Question about Fold 3?

[Bruce Vail]

So, please forgive me if these questions seem stupid, but I'm new at this?

Is Fold 3 strictly a commercial propositions, or is this info available for free? Is it available through libraries or other public institutions?

Once you have collected the documents from Fold 3, are there are other CSA documents available from other sources on specific individuals?

 

[MajGenl.Meade]

Not stupid. This answer might be, though.

Fold3 is commercial. The info used to be available for free. Catch 22 - free meant if you travelled to Washington DC and visited the National Archives (very expensive in travel and hotels) to access the historical documents live.

But that avenue is being closed off (even now) as the Archives is restricting our hoi-polloi access to original docs and having them all be made available only via Fold3 in a digitization process. In a few years (perhaps minutes) you'll need to be a real accredited researcher to have a sniff of those actual dusty boxes and folders.

The National Archives does of course offer free access to Fold3 - but you still have to visit DC (or one of the satellites I suppose) and set awhile.

Your local library may have Fold3 access available to you free of charge, as they do Ancestry and some other genealogy orgs. Kent Free Library here in slightly-east-of-nowhere Ohio offers that service and we ain't no big city. Depending on where you live, you might have to find a bigger library not so far from home.

It's always worth a google (probably not a Bing <spit>) to see if anyone else out in the great world of the interwebnets has posted photos of military papers on specific individuals - work through Unit searches and you never know what you might find. Good fortune!

 

[bankerpapaw]

There are no stupid questions here. How else are you going to learn?

 

[bdtex]

So, please forgive me if these questions seem stupid, but I'm new at this?

Is Fold 3 strictly a commercial propositions, or is this info available for free? Is it available through libraries or other public institutions?

Once you have collected the documents from Fold 3, are there are other CSA documents available from other sources on specific individuals?

Many members of this forum,such as myself,are subscribers and will gladly help you search for specific individuals. Also,there is a one time free trial membership available if there is just a limited amount of research you are trying to do. I think it's like a 7-14 day trial period. It really is free too. I did it but later became a subscriber.

 

[huskerblitz]

Fold3 is kind of both....there are free items that people can browse and other premium items that a user must pay for to view (like service records, etc.).

Now there may be a chance that the information you're searching for may be available elsewhere on the internet...just may take some searching. Also check Archive.org. I found all of Kentucky's Compiled Service Records online there and it is completely free. (With that said, the images are better on Fold3).

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

A few times during the year, fold3 will offer free access to non subscribers for a few days.
They usually offer this around Veterans Day and Memorial Day.

Normally someone will make an announcement in the forums when free access is approaching.

 

[John Hartwell]

For me, the best way to access Fold3 is on a monthly basis. Rather than subscribe for a full year, you can subscribe by the month. As soon as you 'mine' it for all available information, cancel your subscription. Then, every few months check back to see if they have added anything useful to you. If they have, renew for another month ... then cancel, etc.

They are adding material all the time, but slowly. It will be many, many years before they have even a fraction of what is available at the Archives in D.C. (I've had no trouble getting access there to anything I've wanted -- unless it happened to be currently 'out' being digitized by Fold3). Probably the majority of useful documents at the Archives will never be online anywhere. Fold3 is a great convenience, and a subscription is well worth the expense.

 

[Dilba]

I had a Fold3 membership years ago. I let the subscription lapse. It held limited value to me because it did not have service files for Pennsylvania regiments. So I wound up spending lots of money ordering numerous service and pension files from Archives. Hopefully they have it now, or will soon. In any event, sounds like it's worth a free trial membership to see if it has what you want.

 

[Bruce Vail]

Not stupid. This answer might be, though.

Fold3 is commercial. The info used to be available for free. Catch 22 - free meant if you travelled to Washington DC and visited the National Archives (very expensive in travel and hotels) to access the historical documents live.

But that avenue is being closed off (even now) as the Archives is restricting our hoi-polloi access to original docs and having them all be made available only via Fold3 in a digitization process. In a few years (perhaps minutes) you'll need to be a real accredited researcher to have a sniff of those actual dusty boxes and folders.

The National Archives does of course offer free access to Fold3 - but you still have to visit DC (or one of the satellites I suppose) and set awhile.

Your local library may have Fold3 access available to you free of charge, as they do Ancestry and some other genealogy orgs. Kent Free Library here in slightly-east-of-nowhere Ohio offers that service and we ain't no big city. Depending on where you live, you might have to find a bigger library not so far from home.

It's always worth a google (probably not a Bing <spit>) to see if anyone else out in the great world of the interwebnets has posted photos of military papers on specific individuals - work through Unit searches and you never know what you might find. Good fortune!

Thanks so much for your informative and very useful response.

I don't live far from DC so I am tempted to go directly to the National Archives for my search. But I am certainly going to take advantage of the free trial for Fold 3 to see how it works.

My research right now is focused on a single individual -- Lt. George Washington Ward of the 3rd NC State Troops -- but there are other Confederates in my wife's family tree who may be future subjects of inquiry. And I haven't even looked closely at my own ancestors' Yankee side yet...

 

[bdtex]

Thanks so much for your informative and very useful response.

I don't live far from DC so I am tempted to go directly to the National Archives for my search. But I am certainly going to take advantage of the free trial for Fold 3 to see how it works.

My research right now is focused on a single individual -- Lt. George Washington Ward of the 3rd NC State Troops -- but there are other Confederates in my wife's family tree who may be future subjects of inquiry. And I haven't even looked closely at my own ancestors' Yankee side yet...

A quick search of fold3 didn't show anything for Lt. Ward but I did that on my cellphone which is not as easy as doing it on a desktop PC. Did find this at NPS:

https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search...oldierId=876B1CDD-DC7A-DF11-BF36-B8AC6F5D926A

 

[MajGenl.Meade]

He's all over Fold3 - many papers - service and amnesty. Search first name George W and surname Ward. Works better than "Washington".

Click the Civil War carat - don't put a check in the box or it will call up ALL civil war records with any of the names and initials. If you click the carat, it gives you a drop down list of all CW categories. You can then check the box for Amnesty Papers (there are 22 files - most of which are not your guy presumably). After you look at those, go back and uncheck amnesty.

Hit the Service Records carat. Then check the North Carolina box.

And so on

Edit: I should have looked at the files before posting all that "advice". Plain search of George W Ward actually didn't give any on your guy (*except see below). What worked was using "Advanced Search" and putting George W Ward in as the Key Words. That yielded the NC military file.

*It also worked to "back in". Plain search of George W Ward yields a Pages and Member Uploads page - there was another G W Ward in the 3rd NC Cav as well. In those Member Pages, there's the ability to "Find More Records" which leads to real connections to the correct man's record, eventually.

Sorry about that @Bruce Vail

 

[Bruce Vail]

Many members of this forum,such as myself,are subscribers and will gladly help you search for specific individuals. Also,there is a one time free trial membership available if there is just a limited amount of research you are trying to do. I think it's like a 7-14 day trial period. It really is free too. I did it but later became a subscriber.

Thank you. I had looked at the Free Trial offer but balked when they asked for my credit card number. I don't like sending out my credit card numbers out into the internet ether when I have no idea who is at the other end. Old fashioned, I guess...

Last year, CWT member lelliot19 was kind enough to collect some of the basic data on George W. Ward and forward it on to me, but now I interested in a comprehensive search of the record. I'll begin my Free Trial in the next couple of days, based on the very helpful responses from the good CWT folks like you.

 

[bdtex]

Thank you. I had looked at the Free Trial offer but balked when they asked for my credit card number. I don't like sending out my credit card numbers out into the internet ether when I have no idea who is at the other end. Old fashioned, I guess...

Last year, CWT member lelliot19 was kind enough to collect some of the basic data on George W. Ward and forward it on to me, but now I interested in a comprehensive search of the record. I'll begin my Free Trial in the next couple of days, based on the very helpful responses from the good CWT folks like you.

Just make sure you mark your calendar and cancel your subscription on time if the free trial is all you intend to use.

 

[Dilba]

Good luck, Bruce.

 

[Bruce Vail]

Many members of this forum,such as myself,are subscribers and will gladly help you search for specific individuals. Also,there is a one time free trial membership available if there is just a limited amount of research you are trying to do. I think it's like a 7-14 day trial period. It really is free too. I did it but later became a subscriber.

Many thanks to you all.

I've signed up for the 7-day free trial and an beginning to get the hang of it.

Printing out copies seems to be a problem though. Is the system gamed to prevent non-subscribers from making print copies or am I just slow to understand how it works?

 

[bdtex]

Is the system gamed to prevent non-subscribers from making print copies or am I just slow to understand how it works?

My experience was that I had the same capabilities during the trial period as I do as a subscriber.

 

[MajGenl.Meade]

I'm not sure I've ever got the hang of printing things out as I want them. Instead I save them to my Photographs file and then can pick and choose, resize and so on until a good result is achieved.

 

[Al Murray]

It held limited value to me because it did not have service files for Pennsylvania regiments. So I wound up spending lots of

I have the same problem. How did you go about ordering them?

 

[MajGenl.Meade]

You download forms and follow the instructions:

https://www.archives.gov/veterans/military-service-records/pre-ww-1-records.html#nwctb-list

 

[Dilba]

I have the same problem. How did you go about ordering them?

Yup, MajGenl.Meade posted the link above. There is only one option for the service file, but a few choices for the pension file. I usually order the complete pension file for $80. If it happens to exceed 100 pages, they'll ask for more money, but will give you a cost quote before making the copies or charging you.