How much land and how large a pension does the U.S. owe John Hollister for his service in the American Revolution?
How about Hendrick Higbee? Or Zebulon Applegate? How about Thomas Halfpenny or Abraham Gulick?
These are all real New Jerseyans who fought for this country’s independence from Britain in the late 18th century, and the National Archives is betting there are enough of you interested in American history to volunteer to help with a unique project.
The National Archives and National Park Service are teaming up to transcribe the pension records of more than 80,000 of the nation’s first veterans, covering the American Revolution through the early 19th century.
In the 1970s, digitized records of the applications for pensions and for land grants submitted by these veterans and their widows were created by scanning 2,670 microfilm reels, which contained 2.3 million documents in more than 83,00 files.
The National Archives hopes and expects the records will contain valuable and fascinating details about these Revolutionary War heroes — including information about their service, their families and major details of their lives.
The Archives expects to have this project completed by the time the U.S. is ready to celebrate the 250th anniversary of its independence in 2026, and said this work with “make a permanent contribution to the historical record of the American Revolution.”
If you are interested in transcribing your way into American history, click here.
