Are there any good online sources to read that go into better detail on Revolutionary War Battles?

From seeing all the Memorial Day posts mentioning the Revolutionary War, I got more interested in my 6th through 8th great grandfathers, who fought in the War. I've been poking around Family Search and cross referencing my grandfathers on other sites. Before this I thought there was 14 on our side and 1 who fought for the British. I've found 3 more Quaker grandfathers who fought and a lot of uncles, including my 9th great uncle, Major General Nathanael Greene, another Quaker, who got disowned by the Society of Friends, who was the head of our Southern Army. The Quakers disowned 5 of my great grandfathers for fighting.

I had at least 6 great grandfathers and more great uncles, who fought in the Battles of New Garden and Guilford Courthouse and would very much like to know more about them.

Thanks for any help.

Keith

I would try your local library. Sometimes the librarians can be a big help.

I'm going to try to make a list for those 2 battles. It's going to take a while.

Major General Nathanael Greene, my 9th great uncle twice.
Captain Amos Greene, my 9th great uncle, twice.
Lieutenant Thomas Greene, my 7th great grandfather, twice. Was probably lower ranked in the Revolution. Was a lieutenant in War of 1812.
Stephen Greene, my 8th great grandfather twice. He and his son Thomas were disowned by the Quakers immediately after the battles.
Captain William Greene, my 9th great uncle, twice.
Captain & Chaplain 2nd Bn, North Branch, 6th Co. Richmond, Valentine Huffmann, my 6th great grandfather.
Robert Turner, my 6th great grandfather. He fought for the British.
Thomas Beeson, my 6th great grandfather twice. Disowned by the Quakers at New Garden Meeting for fighting.
John Mast, my 6th great grandfather. He was thrown out of the Amish and went to the Church of the Brethren, after the battles.
I have 20 plus, other many great uncles, who lived near where the battles took place, that probably mostly fought too.

Keith

Always neat to hear about the war of 1812 officers.

Not online, but Rick Atkinson wrote a book, “The British Are Coming”. Very detailed and informative. It is the first book of a trilogy covering 1775-1777.

Keith have you checked this book?

Thanks. I have not seen either of those books. I'll check to see if I can get them through the library.

Keith

Couple of “Greene’s” in the index

Those 2 battles made a huge difference in my ancestors' lives.

I had originally identified 168 direct ancestors, who were living here before 1700, including 3 Pilgrims, who came over on the Mayflower and a lot of residents of Jamestown and its surrounding settlements. It now appears many more of my ancestors than that were here.

When North Carolina opened up for settlement, ancestors of mine from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia all moved to Guilford and Randolph Counties in North Carolina. Many had a payment of 2 peppercorns a year to be paid if requested, at a party at a tavern, held once a year. The non Quaker men, who had to pay the pepper corns, mostly fought in the French and Indian War. After the Revolutionary War, they were awarded, as part of their compensation for fighting land in Kentucky, West Virginia and Ohio, which they all slowly trickled into, mostly together.

Greene County, Kentucky and Greene County, Ohio are named for Major General Nathanael Greene and our family lived in both for a while.

A bunch of my ancestors and other relatives later temporarily moved to Iowa and Kansas, when they opened for settlement. They mostly returned to Ohio within a generation. Some of the old wagon train records of my family are on line. People traveled together whose kids and grandkids would later marry.

Keith

I'm interested in what sources you used to know of these ancestors.

www.familysearch.org is free and probably the best one. It has massive amounts of pedigree records and many millions of scanned documents, including census records, service records, deeds, court records, church records, paintings, ship manifests and more dating back thousands of years in some cases.

www.findagrave.com is very useful too. They show actual gravestones and have life details on most of the people buried.

www.geneanet.org is decent.

www.geni.com is decent too.

Wikipedia has articles on many people and the citations at the end of the articles often lead to much more information.

Family Search has more of my ancestors than I could probably look at in my lifetime. They have my lines going back to Adam, many different ways. I have my doubts about the veracity of the very old pedigree information. Most of the information from the last 1000 years, however, has been very well vetted.

I highly recommend creating a Family Search account to start.

Keith

One kind of fun thing you can do on Family Search is to check to see if you are related to famous people. Typically they send you teasers in your emails, to free events like Roottech, listing a famous relative. They show your closest connection. Typically you are related to people many times. Basically some level of cousins are always marrying each other.

I'm cousins with George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover (who I have letters to other family members from), Nancy Reagan, Jaqueline Kennedy, Richard Nixon, the Wright Brothers, Helen Keller, Emily Dickinson, Jane Austen and a whole bunch more.

A good percentage of the people everyone interacts with daily are some level of traceable cousin, so it's good to be good to people.

Keith

This is off topic but relating to your last post. It's not surprising to me as immigrants often traveled in family groups and located into regions that fit their desires. I was taught basic German by the 2nd Great Granddaughter of a person who came to the US with my 3rd Great Grandfather after they immigrated from Germany. I graduated with this woman's daughter in high-school.

This doesn't come from a research tool either. We have the family pictures still around to date along with the details written on the backs of them.

Family search has a tool on every person in their data bases page called "View My Relation". If you click it, it will tell you if and if you are, how you are related, based on the pedigree information they have. Family Search will only return results, when you use their "View My Relation" tool, if there is 15 or less generations between you and the person you check. They only show you the closest way they have, that you are related.

For instance if I go to George Washington's page it shows me:

"President George Washington
Male
22 February 1732 – 14 December 1799
•
KNDX-MKG"

And gives me tool bar options to "View My Relation" or see "Pedigree". If I select the prior i get:

"Relationship to President George Washington
My 6th cousin eight times removed"

And a list that goes to me on the left and George on the right, from our last common grandparents. Each person between us is clickable.

Keith

According to my latest Ancestry DNA update, I am 28% German. My pedigree information goes along with that. Many of my ancestors and relatives moved to Iowa from Ohio and Kentucky. My direct ancestors and many relatives moved back to Ohio. Many relatives did stay in Iowa. There is a pretty good chance we are related.

I have a couple of hundred tin types of relatives, on my mom's side. Some are from Iowa. Sadly most were not labeled. Our family bibles are more useful.

Keith

Sent you a PM with the details.

While trying to find a family connection with TrapperDR, I found the 18th, many great grandfather of mine, who fought for our side during the Revolutionary War. Robert Hardesty is my 6th great grandfather. Robert Hardesty is a DAR Patriot Ancestor, A050134.

In 1778 Robert Hardesty subscribed to the oath of Allegiance and Fidelity to the State of Maryland in Prince George's County before magistrate Benjamin Hall. Here's his signed oath of allegiance



www.wikitree.com is another good source for information.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Hardesty-28

Keith

check around Plattsburg NY. lots of battles on lake Champaign.

Family Search has recently added a huge amount of new data. There has been a lot of data added on African Americans. They updated the famous relative pages. My big surprise of the night is that Martin Luther King is my 13th cousin one time removed. My minor surprise is that Sugar Ray Robinson is my 12th cousin one time removed. For you hockey lovers and Canadians, Gordie Howe is my 14th cousin and we share the same many great grandparents as MLK, Sir Christopher Browne Esq and Anne Waterhouse.

If genealogy interests any of you, I recommend checking out:

www.familysearch.org

Keith

Eli Whitney, who invented the Cotton Gin, is my 7th cousin, 7 times removed and is a cousin of Martin Luther King too.

Keith