Genealogy Storytelling

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Pierre Fazende and The Chalmette Battlefield

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This is another story about a lost african-american community called Fazendeville near the Chalmette Battlefield.

While much deserved attention this week has gone to the 200th anniversary of the American victory at the Battle of New Orleans, this year also marks the 50th anniversary of two less-remembered losses near the Chalmette battlefield. They were vestiges of opposite ends of antebellum Creole society, one a tiny hamlet of poor black families, the other an opulent plantation mansion.

Both survived a century after the Civil War, and both were obliterated in 1965.

The hamlet developed out of a rice field owned by Pierre Fazende, a free man of color who appears to have inherited a portion of the Chalmette plantation on which the Battle of New Orleans was fought. In 1856, his son subdivided the elongated parcel, positioned roughly parallel to the former American firing line, and sold the 33 lots of “Fazendeville” to other free people of color, and after the Civil War, emancipated slaves.

For the full story on nola.com click here.

The 40 Acres And A Mule Story

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General Sherman

More of the 40 acres and a mule story…

As the Civil War was winding down 150 years ago, Union leaders gathered a group of black ministers in Savannah, Ga. The goal was to help the thousands of newly freed slaves.

From that meeting came Gen. William T. Sherman’s Special Field Order 15. It set aside land along the Southeast coast so that “each family shall have a plot of not more than forty acres of tillable ground.”

That plan later became known by a signature phrase: “40 acres and a mule.”

After wrapping up his famous march, Sherman spent weeks in Savannah, staying in an ornate Gothic revival mansion called the Green-Meldrim House. That’s where he and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton held their meeting with local black leaders.

The Green-Meldrim House in Savannah, Ga., is where Gen. William T. Sherman held meetings with local black leaders, creating the plan later known as “40 acres and a mule.”Sarah McCammon/NPRhide caption

See full story on npr.org

Free WW1 Prisoner Of War Records Online

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WW1 war records online
Established in 1914, the International Prisoners-of-War Agency compiled index cards and lists to help restore contact between internees and their families (Credit: ICRC)

WW1 prisoner of war records now online for free!

Millions of First World War prisoner records held by the International Committee of the Red Cross have been uploaded to the web for the first time

Established in 1914, the International Prisoners-of-War Agency compiled index cards and lists to help restore contact between internees and their families (Credit: ICRC)

Records of millions of soldiers and civilians captured during the First World War have been uploaded to the web by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Available for free through a newweb portal, the vast collection provides details of people who were held in prisoner of war camps across Europe between 1914-1918.

Created by their captors, the records were submitted to the International Prisoners-of-War Agency, which was set up by the ICRC at the start of the conflict to help restore contact between prisoners and their families at home.

Researchers will generally be able to locate an index card for each individual, providing basic details about their imprisonment and reference numbers for any related documents held elsewhere in the database.

See full story on whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com

Image Credit whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com

Civil War: The Untold Story Soon To Be Released

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Civil War documentary

I am looking forward to the 5-hour Epic  Civil War: The Untold Story  It is great to see a new documentary with a different point of view. This release will provide new insight on the role of the African-American solider in the Civil War. It also features battles that were not showcased in previous Civil War documentaries.

Military records are a great resource of information. I was able to find my 2nd great grandfather’s civil war pension records at the National Archives in Washington DC.  It was over 118 pages long from 1862 until his death in 1917.

If any of your ancestors served in the military, you may have an advantage when searching for details about their lives. Like most things about the military, service records have been meticulously maintained for a long time and can be searched at the local, state, or federal level. Information based on a specific war, battle, draft records, or even peace-time rosters can be found.

Many people assume that a military record will only include the name and possibly birthday of enlisted members. You can find much more than that. Individual military records often include the names and addresses of immediate family members, age of enlistment, occupation at the time of enlistment, and birthplace. Additionally, you can find all the military information, such as unit, rank, and medical information, as well as muster rolls and pay vouchers. If you are lucky there will be copies of birth and marriage certificates, divorce decrees, school records, driver’s license, passport and insurance beneficiary information.

Lincoln Home National Historic Site is pleased to be partnering with 12 other National Parks and 26 other institutions throughout the nation as a venue for the preview screening of Episode Five of Great Divide Pictures public television series Civil War: The Untold Story. The screening is on Sunday, February 9, at 2:00 p.m. at the Lincoln Home National Historic Site Visitor Center, 426 South Seventh Street, Springfield, Illinois.

Episode Five will be introduced by Chris Wheeler, of Great Divide Pictures, who produced and directed the entire series. In addition, Lincoln Home National Historic Site Park Ranger David Wachtveitl will present “From the Home of the President: The Men of the 114th Illinois Volunteer Infantry,” a short program on the central Illinois unit that fought in many of the battles depicted in Civil War: The Untold Story.

Civil War: The Untold Story is a visually stunning and absorbing new 5-hour documentary series that breaks new ground by examining the war through the lens of the Western Theater – battles in the strategic lands between the Appalachians and Mississippi River. Narrated by Elizabeth McGovern (Downton Abbey) the series is set to premiere nationally on public television stations beginning in February 2014.

For more of this article click here

Military Service Records

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WWII Fighter Pilot
Military Service Records

Searching for the military service records of an ancestor that you know was a part of the U.S. military can be time-consuming, but will give you the greatest satisfaction and pride when you are successful. And when you unexpectedly find the service records of someone you are working on, that can be even better!

Military Service Records

You may need to put together clues to really discover if an ancestor served in the military. Some of these clues may come in bits and pieces of family stories “when Uncle Jimmy was in the war.” Or maybe there are old photographs of someone in uniform. An obituary may state that a person was a veteran, or an ancestor may be buried in the portion of a cemetery reserved for veterans. Perhaps there are old newspaper clippings of the return home of a shipment of soldiers, or an old journal or diary that mentions the dates of service of someone who was away fighting at the time. Census records may also mention a member of a household who was away in the military.

The National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) is one of the National Archives and Records Administration’s (NARA) largest operations. We are the central repository of personnel-related records for both the military and civil services of the United States Government. Our mission is to provide world class service to government agencies, military veterans and their family members, former civilian Federal employees, and the general public.Once you are certain that an ancestor served in the military, you will need to find out their dates of service and what branch of the military they served in. Enlisted men who served in the Army, as well as discharged veterans and those who were in any branch of the military and who died in the 20th century can be researched through military service records. These records are usually available through the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) or the National Archives. For more information about the NPRC click here.

Fires in 1800 and 1814 destroyed most of the records of the American Army and Navy that were in the custody of the War Department. The Compiled Military Service Record (CMSR) is the result of a project to collect an individual’s varied personal records and put them together in a compiled record. Items within a CMSR can include muster rolls, rank of individual, hospital and prison records, payrolls, enlistment and discharge documents. CMSR’s are available primarily for veterans of the American Revolutionary War, War of 1812 and the Civil War.

Pension applications and records of pension payments for veterans and their heirs can be obtained through the National Archives. These records date primarily between 1775 and 1916. Pension files are usually rich with information for a family historian – discharge documents, affidavits, witness depositions, event narratives, marriage certificates, records of birth and death, and even pages from family bibles may make up the pension file of an ancestor.

Military service records are valuable resources for the family genealogist. If you think that an ancestor served in the military, their service records may enrich your family tree with information on military life and separation from family.

image Library of Congress



by Leonard Smith