Revolutionary War Pension File of Elam Blaine, NARA microfilm publication M804, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files; digital image, Fold3.com, downloaded 3 July 2017.

Fold3.com is offering a free trial (through 15 July 2017) to utilize it’s Revolutionary War materials. I don’t normally run those promotions here because people usually see them elsewhere repeatedly.

However there’s one neat thing about the Revolutionary War pensions on Fold3.com.

They have an every name index that includes not only the veterans and their widows, but also every person whose name is contained in these records.

Every person.

That includes anyone who gave testimony in an affidavit appearing in one of those pensions. Affidavits were given by other veterans when service records were unavailable. For widows who could not find a copy of their marriage record, the affidavits were often made by neighbors and acquaintances that had known the widow since her marriage. Sometimes those affiants were actually relatives. Sometimes those affidavits contain clues as to where the family had lived since the husband’s military service. I search this database for anyone who was alive during the Revolutionary War.

And their children.

Because sometimes their children gave testimony-especially when that testimony helped a widow back into her date of marriage.

The affidavit used in this illustration was made out by Katherine Wickiser in the widow’s application of Katherine Blaine. Their relationship is not stated in the affidavit, but the  affidavit did provide evidence that the two had known each other for some time. That was the initial clue that caused me to research Katherine Wickiser as a part of my research into the Blaine family.

The pensions can contain significant clues about individuals besides the veterans and their wives. Fortunately the Fold3.com database of these records contains an every name index.