Fold3

[AndyHall]

I don't get that page. Try this:

http://www.fold3.com/browse.php#249|

 

[DaveBrt]

OK, here's what I see when I first log on:

View attachment 51681

If I type a name in there, it comes back and tells me it has a jillion matches, but it gives me the opportunity to filter those down into categories. I guess my question is, if I do it this way, is it really searching "All Records" like it says it is, or are there other places I should be looking too?

Yes, that will search all records, all wars, the 1860 census, etccccccccc.

Scroll down and select the Civil War, the select Browse all records, them choose the area you want to work. It is at this point that you will see the page Andy posted above.

 

[hiram in toledo]

Brass, check around your area libraries. A lot of them subscribe to sites like this and have access to it through them.

hi andy
I've spent many days at the library here where they offer ancestry .com for free and it is available at all branches of the Toledo-lucas county library system. I have also used ancestry in wood and Ottawa and Sandusky counties at their libraries, all for free. sure the bad thing is you have to go there and can't do it from home but it's free. not all libraries have it as they do have to pay a fee to have it so you can have free access to it. you will notice that ancestry is taking over the genealogy field. there are already many sites that ancestry now controls and they have been closing off access to new info or you can no longer add info to those sites. even the Mormon church has partnered with ancestry and a lot of familysearch listings now say to go to their partner site to see an actual image of something and that there will be fees involved. fold3 is an ancestry site. I tried the free trial version and found nothing I was looking for but on this site or another I log on to, one of the other members (if it was this site it might have been andy but don't start hitting him up to look because it might not have been him !!!) did find some of what I needed to see to confirm other info and posted it. maybe I need to learn the tricks of searching better.
on another web site, a man has started a site he named ancestry photo store where he sells civil war and I guess other photos. he has 30,000 photos posted I think he said. its new, less than a year old I believe but if it doesn't do as well as he needs it to do for his personal needs, he named it with the intent of possibly selling it to, yes, you guessed it, ancestry .com
try your local library if you have not yet. it is way better than the $9.99 per month (or is it higher now?) version of ancestry but having no experience with the $29.99 per month (?) version, I can not say it is as good as that might be but it is pretty good for free and never, never use any info someone posted to any genealogy site until you have been able to confirm it at least two times thru other sources. I have found the information on one of my 2x great grandfathers, with the same photo of someone, that would leave you with no choice but to believe he was married to 5 different woman in 3 different states and having a total of 46 children, all at the same time. what a man!

 

[brass napoleon]

Well, I just cancelled my free trial. While it appears they have a lot of good information, it seems to be hit and miss, and more likely to be "miss" on the types of records I would be searching. Since it's not something I have a need of regularly, I'll just take advantage of my local library subscriptions whenever I need it in the future.

Thanks to all for the excellent advice and help!

 

[Mike Serpa]

I had a free trial with Fold3 but did not join. It seemed the photo quality was much worse than the LOC. Has anyone else noticed this?

Edit: Not all the photos were of poor quality just those that notations on the left side.

 

[AndyHall]

I had a free trial with Fold3 but did not join. It seemed the photo quality was much worse than the LOC. Has anyone else noticed this?

Yes.

 

[18thVirginia]

Just remembered that I should thank you, Andy, as you posted records of someone's ancestor who had a transaction with the Confederate military. Since my family's obituaries said they had made sales to the Confederacy and I'd seen the record you came up with, I thought that there must be some kind of record. Looked around and couldn't find anything.

Eventually I saw a lawsuit by a different member of the family with a different name for the family business and found that person easily on Fold3.

 

[Stony]

I've been a member for 2 years. It has been very helpful to me. I've found a bunch of useful info.

 

[huskerblitz]

I have a monthly subscription and it's only $8 a month so easily workable. It is hit and miss but depends if you're only looking for a few names or several. It's always my first stop to look for names.

 

[TerryB]

I really like it, although it can be hard to navigate. Lots more records there than just CSRs, and good luck finding letters, vouchers and that sort of thing at CWSS. Downside is not many records can be found for Union soldiers unless they were from a state like Tennessee.

 

[RobertBruceFerguson]

I use fold3 all the time. Built up my genealogical tree on both sides of my family--including the Indian side which I didn't think was possible. Presently, fold3, in conjunction with ancestry, are my main tools of research--for history projects and genealogy. I found my 4th g-grandfather's muster role for the American Revolution, a relative's record in the War of 1812, and many Civil War records of my ancestors. When you figure out how to use fold 3, its indispensable.

My other main research tool is: http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/

 

[hiram in toledo]

I use fold3 all the time. Built up my genealogical tree on both sides of my family--including the Indian side which I didn't think was possible. Presently, fold3, in conjunction with ancestry, are my main tools of research--for history projects and genealogy. I found my 4th g-grandfather's muster role for the American Revolution, a relative's record in the War of 1812, and many Civil War records of my ancestors. When you figure out how to use fold 3, its indispensable.

My other main research tool is: http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/

hi rob,
thanks for your and your family's service.
I added your link to my favorites so I can go back and look around. thanks for that too.
I'm sure that fold3 is full of useful info and learning to navigate it is not impossible just like ancestry was/is.
I've tried f3 twice now and got frustrated when either the search results found nothing on the person or there were many
possible suggestions that came up but none were relevant to my person. i'll try it again and i'll stick with it for a longer period of time and i'll learn how it works. if I'm having to wait .023 seconds for 43,579 results, shouldn't it be my guy? really, just kidding there.
actually, my biggest problem is me. I just can not get my self to enter account info on this machine and then send it out
to the electronic never-neverland where every Russian hacker can see it. and that leaves me still searching, not very hard, for a way to pay for the service. i'll get there at some point and I'm sure I will enjoy finding all the stuff I wish to know.
based on what you have posted here, you have been looking for awhile now. my congratulations on all you have found. I hope you have other family members who enjoy what you have found. when ever I try to bring something up about an ancestor, everyone's eyes glaze over and they look like a pile of dead carp fish sitting there.
keep looking as I do. tomorrow's discovery maybe the biggest and best yet.
hiram in toledo

 

[TerryB]

One tip about Fold3. I've learned that if you just search a name, you don't get as many records. However, if you know the state and unit (which the initial name search can tell you) then you need to Browse that unit at the company level to get every document. Do that for every unit the man may have served in. The big name search might tell you there are 20 record cards but only show you a few of them, so count what you find to make sure it equals what is supposed to be there. There can also be records filed under Misc for whatever reason.

 

[DixieRifles]

. . . . . The big name search might tell you there are 20 record cards but only show you a few of them, so count what you find to make sure it equals what is supposed to be there. There can also be records filed under Misc for whatever reason.

I believe what you are seeing is a total Hits for the name but it only shows the unique locations. So it is finding 20 names but they are only in 3 files.

For example, I recently searched for name "MULLERY" under WW2/Missing AirCrew Reports.
I get the results of 13 hits but it displays only 3 files. If you open and browse the 3 files, you will find that Lt. Mullery was a witness in the crash for two files but in the first hit his name appears 11 times for the crash of his aircraft.

 

[TerryB]

I believe what you are seeing is a total Hits for the name but it only shows the unique locations. So it is finding 20 names but they are only in 3 files.

For example, I recently searched for name "MULLERY" under WW2/Missing AirCrew Reports.
I get the results of 13 hits but it displays only 3 files. If you open and browse the 3 files, you will find that Lt. Mullery was a witness in the crash for two files but in the first hit his name appears 11 times for the crash of his aircraft.

It's actually a bit different for me. I've had this experience many times. You open the record and it tells you there are ten pages, but you only see a number of pages less than that as you scroll through, like say 5. So I go to the State and scroll down to the regiment, then go to the alpha list and find the name. That is a sure fire way to see everything under that company. Plus you see any duplicates or off spellings. My ancestor had a transport voucher at the end of the war from Camp Chase to Cloumbia, Tenn., which was no where near the Cookeville/Sparta area. He was illiterate so had no idea what it said. He turned it in with his pension app, but they told him it was for Marvin Duncan, not him. Possibly he and the other guy were on the same voucher, b/c the top part had been torn off. It took me the longest time to read the real name as Manon Dureen, whose name was spelled several different ways and each spelling had a record with it. Dureen was a shady character in the 9th Tenn Bn Cav who did live pretty close to Columbia. It's my theory that he tore off my ancestor's name so he could pass for Ed Brady in case some of his own sins caught up with him. They were released from Camp Chase on the same day, but one record shows that while held at Chattanooga, Dureen claimed to be a deserter and took the oath. To further complicate all this, the regimental surgeon had been given a pass during the war to go to Bridgeport as a non-combatant, but had it revoked when he got there b/c he was believed to be a spy. All this makes me think Dureen was a shady character. Dureen had a brother who deserted after Fort Donelson and I could never track him any further. The name was spelled about 4 different ways.