Joining Forces

Library of Congress

As a result of a new partnership, users of Ancestry.com and Fold3 will now have access to the Trust’s content about Civil War battles and battlefields. Shown here: a group of unidentified Union soldiers

In the last 30 years, millions of people have explored the more than 24 billion records on Ancestry.com to research the lives of their forebears, also using the company’s Fold3 archive to find military records. Now, those entities are joining with the American Battlefield Trust, so that when users find veterans in their family trees, they can delve into that combat experience and its effect on the generations that followed.

Brian Hansen, Ancestry’s senior vice president and general manager of emerging businesses, said, “The historical information contributed by the Trust will contextualize the military service records that Ancestry users uncover…. This is an exciting step in our ongoing quest to create meaningful connections to the past generations.”

The Trust will build on the focus Ancestry and Fold3 put on the “who” of a given family, adding context to the “where.” As the nation’s leading heritage land preservation organization, the Trust has protected more than 52,000 acres of battlefield land in 24 states. Its robust website, battlefields.org, offers information about hundreds of important battles fought during the country’s first century. To encourage further research, both organizations are extending special discounts to their members who join the other’s ranks.

Previously, when an Ancestry or Fold3 user discovered a relative who had fought in the Civil War, they learned only the ancestor’s regiment. Now, they will be connected with Trust content information about where that individual fought.

“It’s one thing to know your ancestor went to war,” said Larry Swiader, the Trust’s chief digital officer, “but something very different to know the battlefields on which they fought—and be able to walk in their footsteps. We want more people to experience the powerful connection of standing in the exact positions defended by their ancestors a century or more ago.”

The integration has already begun with data centered on the Civil War, and will expand with subsequent datasets related to the Revolutionary War and War of 1812. Learn more at fold3.com/projectregiment.

“The Civil War may be the defining narrative in our nation’s history,” said Anne Mitchell, senior project manager at Ancestry. “But it isn’t just a single story—it’s more than 3 million! Each participant has their own story, one that impacted family, community, and all the generations that came after them. Stitched together, these individual stories define who we became as a nation.”

To showcase the storytelling potential of this effort, Ancestry.com will have a regular column in the Trust’s award-winning membership magazine, Hallowed Ground. In the most recent edition, Ancestry professionals delved into the service of Robert Benthall, who sailed aboard the ironclad warship CSS Virginia. More than 150 years later, his descendant William Benthall Bristor Jr. wrote a check to the Trust—one of his regular contributions—that just happened to be the two-millionth donation in the organization’s history!

O. James Lighthizer is president emeritus of the nonprofit, nonpartisan American Battlefield Trust, which is dedicated to preserving America’s hallowed battlegrounds—Revolutionary War, War of 1812, and Civil War—and educating the public about their significance.