Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Footnote.com Teams with Family Search to Release Revolutionary War Pension Files

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Yesterday FamilySearch announced that it will provide free services to archives and records custodians who wish to digitize, index, publish, and preserve their collections. This is in addition to the project already underway to digitize and make freely available the 2 million rolls of microfilm stored in the Granite Mountain Records Vault.

Today we see the first announcement of this collaboration. I suspect there will be many more.

May 15, 2007 06:15 AM Eastern Daylight Time

Footnote.com Teams with Family Search to Release Revolutionary War Pension Files




Revolutionary War Pension Files Will Be Available for Free at All Family History Centers Worldwide


LINDON, Utah--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, Footnote.com announced an agreement with FamilySearch, historically known as the Genealogical Society of Utah, a nonprofit organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints. FamilySearch is the world’s largest repository of genealogical information.

This new partnership brings together two organizations that will utilize their combined resources to digitize and make available many large historical collections. The first project will be the three million U.S. Revolutionary War Pension files which will be published for the first time online in their entirety.

“The Revolutionary War Pensions will provide an intimate look into the historical events and individuals that shaped our country’s history,” said Russell Wilding, CEO of Footnote.com. “We are excited about this relationship which enables us to put many more historical collections online.”

The Revolutionary War Pension Files feature original records that include muster rolls, payrolls, strength returns and other miscellaneous personnel pay and supply records of American Army Units from 1775-1783. They provide a wealth of new information for historians and genealogists which they can share with other colleagues and family members.

“We are excited to partner with Footnote.com to provide historians and genealogists alike a tremendous source of data that will assist greatly in putting puzzle pieces together to create a rich family history,” said Paul Nauta, manager of Public Affairs for FamilySearch. “This affiliation allows us to better meet one of our goals to provide as much data online as fast as possible for those working on their genealogy.”

Also, as a part of this agreement, Footnote.com will be accessible for free in all FamilySearch operated centers worldwide. FamilySearch has more than 4,500 Family History Centers in 70 countries.

Since partnering with the National Archives in January 2007, Footnote.com has digitized over eight million historical records. Each month an additional two million documents are digitized and added to the site. Footnote.com estimates that by the end of 2007 it will have made over 25 million digitized documents available on its web site.

To see free examples of the Revolutionary War Pension Files, go to Revolutionary War Pension Files

Fold3 (formerly Footnote.com) has now begun offering free three-day trial memberships. Start Your Free Trial with Footnote.com

1 comment:

Mike Clement said...

Here is some other coverage of this announcement between Footnote and FamilySearch.
Also one of the most exciting features of the Revolutionary War Pensions on Footnote that is almost all the names will be annotated and indexed. See my Unofficial Footnote Blog for more coverage of this and other Footnote features.