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The
National Archives (NARA), the record-keeper for the United States Federal
government, holds very little from the colonial era. The majority of the
pre-1789 records held at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., were
created by the Continental and Confederation Congresses and by the
Constitutional Convention of 1787. There are also service records created
during the Revolutionary War. These are available on microfilm in
Washington and at the regional archives facilities. Other pre-federal
records relate to other areas of the New World, mostly other British
colonies such as Canada and islands in the Caribbean as well as the Danish
Virgin Islands and Spanish colonies.1
The
first Continental Congress met in Philadelphia on Sept. 5, 1774, in response
to Great Britain’s Intolerable Acts of March to May 1774. The Congress
adopted numerous resolutions denouncing these Acts and an “Association”
where the delegates pledged their colonies would cut off British imports and
exports. The delegates also prepared several addresses to the King and the
people of both Britain and the colonies and resolved to meet again on May
10, 1775, if their grievances had not been redressed.2
On
May 10, 1775, the second Continental Congress convened and resolved to put
the colonies in a state of defense; on June 14 the delegates resolved to
raise rifle companies to march to the aid of the Massachusetts militiamen
fighting the British in Boston, and on June 15 they elected George
Washington Commander in Chief of the Continental Army. For the next five
years, the Continental Congress continued to exercise the powers of an
independent government without a constitution. Richard Henry Lee, in
addition to offering his resolution for independence on June 7, 1776, also
proposed that a “plan of confederation be prepared and transmitted to the
respective colonies for their consideration and approbation.” While the
Declaration of Independence was adopted quickly, it would be 1781 before
Articles of Confederation passed and the Confederation Congress replaced the
Continental Congress.3
Most
NARA facilities have copies of the microfilm
series of the Papers of the Continental Congress as well as the indexes to
the papers, 1774-1789. The five-volume index covers all the papers
of the Continental Congresses except the Journals and two manuscript
indexes. The indexes are in full alphabetical order, using personal names,
geographic locations, and subjects. They include the records of the
Confederation Congresses and the records of the Constitutional Convention
that are in NARA’s record group 360. The papers themselves are organized
mainly by document type, journals, committee reports, and correspondence,
for example, rather than by the functions or structure of the Congresses.
They include approximately 50,000 documents or about 170,000 pages. Many of
these documents were bound into 196 items by a clerk at the Department of
State in the 1830s.4
All
of the documents under each index term, whether surname, geographic location
or subject, are arranged chronologically and include all the information
necessary to locate the document within one of the five microfilm
publications that reproduce these records. This information includes a
description of the document, the date, and reference information to the
microfilm including microfilm publication number, roll number, item number,
file folder, volume and/or page number. The description always includes the
name of the sender or originator of the document (for example, Jones, John
Paul; L’Orient), the name of the recipient or major subject of the document
(account of prize shares belonging to the Alliance); and the number of
written pages (three pages). It may also include the place from which the
document was sent, the type or category of document (copy certified by
Gratien de Comorre), and the location of the document (M247, r115, i87, v1,
p205). Whenever possible, documents are dated with a year, month and day
(September 5, 1785). Undated documents (noted with n.d.) precede dated
documents in the chronological sequence.5
Genealogists often ignore the records of the Continental and Confederation
Congresses thinking that their ancestors won’t be included. However, as one
of the few government agencies around at that time, these records include a
number of people who were not well known. For example, there’s a listing
for a Mary Bridger who appeared on an inspection roll of Negro emigrants in
1783.6 Or, as I have Athertons
in my family tree, I am interested in Caleb Atherton who appears in a list
of recruits from Westmoreland (probably New Hampshire) in 1776.7
Considering that we have an alphabetical index to these records, isn’t it
worth a check of the volumes for your Revolutionary War era ancestors,
especially if you have one who served in the Revolution?
The
papers are reproduced by NARA as five separate microfilm publications:
M247,
The Papers of the
Continental Congress, 1774-1789 (204
rolls)
M40,
Domestic Letters of the
Department of State, 1784-1861
M61,
Foreign Letters of the
Continental Congress and the Department of State, 1785-1790
M332,
The Miscellaneous Papers
of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789
(10 rolls)
M866,
the Records of the
Constitutional Convention of 1787 (1
roll).
Researchers can use the index to find out which microfilm publication
contains what records. Pittsfield holds M247, M332, and M866 only while
Waltham and New York also hold M40 and M61.
NARA’s Guide to
Pre-Federal Records in the National Archives also contains
information about records of Commercial Affairs, Fiscal Affairs, Foreign
Affairs, Indians and Indian Affairs, Judicial Affairs, Land and Exploration,
Military Affairs, Naval Affairs, and Postal Affairs as well as pensions,
bounty-land grants, and other claims.8
You can either purchase this book from the Friends’ bookstore or use the
copy available in the microfilm reading room.
Lastly, the records of the Revolutionary War, both compiled service,
pensions, bounty land grants, and War Department correspondence, are
available to researchers. Consult two books in the Pittsfield reading room.
Military Service
Records: A Select Catalog of National Archives Microfilm Publication
Guide to Genealogical
Research in the National Archives of the United States
All
of NARA’s catalogs are available on-line at our website,
www.archives.gov, under
publications. Many of these microfilm publications are available at NARA’s
Northeast Region’s offices in Waltham, Pittsfield and New York City.
Researchers can check the on-line microfilm catalog at www.archives.gov/research_room/alic/research_tools/search_microfilm_catalog.html
for specific locations of NARA microfilm publications.
Revolutionary War compiled service records for men who fought between 1775
and 1783 were abstracted from records in the War Department collection of
Revolutionary War Records (Record Group 93). These records resulted from
the War Department’s attempts to find substitutes for records destroyed by
fire in 1800 and 1814.9
Microfilm publication M881,
Compiled Service Records
of Soldiers who served in the American Army During the Revolutionary War
(1096 rolls), is arranged by state and then by regiments with soldiers
listed alphabetically by surname. Continental troops appear on the
microfilm rolls before the states (or perhaps we should say colonial)
listings. These records include many types of military organizations, some
created by the Continental Congresses while others were created by colonies,
towns or counties. Regular units authorized by the Continental Congress
formed the Continental Army, but they were frequently supplemented by
militia units and volunteers.10
These compiled service records generally contain only pay stubs giving
information on dates of service and pay amounts.
If a
researcher doesn’t know the regiment(s) in which his or her ancestor served,
there is an alphabetical index to the
records on M860 (58 rolls). The index cards give name, aliases,
state the man served from, and regiment. The card also may give his rank,
profession or office. The index also contains entries for several small
series of Revolutionary War compiled service records of sailors, members of
army staff departments, and civilian employees (teamsters, laundresses,
carpenters and cooks) contracted to the Army and Navy.11
M246,
Revolutionary War Rolls,
1775-1783 (138 rolls),
contains muster rolls, payrolls, strength returns, and other miscellaneous
personnel, pay, and supply records of American Army units. The records are
organized by state and then regiment, and lastly, chronologically by date.
The various types of rolls are intermixed within each regiment. Researchers
who don’t know the regiment their ancestor served with can use M860 to
locate that information before using M246.
Records of Naval Personnel during the Revolutionary War are also available,
but they are fragmentary.
M879,
Index to Compiled
Service Records of American Naval Personnel Who Served during the
Revolutionary War (1 roll)
M880,
Compiled Service Records
of American Naval Personnel and Members of the Departments of the
Quartermaster General and the Commissary General of Military Stores Who
Served during the Revolutionary War
Information on the cards was transcribed from lists of American sailors and
vessels, payrolls, portage bills, and assignments of pay relating to ships
of the Continental Navy and state navies, the frigate Alliance, the
brigantines Dartmouth and Polly, the sloops Independence and Montgomery, the
schooner Putnam, and the ship Raleigh; lists of American prisoners taken by
the British ships Gibralter, Hunter and Felicity; lists of vessels arriving
and departing from Tribel’s Landing in October 1781; and entries in volume
175 of the numbered record books in the Revolutionary War Manuscript
Collection of the War Department, record group 93, which includes the names
of many sailors from New York and Virginia.
13
Probably the most used Revolutionary War records are those for pensions.
M804,
Revolutionary War
Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application Files, 1800-1906 (2,670
rolls) is available at most NARA facilities. If a pension exists for
service in the Revolutionary War, the file can contain gems of genealogical
information. There were only three ways to get a pension. Disability or
invalid pensions were awarded for physical disabilities incurred in the line
of duty; service and widows’ pensions were given to women and children whose
husbands or fathers had served or been killed in the war; and after 1838,
pensions were given for soldiers or widows who proved they were in financial
need.14
Pension files contain service information in application statements of
veterans, affidavits of witnesses, muster rolls, diaries, or orders. A
typical file includes an application showing the veteran’s name, rank,
military unit, period of service, residence when mustered in, residence at
the time of application, birthplace, age or date of birth, and a list of
property when the claim was made on the basis of need. A widow’s
application shows most of the same information about the veteran as well as
the widow’s name, age, residence at the time of application, maiden name,
date and place of marriage, and date and place of husband’s death. An
application for a child or heir shows the information about the veteran and
widow and the heir’s name, place and date of birth, residence at the time of
application, and date of the mother’s death. The files often have
supporting documents such as discharge papers, affidavits and depositions of
witnesses, narratives of events during service, marriage certificates, birth
records, death certificates, pages from family bibles, and other papers.15
Pension records were microfilmed in full alphabetical order by surname, then
by given name and further arrangement by state within each surname and given
name, for example, Jones, John, then Jones, Jonas. Records are in no
specific arrangement within each file, but generally service information is
at the beginning of the file with affidavits, depositions, and supporting
documentation following.
There
are many other War Department records covering the Revolutionary War. It’s
not possible to discuss them all in one article, but the following is a
partial list of Revolutionary War microfilms available at the Pittsfield
facility.
M162,
Revolutionary War Prize Cases, 1776-1787
M847,
Special Index to Numbered Records in the War Department Collection of
Revolutionary War Records, 1775-1783
M859,
Miscellaneous Numbered Records (The Manuscript File) in the War Department
Collection of Revolutionary War Records, 1775-1790s
M853,
Numbered Record Books Concerning Military Operations and Service, Pay and
Settlement of Accounts, and Supplies in the War Department Collection of
Revolutionary War records
M829,
U.S. Revolutionary War Bounty Land Warrants used in the U.S. Military
District of Ohio and Related Papers (Acts of 1788, 1803, and 1806)
M910,
Virginia Half-Pay and Other Related Revolutionary War Pension Application
Files
M927,
Letters, Orders for Pay, Accounts, Receipts, and Other Supply Records
concerning Weapons and Military Stores, 1776-1801
M1008,
Register of Revolutionary War Land Warrants, Act of 1788, Military District
of Ohio
M1062,
Correspondence of the War Department Relating to Indian Affairs, Military
Pensions, and Fortifications, 1791-1797 (contains lists of Invalid Pensions)
M1015,
Central Treasury Records of Continental and Confederation Goverments
relating to Military Affairs, 1799-1805
M1786,
Record of Invalid Pension Payments to Veterans of the Revolutionary War and
the Regular Army and Navy, March 1801-Sept. 1815
M2079,
Final Revolutionary War Pension Payment Vouchers, Delaware
__________
1. Wehmann, Howard H.,
A Guide to Pre-Federal Records in the
National Archives (Washington, DC: National Archives & Records
Administration, 1989), vii.
2. Ibid., 1.
3. Ibid., 1-2.
4. Butler, John P.,
Index, The Papers of the Continental
Congress, 1774-1789. (Washington, DC: GPO, 1978), v.
5. Ibid., vii.
6. Ibid., 582.
7. Ibid.,
270.
8. Wehmann, iii.
9. NARA,
Military Service Records: A Select Catalog of National Archives Microfilm
Publications (Washington, DC: NARA, 1985), 3.
10. Ibid., 13
11. Ibid., 4.
12. Ibid., 5.
13. Ibid., 28-29.
14. Ibid., 233.
15. Ibid., 234.
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