War of 1812 Records Fully Funded!

At the opening session of the Federation of Genealogy Societies (FGS) conference in Springfield, Illinois this morning there was a great announcement for the War of 1812 pension records.

See Judy Russell's column here: http://www.legalgenealogist.com/2016/09/01/over-the-top/

They are fully funded!

US-Mexican War Announcement

 I just got this announcement through the National Genealogical Society's newsletter UpFront with NGS:


From our friends at FGS and the National Park Service …

August 8, 2016 – Austin, TX. and Brownsville, TX. The Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) and the National Park Service’s Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park announce a partnership to develop a searchable database of more than 130,000 soldiers of the U.S.-Mexican War.

The database will allow descendants of U.S. soldiers to connect to their personal history and help Palo Alto commemorate and tell the stories of these soldiers. After the database is developed, unit histories, digitized documents, and information on U.S.-Mexican War soldiers will be added. Efforts will also be made to include names and information about Mexican soldiers in this war.

"FGS is thrilled to partner with the Palo Alto Battlefield National Historic Park for this important preservation project,” said FGS President D. Joshua Taylor. “We look forward to working with our member societies and volunteers to provide new access to records for those researching the Mexican War."

Palo Alto Battlefield is also pleased with the partnership. “National Parks tell the stories of America,” said Superintendent Mark Spier. “Palo Alto Battlefield is excited to have the opportunity to work with the Federation of Genealogical Societies to tell the stories of the thousands of soldiers who served in the U.S.-Mexican War.”

To help bring these soldiers’ stories to life and to be a part of this momentous preservation project, indexing volunteers should contact Project Coordinator Patricia Rand, The Villages, FL, at projects@fgs.org.

The Federation of Genealogical Societies and the National Park Service previously partnered together in 1999 for the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System database project where FGS volunteers completed data entry for more than five million names. The efforts of the CWSS project can now be experienced on the NPS Civil War website.

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The US-Mexican War was fought between 1846 and 1848 for those that don't remember that part of American History class. It is not the border skirmishes that occurred in 1916 during the Mexican Revolution where we were trying to capture Poncho Villa who was making raids into the United States. This is the first thing I thought of when I saw the announcement especially when it mentioned Brownsville, Texas. I obviously didn't pay strict attention to military battles in class either.

FGS in Springfield Illinois- Registration

Collage from their website

The FGS (Federation of Genealogical Conferences) will hold its annual conference “Time Travel: Centuries of Memories,” in Springfield, Illinois in late summer.

Here's a link to information about this exciting conference:
https://www.fgsconference.org/

The conference is August 31-September 3 at the Prairie Capital Convention Center in Springfield, Illinois and registration for it is now open.

If you're going to attend, get registered while the early bird specials are going on, of course, and then drop a comment on this post and make all the rest of us jealous! So many great speakers and so many great topics while being surrounded by a great group of people. Alas, I only have so much, time, money and energy so will not be able to make this conference this year. I'm hoping in the next 2 or 3 years to be able to make another NGS or FGS conference, they are so much fun!