My friends - We will close out the week with another in the "Tips" series. This one comes to us courtesy of our friend Craig Scott, a fellow Certified Genealogical Record Specialist, who works primarily with, and is an expert on, records in the National Archives. He also is the proprietor of Willow Bend Books (www.willowbend.net), where he keeps a good selection of genealogical materials(I have no interest in that venture, but he has a nice website if you care to visit and see what is there). Craig has generously given me permission to post the material you will read below. In it, he explains in a little more detail than you might find elsewhere about the War of 1812 records which are available. This would be a good item to print and keep in your reference folder, if you maintain one. As usual, there will be no data postings over the weekend, but I will be dropping by with another JP land grants file or two, and perhaps another item if time permits. -B ============================================================ Records of the War of 1812 During the War of 1812 there were two kinds of soldiers; regular Army and militia. In some cases militia units became the core of regular Army units (such as the 24th Infantry raised from Tenn. and the 35th Infantry raised from Va.). Some militia units crossed state lines (such as the Virginia units that were stationed in Baltimore). Knowing the kind of unit an ancestor belonged to is important to 1812 research. If a member of the regular Army there is no compiled military service record and a record will have to be compiled from various series of records found in Record Group 94, Records of the Adjutant General Office, including the NARA microfilm, M233, Register of Enlistments in the U.S. Army. For officers the various rolls of letters sent and letters received relating to the Adjutant Generals Office should also be examined. If the soldier was in the militia, but did not cross state lines during his service, he more than likely was paid for his service by his state. Those muster rolls and pay or receipt rolls will usually be found in the State Archives. In the case of Virginia most of the muster rolls for central and southern militia units are found in the Library of Virginia. However there are no muster rolls in the Library of Virginia for northern counties such as Loudoun and Fairfax. These muster rolls and receipt rolls are found in the RG 94 in the National Archives. Both the National Archives and the State archives should be consulted. RG 217, Records of the Accounting Officers of the U.S. also contain muster rolls, receipt rolls and state claims for the war of 1812. Also included among these records are two series of records that apply to men who were killed during the war or of wounds immediately following the war. I have been abstracting final payment accounts for widows and orphans found in entry 726 and have identified about 1,700 unique individuals who died in the war, their wives and where the wife remarried her new husband and sometimes the names, ages, and dates of birth of children of the soldier. Additionally, located in entry 516, Settled Accounts of Army Paymasters (but almost impossible to use because of the way that they are arranged) are the application letters from the widows that establish her marriage to the soldier, his military service and the circumstances of this death. Two other sources in RG 94 should also be consulted. The microfilm index, M1747, Index to Records Relating to War of 1812 Prisoners of War will lead to other records. The manuscript index to the War of 1812 manuscript file will also lead to additional information. Finding an individual in books and databases should be able to lead you directly to the source of the information. One would hope that this was the case. Craig R. Scott, CGRS