Many of us today have ancestors who were Revolutionary War veterans. If you do, you know how important pension records are; such records are especially valuable to genealogists because the individuals had to give extensive information about themselves and their families. The introduction further states that "Since pensions were granted on the basis of applications which were supported by affidavits and documents substantiating proof of service, all of which were examined and approved by the War Department before being submitted to Congress for approval, they are clearly authoritative sources of information."

This CD contains the images of twelve volumes of Revolutionary War pension records, all published by Genealogical Publishing Company. Included books are: The Pension Lists of 1792-1795, compiled by Murtie June Clark; Index to U.S. Invalid Pension Records, 1801-1815, by Murtie Jue Clark; Revolutionary Pensioners: A Transcript of the Pension List of the United States for 1813; Revolutionary Pensioners of 1818; The Pension List of 1820 (U.S. war Department), reprinted with an index by Murtie June Clark; The Pension Roll of 1825, Indexed Edition, Volumes 1-4; A Census of Pensioners for Revolutionary or Military Services; Rejected or Suspended Applications for Revolutionary War Pensions; Pensioners of Revolutionary War Struck Off the Roll. Approximately 110,000 individuals are listed here.

I checked for information on my Revolutionary War ancestor Christopher Henry Benner and found three sources of information: The Pension List of 1820 which listed his name, rank, and line (state); the Pension Roll of 1835, which listed his name, rank, annual allowance, sums received, description of service, when he was placed on the roll, when the pension began, and his age; An 1840 Census of the Revolutionary War which shows the town Christopher resided in, his age, and the name of the head of family with whom he resided. Since Christopher was listed in the last source as living with someone I had never heard of, I was very pleased with the volumes included here.
 

May 19, 1999

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