All I want for Christmas
Dear Santa,
The Legal Genealogist has no idea how it got to be the day before Christmas Eve. There’s still laundry to do, chores to tackle, even gifts still not wrapped.
But, Santa, even though the whole world seems to be spinning out of control as we race to get ready for the holiday… could you do what you can to get this whole wacky wonderful world of genealogy and all of its people to slow down just a minute here?
Because, Santa, we could give ourselves and our families a priceless gift if we’d just set aside a couple of dollars to spend on a really worthy cause. Maybe you could just spread the word on how that’s done, okay?
You see, Santa, back a couple of hundred years ago, folks here in the United States got into a dust-up with our British cousins. And although it’s hard to imagine today, we did some pretty amazing things.
Like invade Canada.1
And have the Capitol and White House in Washington, D.C. burned by the British.2
And fight one of the most important battles of the war after the peace treaty had been signed.3
No, most of the War of 1812 wasn’t one of our better moments, overall, and we were darned lucky we survived as a nation.
And even luckier as genealogists because of the records that the war led to.
Specifically… the granting of pensions to those who served. And even the denial of pensions to some who may have served, or may have been married to those who did, but who couldn’t prove eligibility. More than 180,000 pension files for War of 1812 soldiers and their families.
Because the applicants had to prove eligibility, pension files are chock full of goodies: pages from family Bibles; original marriage records; original citizenship papers; discharge certificates and so much more.
And because the pension files have so many goodies, they are among the most frequently used records held by the National Archives — and that makes them among the most fragile, the most in need of preservation and digitization to make them more accessible for us all.
So, Santa, how about it? How about delivering to every genealogist who ever has used, ever might use, could ever even think of using these records the directions on how to donate to the Preserve the Pensions campaign?
This is an effort led by the Federation of Genealogical Societies, with matching funds support from Ancestry. Every image digitized becomes available, free, to the public. So far, enough money has been raised to preserve about 38% of the files — so there’s a lot more that needs to be done, Santa. Each page costs 45 cents to digitize. A donation of $4.50 would usually digitize 10 pages. But because of the matching funds from Ancestry, that same donation will digitize 20 pages. For a flat $10, nearly 45 pages can be protected. Go to $20 and it’s nearly 90 pages. And for $45, 200 pages of these genealogical treasures can be preserved.
The directions are really easy, Santa, and tucking them into everybody’s stockings wouldn’t add much weight to your sleigh: just tell everybody to head over to the Preserve the Pensions website and click on the Donate Now button.
It’s for a really good cause, Santa.
Thanks.
NOTES
- Where we got our tails whipped. Seriously. Read up on it if you don’t believe me. See e.g. Pierre Berton, The American Invasion of Canada: The War of 1812’s First Year (New York : Skyhorse Pub., 2012). ↩
- See “The British Burn Washington, DC, 1814,” Eyewitness to History (http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/ : accessed 22 Dec 2015). ↩
- The Treaty of Ghent, ending the war, was signed 24 December 1814, when the Battle of New Orleans was getting underway. The battle continued until 8 January 1815. See Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.com), “Battle of New Orleans,” rev. 19 Dec 2015. Today, people would be tweeting the signing as it occurred. Then we were lucky to get a ship across the Atlantic in a week, with even more time needed to get to the Gulf of Mexico. ↩
I really tried to donate. I entered my credit card number about 10 times but I kept getting declined. I’ll try to remember to try again later.
Hmmm… you might try sending an email to check on why. 1812@fgs.org
I kicked them a few dollars. What I really wish, though, is that there was a state project to get more of the history of each state militia regiment. I know my ancestor served. I know what regiment he was in of the NY state militia. I just have no idea what their regiment did during the war.
I’m sure he didn’t get $9.60 for a month of doing nothing…
Doing unit history can be tough — but there will be records at the National Archives!
I used some of the documents in my 3rd great grandfather’s 1812 pension to prove his marriage. His second wife, my 3rd great grandmother, tried to payments and had to submit several documents to prove she had the right to collect his payments.
Great!
Just if case you have not found this site – my Christmas gift to you.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHnW2NAfPIA2KUipZ_PlUlw
From the Irish Prince
OK-I sent in a donation.
So, the 1812 records were never recorded originally? Will the records that are being copied be made available on sites such as Ancestry? What exactly will happen once the 1812 records are recorded? I think I had a couple of ancestors that fought but nothing concrete to substantiate that yet. Just wondering how it will help the amateur genealogists out there.