$40,000 Raised for the War of 1812 Preserve the Pensions Project

Big announcement today from the Illinois Genealogical Society (ISGS).  In less than six months, ISGS received $10,000 in contributions from individuals and organizations, which ISGS then matched, making it $20,000.  Ancestry.com will then match that amount, making it a total of $40,000.  What an amazing job!

If you’d like to contribute to the Preserve the Pensions project, you can do so by visiting http://www.preservethepensions.org.

Below is the full press release from ISGS:

December 11, 2012 – Springfield, IL. The Illinois State Genealogical Society (ISGS) is
proud to announce that it has completed its recently launched $10,000 War of 1812
Pension Match Challenge with strong support from ISGS members as well as the
genealogical community.

On June 18, 2012, the 200th anniversary of the declaration of the War of 1812, ISGS
announced its $10,000 War of 1812 Pension Match Challenge. ISGS made a
commitment to match any contribution (up to the first $10,000) made to the Preserve
the Pensions project before December 31, 2012. In addition, Ancestry.com announced
that it would also match all monies donated during the campaign, resulting in all
contributions being quadrupled. A total of $40,000 to be donated to the Preserve the
Pensions project will result in 88,888 additional pages of the War of 1812 Pension and
Bounty Land Warrant Application Files being digitized over the next few months.

The Preserve the Pensions campaign (http://www.preservethepensions.org),
sponsored by the Federation of Genealogical Societies (http://www.fgs.org) along
with Ancestry.com, Fold3 and the National Archives, seeks to raise over $3.7 Million
needed to digitize the War of 1812 pension files that are currently stored in the National
Archives and make them freely available online. With over 180,000 Pension files in this
historic record set and over 7.2 million pages, access to these records will benefit not
only genealogists and family historians, but a variety of researchers. In addition, the
digitization project will help preserve and halt further damage to these historical
documents. The files are being digitized as funds become available and many files are
already viewable by visiting http://go.fold3.com/1812pensions.

ISGS President Jane Haldeman notes: “The ISGS board made a strong commitment to
the preservation of the War of 1812 Pension Records when it issued the fundraising
challenge earlier this year. ISGS thanks all who contributed, especially those members
of the genealogy community who are not members of ISGS. Digitizing these records will benefit ALL genealogists and hopefully result in more people locating information about their ancestors.”

About Illinois State Genealogical Society

The Illinois State Genealogical Society (ISGS) was formed in 1968 through the
cooperative effort and forward thinking of Illinois genealogical society representatives,
who envisioned a statewide genealogical organization. ISGS is a not-for-profit,
nonsectarian, educational organization. ISGS was established for the following
purposes:

• To stimulate an interest in the people who contributed to the establishment and
  development of the State of Illinois.
• To seek, preserve, and make available data pertaining to individuals, families,
  and groups who lived in Illinois and to events which took place therein.
• To inform people of the value of, and need for, preserving family and local history
  for posterity.
• To encourage the formation of local genealogical societies and to coordinate and
  disseminate information.

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War of 1812 Ancestors

The Battle at Fort McHenry set the stage for Francis Scott Key’s Star Spangled Banner.

Today, 18 June 2012, marks the bicentennial of the War of 1812.  Two hundred years ago America was once again at war with Britain in what some refer to as our “second war of independence.”  In honor of all War of 1812 patriots, I thought I’d post about two of my ancestors who participated in the war.

Aaron Webster – Aaron Webster, son of Ashbel and Rachel (Price) Webster, was born 28 August 1775 in Hartford, Connecticut.¹  He married Sarah Norton, presumably the daughter of Solomon and Sarah (Rexford) Norton, on 3 January 1797 at either Poultney, Vermont or Washington County, New York.²   According to two different books, Aaron served in the War of 1812 at Sackets Harbor, New York as a minute man.³   Both Aaron and his wife died in 1823 in Oakland County, Michigan.⁴   I have not located any additional information to confirm the assertions made in the two books about Aaron’s military service.

Robert Parks – Robert Parks, son of Robert and Elizabeth (Hall) Parks, was born 12 February 1776 in Voluntown, Connecticut.⁵ He married Mary “Polly” Wheeler Smith about 1800.⁶   Robert died 29 June 1863, probably in Grand Rapids, Michigan.⁷ Several books mention his War of 1812 service, but again, I have not yet found anything concrete.  Following are some excerpts that discuss his military service and provide clues for additional research.

"April 27, 1810, he was commissioned Ensign of a regt. of militia, John Harris, Esq., Lieut. Col. commanding, Cayuga county, N.Y.  On March 2, 1814, he was commissioned Captain in the same regt." ⁸

"March 2, 1810, Captain Parks enlisted in the New York State Militia, and became a member of the 158th Regiment of New York Infantry in the War of 1812.  He was made captain of a company, and served as such until the close of the war." ⁹

You can see how these two contradict one another.  But at least there are many clues here to work with.  In the second reference, there is also a transcription of the Ensign commission, but there is no indication of where the original might be.

I hope one day to have a more complete picture of their.  I have a variety of sources to look at for both Aaron and Robert to hopefully uncover more information.  If you have any suggestions, please leave me a comment or send me an email.

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1.  William Holcomb Webster and Rev. Melville Reuben Webster D. D., History and Genealogy of the Gov. John Webster Family of Connecticut With Numerous Portraits and Illustrations (Rochester, New York: E. R. Andrews Printing Co., 1915), 401. 

2.  Webster and Webster, History and Genealogy of the Gov. John Webster Family of Connecticut, 401; also Charles Fey, History of Freemasonry in Oakland County, MI (Royal Oak, Michigan: Royal Oak Lodge No. 464, 1949). 

3.  Ibid.

4.  Webster and Webster, History and Genealogy of the Gov. John Webster Family of Connecticut, 401; also Oakland County, Michigan, Probate Records 1822-1911, 1: 52-68, 88, 98-103, 109, 116, 242-244 and 3: 89, 92, 104, 178, 179, 211, 212, 225, 308, 326, 327, 335, Aaron Webster; FHL microfilm 973,902, item 1. 

5.  Frank Sylvester Parks, Genealogy of the Parke Families of Connecticut (Washington, D.C.: Privately printed, 1906), 72. 

6.  Joseph Webster GARRISON membership application, National Society, Sons of the American Revolution, Office of the Registrar General, Louisville. 

7. American Biographical History of Eminent and Self-Made Men with Portrait Illustrations on Steel: Michigan Volume (Cincinnati, Ohio: Western Biographical Publishing Company, 1878), 95.

8.  Parks, Genealogy of the Parke Families of Connecticut, 102. 

9.  American Biographical History of Eminent and Self-Made Men: Michigan Volume, 95.

Image Credit:  The image is from Wikipedia and is in the Public Domain.

Can You Spare a Dime?

Back in April I wrote Are You Up for the Challenge? discussing the project that FGS is working on to digitize the War of 1812 pension files. 

In that post I reported that Indiana Genealogical Society stated a matching program where they will match contributions they collect up to $10,000.  I am happy to report that as of today, they have raised $9,700, just $300 shy of their goal!

IGS hopes to meet their $10,000 goal by August 31st, so if you have even just a few dollars to contribute to this worthy project, please head over to their website and make a contribution.  Not only will they match your contribution, Ancestry has also agreed to match all the donations, essentially quadrupling your contribution.

Remember, this digitization project aims to have the pension files available for free on Footnote.  And although they plan to have the digitization complete in 2015, they are busy working to get the files scanned and uploaded as they go…as of today there are 58,021 images available.

UPDATE 9/1/11 – It’s official…IGS raised $12,117 for the project, all of which will be matched by both IGS and Ancestry.  You can read more here.