Ancestors At Rest: Free Access

Showing posts with label Free Access. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 02, 2015

170 Million Wills online FREE Sept 2-7!

More than 170 million pages from the largest collection of wills and probate records in the United States is now available online exclusively on Ancestry.

With searchable records included from all 50 states spread over 337 years (1668-2005), this unprecedented collection launches a new category of records for family history research never before available online at this scale the United States.

Until now, these records have only been available offline. Ancestry spent more than two years bringing this collection online, working with hundreds of different archives from individual state and local courts across the country and making a $10M investment to license and digitize the records. The documents cover well over 100 million people, including the deceased as well as their family, friends and others involved in the probate process. Ancestry expects to continue to grow the collection, with additional records available over the next several years.

To celebrate the launch of the new U.S. Wills and Probates collection on Ancestry,, the collection along with all U.S. birth, marriage and death records, will be available to explore for FREE, September 2 (12pm MT) through September 7 (10pm MT).

Here are the records available as of today:

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Free Civil War Records on Fold 3 Until April 30

To remember the commencement of the Civil War in April 1861, FOLD 3 invites you to explore all records in its Civil War Collection for free April 14–30.

Explore Civil War documents featuring everything from military records to personal accounts and historic writings. Soldier records include service records, pension index cards, “Widows’ Pension” files, Navy survivors certificates, Army registers, and much more. Other record types include photographs, original war maps, court investigations, slave records, and beyond. Items such as the Lincoln Assassination Papers, Sultana Disaster documents, letters to the Adjutant General and Commission Branch, and the 1860 census are also contained in the Civil War Collection.

Confederate-specific records include Confederate service records, amnesty papers, casualty reports, and citizens files, as well as Confederate Navy subject files and Southern Claims Commission documents.

Join Fold3 in its commemoration of the Civil War. Discover information on famous participants as well as your own Civil War ancestors through documents, photos, and images that capture the experiences and vital information of those involved in America’s deadliest conflict. Then commemorate your ancestors by creating or expanding memorial pages for them on Fold3’s Honor Wall

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Free Acces Until May 31 on Fold3

The 150th Anniversary of the United States Colored Troops

On May 22, 1863, the War Department issued General Orders 143, establishing a Bureau of Colored Troops in the Adjutant General’s Office to recruit and organize African American soldiers to fight for the Union Army. With this order, all African American regiments were designated as United States Colored Troops (USCT).

Today marks the 150th anniversary of the USCT, and the National Archives is pleased to announce the completion of the USCT Service Records Digitization Project. In partnership with Fold3, the project provides online access to all service records—more than 3.8 million images—of Union volunteers in USCT units.

From May 22 to 31, the digital collection will be free on Fold3. (All National Archives collections on Fold3.com can always be viewed for free at any National Archives facility nationwide.)

Compiled military service records (CMSRs) are part of Record Group 94, the Records of the Adjutant General’s Office. They contain card abstracts of entries related to an individual soldier such as muster rolls and regimental returns.

Many CMSRs also contain original documents called “personal papers,” which are especially valuable to researchers looking for documentation on former slaves. These papers include enlistment papers, correspondence, orders, prisoner-of-war memorandums, casualty reports, or final statements. Unique to the records of the USCT are deeds of manumission, proofs of slave ownership, and bills of sale.

Starting in October 1863, a slave owner could offer his slave for enlistment in military service and be entitled to compensation up to $300 upon filing a valid deed of manumission and release, and making satisfactory proof of title. These forms offer researchers rare information and document the life of a slave person in the absence of other vital records.

Edmund Delaney was a slave who served in Company E of the 117th USCT Infantry. He was 25 years old when he enlisted in August 1864. Delaney’s owner, Harvey C. Graves of Georgetown, Kentucky, filed a compensation claim for his military service in December 1866. Graves stated that he “purchased [Delaney] at private sale when he was quite a small boy and owned him at the time of his enlistment.”

The claim form was accompanied by a proof of ownership form to which Graves attached a rare “likeness,” or photo of Delaney, and several of Delaney’s letters written to him while serving in Brownsville, Texas. The letters offer us a rare glimpse into his lonely soldier’s life, especially when he laments that no friends have written back to him:
“somehow most of them seem to be very much afraid of their pens and ink.”

The USCT service records also reveal the social issues faced by free blacks, such as the story of Fortune Wright, a soldier of the 96th USCT Infantry. Wright was a free black man before the Civil War began, and he enlisted in Louisiana in July 1862.

On October 23, 1865, a white doctor and another man thought they observed Wright beating a black woman on a street in Jefferson, Louisiana. When they attempted to reprimand Wright, a fight ensued. Wright—fearing for his life—stabbed the doctor, who was beating him with a cane. The doctor died.

Wright pleaded not guilty at his court-martial trial but was found guilty of murder and sentenced “to be hanged by the neck until dead” on January 5, 1866.

The accused offered his explanation while in prison in New Orleans. He stated that he was approached by an “immoral colored woman” who put her hand on his shoulder and was “acting her willingness to prostitute her person.” The woman told him to give her a dime. Wright said that he didn’t have a dime, and that if he did have a dime, he would give it to his wife. Wright stated that he was angry with the woman for her insulting conduct and language. If she repeated her language, Wright told her, he would slap her. She did repeat herself, and Wright slapped her.

The two white men appeared on the scene at this point without knowing how the argument began. As Wright walked away, the doctor followed and struck Wright on the head with a walking cane. Wright reeled around and grabbed the stick while the doctor cursed at him to let go. The doctor grabbed Wright by the collar of his coat and then punched him in the face. The second white man yelled to “kill the damned black yankee [since] there is no law for him.” Wright warned that if they both jumped him, he would cut one with his knife. When he was attacked, Wright stabbed the doctor with his knife.

Wright’s captain and his attorney sent pleas for a postponement of the sentence to Maj. Gen. Edward Canby of the Department of the Gulf. They were hoping for time to appeal to President Andrew Johnson for a pardon based on self-defense.

Several postponements were granted. The series of the documents leading to President Johnson’s final decision reads like the ultimate page-turner. On February 24, 1866, General Canby received a telegram from the War Department in Washington, DC, stating that President Johnson has ordered that “the [death] sentence be duly carried into execution.” A copy of this message on American Telegraph Company letterhead survives in the service record.

Wright was not notified of his fate until the evening before his hanging. A week earlier, Provost Marshal A.M. Jackson was warned in a letter from Eastern District headquarters in Louisiana that “Precaution must be taken that the office of hangman be confided to a capable person so that no disagreeable results may ensue, and that the body be not disturbed until the hangman has pronounced life to be entirely extinct.”

Jackson’s report of the execution dated the next day describes quite a different scene.

The knot on the rope was not soaped properly and the knot slipped as Wright fell from the platform. Though he was suspended, his neck was not broken and he could still breathe. Wright was taken down and put on the platform a second time. It took fifteen more minutes of strangulation before death took Fortune Wright. Jackson claimed that though the circumstance was “unpleasant,” Wright did not suffer “as he remained insensible from the time of the first fall.”

The stories of the USCT soldiers will be available free to non-subscribers on Fold3 from May 22 to 31, and can be accessed for free at any time on computers at the National Archives.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Free Access to ALL U.S. Census Records for 6 Days!

With the completion of the 1940 census index there now are more than 713 million U.S. Federal Census records online and fully searchable from 1790 through 1940. To celebrate this unprecedented access to all publicly available censuses, Ancestry.com a great offer for you

Search all U.S. Censuses free
From August 29th through September 3rd, Ancestry.com is opening all of its U.S. census records – FREE.

You can also search these free records on Ancestry.ca during the same time period.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Searching Free Michigan Death Records for a Massey

I've been searching the free online Michigan Death Records for my William Ivis Massey who most likely died sometime between 1891 and 1898. So far I've had no luck which leads me to think he may have died elsewhere.

Since he worked for the railroad it is quite possible he was in another state or even back in Ontario Canada where he had family.

William was born in 1847 in Quebec (called Canada East at the time) and was married twice. The first marriage was to a Miss Wheeley, the second to Jeanette (Jennie) MacDonald. I've not been able to find out his first wife's name nor when she died. But by 1878 he and wife #1 had a son George born in Ontario, and by 1881 he was in Detroit Michigan marrying Jennie.

If you recognize any of these names, contact me at ancestorsatrestATgmail.com (change the AT to @)

Here's the links for the free Michigan death records:

1867-1897 at FamilySearch
1897-1920 at Library of Michigan

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Free Access to Ancestry.ca June 27-July 2

Ancestry.ca Family history website offers free access to more than 40 million historical records that trace the development of the nation over the last 145 years

June 27, 2012 (TORONTO) – In honour of Canada Day, Ancestry.ca, Canada’s favourite family history website, is offering free access to 40 million historical records that outline just how far the country has come as a nation in the past 145 years.

Available free from June 27 through July 2, the records cover the years leading up to and following Confederation and include censuses, birth, marriage and death records, passenger lists, military records and many more.

“Many Canadians today celebrate the diversity of our nation but that multi-culturalism only came following a period of incredible growth and development in the years immediately before and after nationhood,” said Ancestry.ca’s Julie Wingate. “These records really paint a picture of how much we’ve changed as a country and give us a real reason to celebrate Canada Day.”

In 1871, just four short years after Confederation, Canada conducted its first Census as a nation and the results showed it was a country made up of British and French immigrants and a stark lack of diversity.

In fact, according to the 1871 Census of Canada:

Just 101 people are listed as being of Russian origin, compared to 500,000 in 2006
Nearly 900 people are listed as being Italian, compared to 1.4 million in 2006
Only one man is listed as being of Chinese descent in the 1871 Census, compared to 1.3 million in 2006

Between June 27 and July 2, millions of records will be accessible to Canadians for free on Ancestry.ca. The records are from some of the largest collections on Ancestry.ca, including:

· Canadian Passenger Lists and Ocean Arrivals - outlining the masses of people who arrived by ship -- the only form of international travel available to people at the time -- at port cities across Canada

· The 1871 Census of Canada - the first Census Canada conducted as a nation, which gives a snapshot of the life of the people living at the time, including who they lived with, their ages, their jobs, the birthplaces of their parents, their neighbours and more

· Vital records (i.e. birth, marriage and death records) from British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia - outlining the significant moments in the people’s lives like children born, marriages and deaths.

Search Ancestry.ca for your family.

Saturday, June 02, 2012

Fold3 offers FREE War of 1812 Records for June 2012

Fold3 will be opening up all of their War of 1812 records to the public for free during June. This is in commemoration of the 200^th anniversary of the commencement of the war.

The collection consists of more than 400,000 images including 233,000 images from the War of 1812 Pension Files never before available online. The following databases provided for free included:

War of 1812 Pension Files
War of 1812 Prize Cases, Southern District Court, NY
Letters Received by The Adjutant General, 1805-1821
War of 1812 Service Records

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Free Immigration Records Victoria Day Weekend

This Victoria Day Weekend Ancestry.ca is offering 200 million historical immigration records from around the world for free, until May 21st.

Immigration and travel records tell the story of your ancestors as they made the courageous decision to immigrate, travel or become a citizen of a new country. With 200 million immigration records from Canada, United Kingdom, the U.S. and several other countries from around the world at your disposal, you may uncover the answers you’ve been looking for. Explore passenger lists, naturalization records, border crossings, crew lists, immigration and emigration books, passports and more as you discover your family’s journey to Canada.

The story of your ancestors’ journey to a new country is waiting to be uncovered. Search Ancestry.ca international immigration records for free, this Victoria Day Weekend only until May 21st.

Friday, February 17, 2012

Search 1930 Census FREE This Weekend

The 1930 Census FREE This Weekend!!!! If you dont have a subsciption to Ancestry this is a way to get a peek at the 1930 Census for FREE.

Don't miss this great chance to get a glimpse into the lives of your family 82 years ago by searching the 1930 U.S. Census for FREE this weekend on Ancestry.com. Free access runs from February 16-20 ending at midnight ET

The Census has many details, such as:

* Household names, including brothers and sisters or children

* Marriage details, including years and birthplaces that can lead to a birth or marriage certificate

* Information about occupations, military service, citizenship and more

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Ancestry Offers USA 1910 Census Index for Free

Search the enhanced indexes for free through February 21, 2011

The 1910 U.S. Census on Ancestry.com is offering the 1910 census indexes for free through Feb. 21st.

Enhancements include:

* Clearer, crisper images

* Improved indexes with two new fields: mother's and father's birthplace

* Millions of alternate names to help you with hard-to-find relatives

Sounds like a good plan! Search 93 million improved records from all 50 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico, plus U.S. Military and Naval Forces — free through February 21.

Friday, August 14, 2009

FREE World Vital Records until AUGUST 18th!

WorldVitalRecords Free Site Access Today! World Vital Records announced today that it is extending its FREE ACCESS to the site until August 18th.

Genealogists have 4 more days to explore World Vital Records and find ancestors for FREE.

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