by Paula Stuart Warren, CG

In the United States, the Fourth of July is a time for fireworks, beach trips, family vacations, and apple pie in commemoration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the country's struggle to reach that point.

For genealogists, this date also reminds us about researching our patriotic ancestors. If you have walked on a battlefield where a war was fought, you know that special feeling that comes over you. You can find many records related to families who lived at that time and who had some type of service related to the Revolutionary War effort. Recently someone asked me how to do research on an ancestor who may have served in the Revolutionary War. That is just the kind of question I like to get; the resources are phenomenal.

Pension and Other Records
Military research is fascinating. Hopefully you have learned that for some wars related to U.S. military efforts, there are pension records. Don't forget to see if there are also enlistment, pay, muster roll, service, and bounty land records for a particular war. Chapter Eleven of the third edition of The Source: A Guidebook to American Genealogy is especially helpful for this era.

What is "Out There" for Research
Today's column is not about all the available resources. Just try typing the words "Revolutionary War" into a search engine such as Google or into any online library catalog. Be prepared for thousands of results.

Among the things you will find are books, CDs, websites, indexes, articles, organizations, and references to pensions, bounty land, service, and other records. You will be able to learn more about the war in connection with battles, individuals, states, counties, towns, countries, the army and navy, Loyalists, ethnic groups, and burials--and those are just the beginning. A county history may list residents who served in the war. An ancestor may have had patriotic service that did not involve any actual military skirmishes.