52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy – Week 2 - Paid Genealogy Tools

There are three paid genealogy tools in my toolbox that are critical to my genealogy research: Ancestry, Fold3, and GenealogyBank. Each has features and information that make it indispensable.

Today, I want to focus on Fold3 (previously Footnote). Although other resources are available on the site, its primary focus is military records. You can find documents ranging from Revolutionary War pension records to World War II war diaries.

I was able to find Civil War records for my 2^nd great-grandfather that, when I requested from the National Archives years ago, was told they could not be found.

Records I found at Fold3 helped me prove the family tradition that my great-grandfather A. B. Martindale had served on both sides during the Civil War. I had been unable to find any evidence of his service to the CSA. The records I located at Fold3 told of his injury during battle and subsequent hospitalization in St. Louis as a prisoner of war; it included letters and documents related to his release.

Ordering military records from the National Archives can be time-consuming and expensive. Current turnaround time is 90 days. A military service record costs $25; a pension file from $50 to $75. A subscription to Fold3 can save you time and money!

Of course, not everything is available online; sometimes you have to spend the money and wait. But it’s definitely worth checking Fold3 first to see if what you need is available there!

Disclaimer: I have a paid subscription to Fold3. I also have an affiliate agreement. That means that, if you click on a link from my blog to the Fold3 website and subsequently purchase a subscription, I will receive a small commission. The subscription price is the same whether you click on my link or visit the site directly.

52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy by Amy Coffin is a series of weekly blogging prompts (one for each week of 2012) that invite genealogists and others to discuss resources in the genealogy community including websites, applications, libraries, archives, genealogical societies and more. You do not have to be a blogger to participate. If you do not have a genealogy blog, write down your thoughts on your computer, or simply record them on paper and keep them with your files.

© 2012 Denise Spurlock, Ancestral Trees Research