Revolutionary War Rolls on Footnote.com

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After being frustrated with the poor results on Ancestry.com finding the Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783 entries for my soldiers (over 15 of them), I turned to http://www.footnote.com/ to see if the same database was available there. It is!

And the Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783 are available for FREE on Footnote.com through 7 July, as part of their Revolutionary War Collection:


I could have clicked on the link in the ad shown above, but resisted that temptation. That special link may not be there after this free access period.

On the Footnote.com home page, I clicked on "Browse Titles" and then on the Browse screen, I clicked on the "Colonies and Revolution to 1815" link, and saw the list of databases, and picked the Revolutionary War Rolls" link and then was able to put "martin carringer" in the Search box:

There were two matches: one on page 2, and the other on page 4, of Folder 35 of the Pennsylvcania 8th Regiment in 1778:

Here is the first record easily found with one click of the thumbnail image or the link in the results list above:

The second image was found by clicking the "Go Back" link - although I could have opened the filmstrip and picked "Page 4" to see it:

Is this the same record as what I couldn't find on Ancestry.com? I don't know for sure. The source information for the records found on Footnote.com is:

* Content Source:: The National Archives

* Publication Number: M246
* Publication Title: Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783
* Publisher: NARA
* National Archives Catalog ID: 602384
* National Archives Catalog Title: Revolutionary War Rolls, compiled 1894 - 1913, documenting the period 1775 - 1783
* Record Group: 93
* Short Description: NARA M246. Muster rolls, payrolls, strength returns, and other miscellaneous personnel, pay, and supply records of American Army units, 1775-83.
* State: Pennsylvania
* Military Org: 8th Regiment
* Date Range: 1778
* Folder: 35

So this is the same Record Group 93 and Microfilm Publication M246 as what is on Ancestry.com.

This was very easy to search for, review and see on http://www.footnote.com/. I downloaded both pages to my computer files. Now for my other 14 soldiers!

One more thing. Footnote.com, in the search for this specific soldier, found two pages with the name of Martin Carringer on the Revolutionary War Rolls. Ancestry.com never indicated that there were two pages with the name. Strange... you would think that every name occurrence on any page in any database would be indexed.

The lesson learned here is to check all possible databases that may contain a specific record. Sometimes, there are significant differences between different websites in terms of search characteristics, results, indexing, and imaging.

Disclosure: I am not an employee, contractor or affiliate of footnote.com, and have never received any remuneration from them. I am a fully paid subscriber to Footnote.com.