Bounty Land Records - Military Monday

David and Mary Reed were my fourth great grandparents. I have written here and here about my search for more information on David's service in the War of 1812. I have received David's pension file, or rather, his wife's widow pension and from those documents I learned that David and Mary had received land from the government due to his service in the military, known as bounty-land warrants. Bounty-land warrants were tracts of land issued by the government to entice volunteers to enlist in the military as well as to reward those that did serve. Mary filed for her widow's land in April 1858 under bounty land warrant act March 3, 1855.

Recently I received a copy of Mary's bounty-land file, which I requested through the National Archives (using Form 85C). Similar to the widow's pension file, this packet of documents is a wealth of information. It included the following documents:

- "Form of Declaration: To be made by the widow of a deceased person who has had a land warrant, and desires another." Long name for a great form. It includes the couple's marriage date and location, her MAIDEN name (score!), death date for David and her signature.

- A declaration from Mary's mother, Elizabeth Bryan, and her sister, Esther Morris, attesting to her marriage to David Bryan.

- A copy of a sworn statement by David Reed that outlines his military service to include when and where he enlisted and what companies he served in.

I was not originally going to order these documents, I mean, how much money do I need to give the National Archives anyway...seems like I am constantly ordering things from them. But Mary's widow pension file referenced her bounty-land warrant many times as providing proof of her marriage so I had to order it. The bounty-land warrant documents have now provided me proof of her marriage to David in December 1820, her maiden name and her mother and sister's names. I had found family trees online that listed Mary's maiden name as Bryan and now I have documentation for that. The cost of the copies was $25. Money well spent.

Military Monday - Genealogy meat in War of 1812 Pension file

Peace by John Rubens Smith.
John Rubens Smith Collection,
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

As I mentioned in this post, I recently requested a search of War of 1812 pension records in the National Archives for my ancestor, David Reed. Only twelve days after I placed my request through the National Archives eServices, I received copies of the file. This particular file is filled with information about David's widow, Mary Bryan Reed, and very little information about the Soldier himself. There were two governmental acts that directly affected veterans of the war of 1812 and their pensions: the acts of 1871 and 1878. The 1871 Act authorized pensions to Soldiers that served in the war for at least 60 days, or to their spouses if they were married prior to the ending of the war in 1815. The Act of March 9, 1878, revised the pension laws to allow Soldiers that served for 14 days of the war and widows of said Soldiers to be authorized a pension. This explains why my ancestor, Mary Reed, applied for widow's pension in August 1878. She would not have been eligible prior to the 1878 act as David and she were married in 1820, after the ending of the war. The following is a list of what was included in the packet:

- War of 1812 Claim of Widow for Service Pension document. This document is the initial paperwork that Mary Reed filled out to claim her widow's pension. It includes a wealth of genealogical information to include David Reed's unit, where he enlisted, a physical description of David, where they had lived since his discharge from the military, their marriage date and Mary's maiden name.

- Several memorandums to establish that Mary was indeed legally married to David Reed. In the case of the Reeds, they were married in Montgomery County, Missouri in 1820. Unfortunately, the courthouse and all records were lost in a fire in 1864. To establish their marriage the examiner referenced their earlier bounty land warrant application.

- Sworn affidavits from Mary and other witnesses proving her marriage and David Reed's death. The affidavit describing David's death is a sworn statement by Elijah Happy, Mary's son-in-law. It states that he was present at the death of David Reed and that David died of pneumonia.

- The Service Pension, War of 1812 Widow's Brief. This document is a summary of the pension eligibility investigation and is also a wealth of genealogical information. It provides the details of the investigation to include evidence of the Soldier's service, length of service and proof of identity. The Summary of Proof portion of the document includes marriage information and specifics about the death of the Soldier. It is also the official proof that Mary was eligible and awarded the Widow's Pension.

- A memo stating that Mary Reed was dropped from the pension rolls due to her death. It does not actually give the death date, but states the last day she received her pension payment.

Mary was paid $8 a month until her death some time after May 1882. I would describe information from this particular pension file as quality rather than quantity. The important thing is that I now have proof of several facts on this line that I did not previously have. I know very little about David Reed and Mary Bryan Reed other than what I now have from the pension file. I have found some research that indicates Mary was related to the Bryan family that pioneered Kentucky and were intermarried with the Boone family, of Daniel Boone fame. While I have no proof of Mary's connection with this family, I did learn from the pension file that she was from Clark County, Kentucky. Another line of research to follow.

As mentioned above, the marriage between Mary and David could not be proved by marriage certificate as the record was lost in a courthouse fire. The examiner of Mary's pension file instead referenced the widow's bounty land warrant received in the 1850s. It states that her mother and sister provided testimony proving Mary's marriage. If this is so, the bounty land warrant application could prove Mary's parentage and provide further information for me to research. The file also states that David Reed himself applied for and received 40 acres of land from a Bounty Land Warrant on May 10, 1851. The settlement number was provided for both land warrants so ordering copies from the National Archives is easy, using their eServices ordering service and NATF Form 85, Military Pension/Bounty Land Warrant Applications.

For more information on genealogical records of the War of 1812, check out:
Genealogical Records of the War of 1812, by Stuart L. Butler. Prologue, Winter 1991, Vol. 23, No. 4.

National Archives Military Resources for the War of 1812, a list of some helpful War of 1812 resources by the National Archives.

Military Monday - War of 1812 records

One thing I love about blogging is that it helps me to find loose ends in my family tree. In my efforts to find topics to blog about, I have found all kinds of loose ends that I am now tracking down. Last week I was looking at my family tree and noticed David Reed. David is my fourth great-grandfather on my mother's paternal side. I don't know much about David except that he was born in Virginia around 1793, that he married Mary Bryan and that in 1850 he was living in Carroll County, Missouri. David must have died somewhere between 1850 and 1860 as he is no longer listed on the census with his wife in 1860.

By 1860, Mary Bryan Reed was living in Ray County, Missouri, so my first step in researching David was to check out the great USGenWeb site for Ray County. I have found boundless information on this site. Under their database of surnames link I found three listings for David Reed. He was mentioned in two of the historical histories of the county: twice in the History of Ray County, MO, 1881, and once in Portrait and Biographical Record of Clay, Ray, Carroll, Chariton, and Linn counties, Missouri. In the History of Ray County, 1881, there is a paragraph under the heading of widows of Soldiers of the War of 1812 that mentions Mary Bryan Reed. It states that David Reed was a Soldier during the War of 1812 and that he enlisted in Berkeley County, Virginia in 1814 and discharged in 1815.

David Reed is the first ancestor I have found from the War of 1812. After finding this information I did a search for records of the War of 1812. Ancestry.com had a database of information, but because he has such a common name, I was not able to narrow any of the finds down to be my ancestor. I was led once again to the National Archives. They have several resources about the war at their Military Resources: War of 1812 link. I headed to their eServices site, which has become my favorite resource. I placed an order for David Reed's Federal Military Pension Application - Pre-Civil War Complete File (NATF 85A). The fee for the search and documents is $50, which is a bit steep, but it will not be charged if they can not find any documents on David Reed.


A view of the bombardment of Fort McHenry, near Baltimore, by the British fleet,
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

 The War of 1812 has been called the second war of American Independence. France and Great Britain were at war off and on again from 1793 on and in 1812 America was finding itself in the middle of the feud. James Madison signed the declaration of war against Great Britain on June 18, 1812. The war was fought both on land and sea. The British attacked Washington D.C. on August 24, 1814 and burned both the Capitol building, which then held the Library of Congress, and the White House, forcing President James Madison to flee the city. A peace treaty was signed December 24, 1814. Francis Scott Key penned the poem that later became the Star Spangled Banner while watching the bombing of Fort McHenry by British troops in September 1814.