Preserving the War of 1812 Pensions

What’s the big deal about preserving the War of 1812’s Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application Files?

1. It is rich in genealogical information. Often this is where you find the wives maiden name and who here parents were and where she was born.
2. The War of 1812 helped to solidify the United States as a nation. Our  sense of nationalism and who we were as a country was molded by this conflict.
3. Immigrants from many nations now became land owners as they received compensation for their war efforts. Owning their own destiny.
4. Soldiers and sailors fought and died for our nation. Their stories, their valor should be honored and remembered.

courtesy of FGS.org

Many of my ancestors were veterans of the War of 1812, so of course I am interested in preserving and digitizing these records. But, what about all the Americans who came after the fight, whose ancestors were not involved in the war? Why should they contribute? I could remind them they still reap the reward of those who fought and died to establish the country they now call home. I could appeal to Veterans from all wars to reach out to fallen comrades who have gone before with little recognition. My ancestors were in America before Ellis Island and Castle Garden, yet I still support efforts to preserve those records. Their heritage should be preserved. All of our stories should be preserved and made available so that all may benefit  and learn from them.
The Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) is leading a community wide and in partnership with the National Archives and Ancestry.com to project to digitize the War of 1812 pension and Bounty Land Warrant application files.
Ancestry.com is matching dollar-for-dollar, up to $1.5M, for every contribution to this project. wow! Thank you Ancestry.com. The project though is still expected to cost $3.7M to digitize the complete project.
Once digitized the images will be FREE, forever, and everyone can access them as they are posted and available onto Footnote.com. Some 8,000 images are now available there!
Your donation of $25 will digitize 50 images, $500 will digitize 1,000 images. All donations of any size are welcome! The project needs help from the genealogical historical and business communities to make this a reality. But, we need just everyday Americans who care about preserving stories, to give up a few days worth of latte’s and donate to the cause.

Donate here, or call FGS-War of 1812 Fund toll free (888) 347-1500.
Help preserve the stories of the tens of thousands who fought to protect our nation’s independence.