Preserve the Pensions Project Fully Funded!

Thanks to Judy Russell for posting about this news on Facebook.

The Preserve the Pensions project has been fully funded! An anonymous donor of $500,000, the match by Ancestry, and the donations of FGS2016 attendees have managed to fully fund the project. The War of 1812 pension files will be digitized and put online for all genealogists and researchers to use at no cost.

Preserve the Pensions Project was begun to preserve and digitize 7.2 million pages of War of 1812 Pension Records with the help of the genealogy community.

I think we all need to give a huge thank you to Ancestry.com as well as those individuals who generously gave donations. Ancestry gets bashed a lot in public forums but look at what they have done!  

In support of this monumental task of digitizing 7.2 million pages, Ancestry.com has provided a dollar for dollar matching grant, so every dollar contributed will make four more pages accessible and free for everyone.

This is great news for genealogists who need access to those War of 1812 Pension Records! 

Got Canadian Ancestors? Check out Canadian Military Records Online

Got Canadian Military Ancestors?

For those seeking military ancestors in Canada, Ancestry.com has some really great (and obscure!) records that I bet not many genealogists are aware of. I recently found some great information on a few of my ancestors in thees databases. The one that thrilled me the most was a record for my 3rd great grandfather John Greenlees. I found him recorded as 

Name: John Greenless Age: 23
Birth Date: abt 1782 Birth Place: Fermanagh [Ireland]
Military Date: 7 May 1805 Unit: 54th Foot Soldiers
The National Archives; Kew, Surrey, England; Class Number: WO 25; Class Title: 54 Foot; Piece Number: 420; Piece Title: 54 Foot.
Source Information: Ancestry.com. Canada, British Regimental Registers of Service, 1756-1900 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. 

This record gave his height, hair and eye colour and more! Here is the complete list of Canadian (and British) military records on Ancestry.com for those who may want to give them a quick look.

	Canada, Soldiers of the First World War, 1914-1918	Military	598,682
	Canada, British Regimental Registers of Service, 1756-1900	Military	467,838
	UK, Royal Hospital Chelsea Pensioner Registers of Soldiers Who Served in Canada, 1743-1882	Military	375,748
	Canada, Military Honours and Awards Citation Cards, 1900-1961	Military	68,047
	Canada, Nominal Rolls and Paylists for the Volunteer Militia, 1857-1922	Military	1,609,017
	Canada, War Graves Registers (Circumstances of Casualty), 1914-1948	Military	71,052
	Canada, CEF Commonwealth War Graves Registers, 1914-1919	Military	56,567
	Canada, British Army and Canadian Militia Muster Rolls and Pay Lists, 1795-1850	Military	752,886
	Canada, Loyalist Claims, 1776-1835	Military	24,789
	Canada, Militia and Defence Forces Lists, 1832, 1863-1939	Military	79,630
	Canada, Ledgers of CEF Officers Transferring to Royal Flying Corps, 1915-1919	Military	1,210
	The Loyalists in Ontario	Stories, Memories & Histories	418
	Canada, South African War Land Grants, 1908-1910	Military	7,143
	Canada, British Navy Ship Muster Rolls and Pay Lists, 1757-1836	Military	176,551
	United Empire Loyalists, Parts I-II	Stories, Memories & Histories	22,456
	Canada, British Army Regimental Rolls of Non-commissioned Officers and Soldiers, 1806-1892	Military	30,396
	Canada, Registers of Prisoners of War, 1803-1815	Military	56,505
	Old United Empire Loyalists List	Immigration & Travel	6,353
	Canada, Selected Service Records of Soldiers, 1914-1918	Military	102
	Canada, Selected Service Records of War Dead, 1939-1945	Military	100
	Canada, Pension Applications For Widows and Family of British Military Officers, 1776-1881	Military	843