Saturday, January 30, 2010

2009-- A Year in Review

Edited by Patrick Spero, Past Historian at the David Library


What's new at the David Library? A lot. Over the course of the past year, the David Library acquired a number of new collections that we hope will be of great interest to our patrons.


Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Understanding Rev War Pension Applications

Patron's Perspective

Sue Winter and Bill Schleicher, two longtime patrons of the David Library, recently shared some of their insight into searching the Revolutionary War pension records we have here. The Pension Records are one of the richest resources we have - and that is saying a lot since we have over 700 collections and 10,000 reels of microfilm. The Pension Records contain data on every soldier who filed a pension with the federal government. Many include narratives of their time in the war. Previously, Kimberly Hess shared the fascinating story of Elizabeth Poole, which she had found in the records.

Patrick Spero

It pays to cast your nets widely in the Revolutionary War pension files.
Happy is the family historian who finds an ancestor's pension file record. But even if your ancestor never applied for a pension, you may not be completely out of luck. And, if you're fortunate enough to have found a pension file, there may still be more to discover.