Did you know that this month marks the 200th anniversary of the start of the War of 1812? If you are like most Americans you have very little knowledge of the circumstances of that war, but as genealogists it behooves us to learn more! We can be especially appreciative of the efforts of the Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) to digitize and provide free access to the 1812 pension files.

In conjunction with the National Archives & Records Administration (NARA), fold3, and Ancestry.com, FGS is helping to digitize 180,000 pension applications representing an estimated 7.2 million pages of War of 1812 Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application Files. The collection will be available for free on fold3's website, here.  FGS has targeted the War of 1812 Pension Applications as a high priority project based on the value of the content for genealogists as well as the importance of preserving the fragile records.

FGS is actively seeking donations from genealogical and historical societies, patriotic and military heritage societies, as well as interested corporations and individuals. Ancestry.com and fold3 are providing a dollar-for-dollar match of each donation through a provision of services. To learn more and contribute to the Preserve the Pensions project, visit www.fgs.org/1812.

A very exciting announcement was just made that In recognition of the importance of this digitization effort, the Illinois Genealogical Society has issued the ISGS $10,000 War of 1812 Pension Match Challenge. ISGS will MATCH any donation up to the first $10,000 that is made before December 31, 2012. This means that if you donate $10, ISGS will match your donation with another $10; if you give $100, ISGS will give $100. In addition, Ancestry.com has announced it will also match the overall amount donated by ISGS, which means that the $10,000 raised plus the $10,000 in matching donations will become $40,000! Your $10 donation actually becomes $40 to help digitize these files! 

The Massachusetts Genealogical Council wants to do our part, so we will start collecting donations for the Illinois Genealogical Society fundraising effort the day after our Annual Meeting and Seminar on July 21st. 

And just today, FGS announced the donation of a generous gift in the amount of $135,000 from the estate of the late Jon Stedman in memory of his mother, Ardath Stedman. The donation to the Preserve the Pensions – War of 1812 Pension Digitization Fund will be used to help preserve and digitize War of 1812 Pension records. You can read more about this generous donation here.

In the meantime, here are just a few links that you may find of help in your War of 1812 research:

Massachusetts Volunteer Militia in the War of 1812

Society of the War of 1812 in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts

National Society United States Daughters of 1812

"The War That Made Maine a State," a June 24th article from the Portland Press

And best of all, the Cyndi's List War of 1812 page.