Some of my readers may know me as a historian and also as a municipal historian. Many of my emails, talks, and outreaches involve family history. To that end, I decided to dedicate this article to research.

As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the nation's founding, people are becoming increasingly interested in their ancestors and the role they might have played in the American War for Independence. This usually includes a visit to the National Archives in Washington, D.C., or, at the very least, browsing Ancestry.com.

These methods are no longer necessary because almost all pensions are now available online at the National Archives website. Many of the states are already complete, and others are ongoing. In a society where it is harder and harder to read cursive, in many cases these pensions have been transcribed. What exactly do these pensions contain? Well, first we should dive into what a pension is.

The Pension Act of 1818, also referred to as the War Pension Act, was the first time the federal government granted pensions to non-disabled veterans based on service and financial need, specifically aiding surviving indigent soldiers who served in the Continental Army or Navy during the Revolutionary War. Later, the U.S. Pension Act of June 7, 1832, expanded this to grant lifetime pensions to surviving Revolutionary War veterans regardless of financial need, extending benefits to state militia members and sailors. An 1836 amendment further expanded eligibility to veterans’ widows.

Because applicants had to prove their service, these pensions hold a wealth of genealogical information. Sworn depositions contain dramatic firsthand accounts of battles, army camp life, and hardships. To prove marriages or births, families often submitted physical evidence such as family Bible records, marriage certificates, and even family portraits.

When researching, keep in mind that veterans recalled details from events that occurred more than 50 years earlier; you can explore these digitized pension files directly through the Citizen Archivists mission page on the National Archives website https://www.archives.gov/citizen-archivist/missions/revolutionary-war-pension-files.