Revolutionary War Period
Bible, Family & Marriage Records
By Deidre Burridge Dagner

(a continuation of a series of books by , J. C. Edmondson,, John Sobieski and Helen M. Lu)

These Bible, Family & Marriage Records are a series of books containing abstracts of the Genealogical information in the  Revolutionary War Pensions and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, 1800 - 1900, micro publication M-805, a National Archives Publication.

Beginning in 1818, the U. S. Congress enacted service related pensions and bounty land warrants to certain veterans and later to their widows under certain conditions. The applications for these benefits are microfilmed in alphabetical order by the soldier's surname. When the soldier made his application, he usually gave his place of residence, his age and place of birth. He frequently gave the names and ages of family members living at home. When the widow made her application, she had to prove she was legally married to the soldier. She had to provide the date and place of marriage, her name before marriage and the date and place of the soldier's death If she married again, she gave the dates of subsequent marriages and the husbands' dates of death. Widow's applications were rejected for want of proof of marriage; so widows commonly cut or tore pages containing family records from Bibles, ledgers, journals, etc., to submit with their applications. This action taken by the widows unwittingly preserved countless Family, Bible and Marriage records for future generations of genealogical researchers.

Publishing these family records enables the genealogical researcher to locate family records that might otherwise go undiscovered. Because the family records mention many surnames, the alphabetical arrangement by name of soldier conceals thousands of genealogical clues of people with different family names. This web site's alphabetical list of all names greatly enhances the value of the most important source for American Revolutionary War genealogy. With our Every Name Index you can determine exactly which book(s) contain the information you need.

These abstracts contain the complete genealogical information in every soldier's record. However, the authors did not include affidavits (unless a family member's name is mentioned), nor the soldier's military record. This information can be found by reviewing the original microfilm record for the soldier