| 4 Sure-Fire Websites for Revolutionary War Research |
| If you had ancestors living in colonial America, you could have a Revolutionary War patriot in your family tree. The war began in 1775 with the Battle of Lexington and ended in 1783. Most men who served were between 16 and 55 years old. This means you’ll be looking for someone born between roughly 1720 and 1767. How can you find him? Start by gathering everything you know about the prospective soldier or sailor—where he lived, the names of his wife and children, and when and where he died. Then turn to these four websites to see what else you might discover. The military arsenal: Fold3 At Fold3, select the category US Revolutionary War to find an impressive collection of 24 databases. Enter your ancestor’s name to search them all with one click (Tip: try using * as a wildcard to replace letters for variant spellings). Filter the results by state if needed. Some databases are free to view, others require a subscription. The lineage experts: DAR Head to the DAR's website to see if your ancestor has already been documented as a patriot by the Daughters of the American Revolution. When using their Ancestor Search, enter the minimum data required at first, then add more if you need to narrow results (Tip: spelling counts here, so try variants one by one). Compare information about any potential match. The database deep-dive: Ancestry You can search several key Revolutionary War collections at once on Ancestry. Ancestry also has a number of other resources, including state-specific ones. To find them, check out the Card Catalog. In the Keyword search box, enter the words Revolutionary War. For state databases, add the name of the state in the Title box. Since many veterans moved and died far from their original homes, even frontier states like Ohio and Illinois had significant numbers. Your ancestor may just be among them. |
