Fold 3 Question

[Anna Elizabeth Henry]

I was wondering if anyone else who's been researching for Civil War ancestors has used Fold 3 and has any tips for searching on the website. I've found it difficult to use, almost to the point where I find it useless. I've been using Ancestry for years and have no issues with it and its databases. Thanks!

 

[huskerblitz]

Yeah, Fold3 searches leaves a lot to be desired. Personally, I don't use it. I use the Browse Records, Civil War, then branch off of that. I use the search if I'm not sure about the regiment or any service. When I do, always select the state to narrow it down that way.

 

[John Hartwell]

As huskerblitz says, browsing through the different record groups is the way to go. Get as specific as possible: state, regiment, etc, and then search.

 

[18thVirginia]

I was wondering if anyone else who's been researching for Civil War ancestors has used Fold 3 and has any tips for searching on the website. I've found it difficult to use, almost to the point where I find it useless. I've been using Ancestry for years and have no issues with it and its databases. Thanks!

When you get to a state and the Confederacy or Union, try just putting in the last name. Sometimes different stuff will pop up. Just keep poking around, trying different names, looking at different areas within their database. You can come up with some very surprising stuff, but it's not so straightforward as ancestry.com. But then neither are its records.

 

[John Winn]

I used it to find civilian records for several relatives (e.g. presidential pardons) but did also find it difficult to navigate. Even when I found something I seem to remember it was hard to decide if the record was worth looking at and looking at each record was tedious (one relative sold a lot of stuff to the Confederacy and there were hundreds of receipts - none of them really of any interest). Maybe one gets better and learns some tricks over time ? I haven't used it since and that was some years ago.

 

[Anna Elizabeth Henry]

Thanks for the tips and ideas for running searches differently than the standard way.

I'm glad I'm not the only person who finds it a cumbersome database all around! I think part of the problem for my ancestors is some were often a little bit older and enlisted in state militias as opposed to regiments, so I think the records are either not available or are more difficult to track down.

 

[bdtex]

I was wondering if anyone else who's been researching for Civil War ancestors has used Fold 3 and has any tips for searching on the website. I've found it difficult to use, almost to the point where I find it useless. I've been using Ancestry for years and have no issues with it and its databases. Thanks!

I've used it to find documents for all four of my known ancestors who are ACW veterans and used it to help other members of this forum find documents for their's. I like it. Like someone else said,sometimes it's easiest to put in a last name and search Civil War records first,then narrow the search by state and Union or Confederate. There are so many misspelled names in the records and even initials and nicknames used in place of legal names in the records. As far as Civil War research goes,fold3 has been at least equally or more useful than Ancestry for me.

 

[bdtex]

I was wondering if anyone else who's been researching for Civil War ancestors has used Fold 3 and has any tips for searching on the website. I've found it difficult to use, almost to the point where I find it useless. I've been using Ancestry for years and have no issues with it and its databases. Thanks!

Do you have a full membership at Ancestry or just the basic membership?

 

[huskerblitz]

I agree, Fold3 is invaluable for CW research. They just need to update their search engine and spidering a bit better.

 

[Anna Elizabeth Henry]

I've used it to find documents for all four of my known ancestors who are ACW veterans and used it to help other members of this forum find documents for their's. I like it. Like someone else said,sometimes it's easiest to put in a last name and search Civil War records first,then narrow the search by state and Union or Confederate. There are so many misspelled names in the records and even initials and nicknames used in place of legal names in the records. As far as Civil War research goes,fold3 has been at least equally or more useful than Ancestry for me.

bdtex I see what you're talking about with the misspellings and alternate names. I just discovered some. The biggest issue I have is with the one surname, as they all are from Va, mainly the Shenadoah Valley and there are three to four alternate spellings of the name. I have a feeling the names may be jotted down phonetically, too.

Do you have a full membership at Ancestry or just the basic membership?

I have a full membership on Ancestry. It's the World Explorer one.

 

[bdtex]

I have a full membership on Ancestry. It's the World Explorer one.

Does that include full access to fold3? If so,I might have to convert at some point to get full access to birth,death and marriage records. Right now my genealogy research is centered on my known Civil War ancestors. I suspect that I have 2-3 distant,collateral ancestors who were also CW veterans. I'm gonna have to find a lotta birth/death/marriage records to prove or disprove that.

 

[John Hartwell]

If you are searching for Union service records, you will probably find not much more than that single index card. Just about all the Confederate records, and those of Federal troops from southern states, as well as colored troops are pretty much complete. But the northern service records are just beginning to be entered -- it will be years before they are completed. Massachusetts is the farthest along (units of all branches numbered 1-30 so far, with a few blanks), but otherwise only scattered ones are digitized.

In the mean time, ordering the MSR and pension files (at $$$$$, and sometimes months wait), is the only real alternative.

Of course fold3 has a huge number of other types of records, among which you may well make some surprising discoveries.

 

[DixieRifles]

I use Fold3 and am not a member of Ancestry.
I have run several kinds of searches and also use Browse to help find names or specific document types.

I usually browse down into a sub-sub-folder before I enter a search.
Fold3 does have some quirks: Example - I select Confederate / Mississippi and enter search for Leonard Nemoy. After displaying results, I select to edit the input to Leonard Spock and hit search and now the search has expanded to ALL Records. It does allow me to Check the folders I want to search.
The best method is to use browse Back button to go back and change search input and re-enter.

 

[Anna Elizabeth Henry]

Does that include full access to fold3? If so,I might have to convert at some point to get full access to birth,death and marriage records. Right now my genealogy research is centered on my known Civil War ancestors. I suspect that I have 2-3 distant,collateral ancestors who were also CW veterans. I'm gonna have to find a lotta birth/death/marriage records to prove or disprove that.

bdtex, the World Explorer level of Ancestry doesn't give you access to fold3, however a few months back they ran a special rate to tack it on to your membership where I only ended up paying an extra $39.99 for use of it for the first year, so I figured it was worth it for that price. If you want access to fold3 and newspapers.com that's the 'All Access' package which is $389 a year.

It's actually not a bad deal considering what the cost of fold3 and newspapers.com cost individually a year. I used the 14 day free trial of newspapers.com and enjoyed it and found a slew of articles, obituaries, etc. on some of my ancestors that turned out invaluable with putting the family tree together on some branches.

If you need birth/death/marriage records the US Discovery package on Ancestry should work for your needs (it's $189 a year). Returning frequently and checking on those shaking leaves in your tree is handy. As states make available various vital records - especially death certificates that have been recently digitized, you'll keep finding new information. Birth records are more tricky since counties didn't always require residents to register births, especially those for those born before the CW. Marriage records are helpful with determining dates of birth depending on the jurisdiction. The census is useful too as if you find your known ancestors their brothers, sisters, uncles, etc. often live nearby and turn up on the same filmstrip a few pages away. I've made some great discoveries that way.

 

[John Hartwell]

I subscribed to fold3 for one year about 3 years ago -- mined everything out of it that I could that year. Now, I check back a few times a year, and if they have added enough new material that's useful to me, buy just a 1 month subscription. You can still run a full search without paying (you just can't see the documents). Best not to subscribe unless you are pretty sure they have something for you.

 

[bdtex]

I subscribed to fold3 for one year about 3 years ago -- mined everything out of it that I could that year. Now, I check back a few times a year, and if they have added enough new material that's useful to me, buy just a 1 month subscription. You can still run a full search without paying (you just can't see the documents). Best not to subscribe unless you are pretty sure they have something for you.

I've probably mined as much as I can get out of it about my ancestors,but I enjoy digging through it looking for stuff that others come here looking for.

 

[bdtex]

If you are searching for Union service records, you will probably find not much more than that single index card.

I just encountered that same issue trying to help a guest poster find information on a Wisconsin ACW veteran. Nothing but an index card and Widow's Pension records.

 

[John Hartwell]

I just encountered that same issue trying to help a guest poster find information on a Wisconsin ACW veteran. Nothing but an index card and Widow's Pension records.

Go to "service records" then "Union" -- all states have "Index Cards." Only those with an additional entry not marked "Index Cards" will have some complete MSR files. The "Widows' Pension" files can be a great find, but they are only 11% complete (3 years ago they were 6% complete, gives you some idea of how long it takes for new material to appear) -- the lower numbered pension applications are being digitized first. They have a huge amount of work to do, and it will take millions of $$, and many, many years -- it's amazing the amount they do have digitized.

jno

 

[Allie]

Fold3 is valuable for full records, but you're right, it's a pain to navigate. I generally run searches on ancestry, which has a more flexible search engine, to connect a name to a specific unit, then view the records on fold3 by going directly to the unit under combined service records.

 

[JCM6395]

union troops that served from the border states Have pretty good info...otherwise info is pretty limited service record wise on Union troops..but I did find a letter my gr gr uncle wrote to my gr gr grandmother and her sister in the widows pension category as my gr gr aunt used it to prove her husband served as he was mentioned in the letter. Widows pension part also had info on my gr gr grandparents testifying for a widow trying to prove the woman's husband served. So it is nice to dig around in. But I agree the site leaves something to be desired search engine wise.