian” troops and been paroled in Frederick County VA to return to his home in Augusta County Virginia. He was thus entitled to bounty lands for both tours of duty.<\/p>\n

You see, General Washington was a very shrewd tactician. He offered bounty land, during the War,<\/em> to the enemy troops if they would lay down their arms, pledge their faith not to support or serve the British Army, nor provide aid to the enemy in any way. They could claim up to 700 acres of land immediately <\/span>in any part of settled America not already claimed. Later, the lands were awarded in Greene County GA and the Susquehanna Valley of PA. Watch for a 700-acre piece your ancestor did not buy, did not receive as a regular grant, or did not inherit.<\/p>\n

Military records are among the most valuable sources we have. They are among the most numerous. They are least likely to be destroyed by fire or flood. They are filled with genealogical details and relationships. Don’t stop with the newly indexed pension files. Get into the archives and libraries. Look in the original records. They are just waiting to give you the data you need and have searched for in other records much less productive but easier to access. Your favorite genealogist, Arlene Eakle<\/p>\n

PS A good review of military records with annotated checklists, websites, titles, locations, and how to gather the evidence they provide is American Military Records: Unless He<\/strong> Was Exempt, Your Ancestor Performed Military Service<\/strong><\/em> by Arlene H. Eakle and Linda E. Brinkerhoff. Available from The Genealogical Institute, Inc., PO Box 129, Tremonton UT 84337. $20.00 postpaid when ordered online at my Home Page http:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com<\/a><\/p>\n

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October 2007 Research Trip Sold Out! And a waiting list for 2008 started! Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia Trip sold out! This is one of the most tightly organized trips I have ever done. With a cross-country itinerary and stops along … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98"}],"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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arleneeakle.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}