The following announcement was written by GenealogyBank.com:
Naples, FL May 21, 2009 -- GenealogyBank.com, a leading online provider of newspapers and historical documents for family history research, announced today the release of thousands of U.S. Military records. The historical documents collection at GenealogyBank.com now features over 200 years and millions of U.S. Military records and reports. In honor of Memorial Day, the list of officers that served in the Revolutionary War is now free online at www.genealogybank.com/free/.
This unique content provides critical access to important military records for Americans looking to discover and honor the veterans in their families. U.S. Military Registers from the Army, Navy and Air Force provide the name, birth date, location, rank and date of death of every U.S. military officer that served. Whether your ancestors served in the Korean War or all the way back to the Revolutionary War, the military records found in the historical documents database at GenealogyBank.com provide details you simply can’t find anywhere else.
"Memorial Day is a day to stop and reflect on the veterans in our family” says Genealogy Director for NewsBank, inc., Tom Kemp. “The military records are a perfect example of the unique and valuable content you’ll find at GenealogyBank.com and now for a limited time we are making the list of officers that served in the Revolutionary War free at www.genealogybank.com/free.”
Military Records aren't the only place to discover new and exciting details about your ancestors at GenelaogyBank.com. As the fastest growing newspaper site for family history research, GenealogyBank.com also features over 300 years of U.S. newspapers in all 50 states and is an ideal source for exploring the lives of past generations. Find obituaries, marriage notices, photographs, hometown news and more. You’ll be amazed at the stories, names, dates, places and events that have played a role in your family history.
“GenealogyBank.com will continue to digitize millions of family history records in the upcoming months that will continue to greatly expand and increase the depth of our collections.” Kemp added. “We know how exciting this information is to genealogists trying to piece together family records. This is the very reason we are dedicated to providing the most comprehensive and accessible archive for family history research.”
About GenealogyBank:
GenealogyBank, a division of NewsBank, inc., supplies individuals interested in family history research with over 3,800 U.S. newspapers from 1690-today, government documents and other historical records in all 50 states. GenealogyBank contains over 263 million family history records including obituaries; birth, marriage and death notices, military records and much more. GenealogyBank can be found at: www.genealogybank.com.
Maybe I am not looking in the right place, but I cannot find the "download" link to complete the registration. Help!
Posted by: Patricia A. Rogers | May 22, 2009 at 09:47 AM
Title does not correspond to the article. The article states only that the list of Revolutionary War officers is free; doesn't sound like the "millions" mentioned in the title.
Posted by: Clay N | May 22, 2009 at 10:25 AM
I'm getting a message that states the "file is damaged and cannot be repaired".
Why would they post something as free when you can see ALL Rev War pension files on at least 2 other sites for a nominal fee? And then, only officers? I hope Genealogy Bank is listening... If you're going to post something as free, at least make it worthwhile to look at (and not a damaged file, to boot!). LOL
Posted by: Leslie | May 22, 2009 at 01:32 PM
I tried accessing the free download link around midday but could not get the registration box to respond - the page simply reloaded. This occurred with using both newest Firefox and MS IE (on my Windows XP Home Edition, SP3). It is now about 8:30 pm (CST/MDT) and the registration and download finally worked using MS IE. With Firefox, the registration would still not respond correctly -- failing to read my registration data and repeatedly asking me to fill in the information.
One explanation for this "page misbehavior" may be due to overloaded server(s) resulting from extraordinary demand arising due to the free offer. Perhaps -- and I'll confess to being a non-expert on the topic -- there's also another possibility... incorrect HTML page coding. I checked the page coding (just copy & paste the url) using the free online code validator at http://validator.w3.org/ and it identified 36 errors and 24 warnings. Clearly not all of these errors are fatal -- since I actually did get the free file after some delay, using MS IE [which is reportedly "forgiving" of some common coding errors]. Firefox v3.0.10 however, seems unable to handle or be "forgiving" of such errors.
As I posted this, some 20 minutes after starting, I retried again using both my browsers -- the MS IE response was excellent, almost instantaneous access to the pdf download file -- Firefox was still failing to complete the registration as before.
This suggests server load might be a big factor.... so keep on trying if your browser is MS IE.
Posted by: Gord Hines | May 22, 2009 at 10:56 PM