Jim Morrison is in the process of correcting some of the transcriptions and adding end notes after the transcriptions are done by AJ Berry. This is a huge job, so please keep checking back. The pensions are from Jim Morrison's extensive collection, donors, and from various other sources such as the National Archives in Washington DC and from AJ Berry. THANK YOU to all who have shared!

The transcriptions are selected passages, some by the National Archives in Washington DC and some by the transcriber. In the early days, the archives selected the passages they wished to send. It was called "selected records". This is why you will find reference to something in the letters of inquiry which do not appear in the transcribed passages. Some of the pensions are about 100 pages long and if anyone is interested in a more complete transcription, you are encouraged to send for it from the National Archives. Now when you request a pension application, you get the entire file. Passages selected by the transcriber are those which give the service record of the men and which might have more information of interest. If the supporting affidavits had duplicate information, they were not transcribed.

Often the men were confused due to the interim of 50 years since they served and due to the effects of old age. Some of the errors are glaring, such as, a man couldn't have served in the Battle of Yorktown, Virginia (Oct 19, 1781, Cornwallis surrendered) and the Battle of Johnstown, NY (Oct. 25, 1781) because they were several states apart. Events didn't happen as they remembered them in many cases. JUST BECAUSE IT IS RECORDED AS SUCH IN A DEPOSITION, doesn't mean it's so. Jim Morrison uses other records to corroborate a man's service. Last, since the men had to prove six months service, sometimes they stretched the time served, can't blame them. They wanted a pension.

If you read that a man was deranged, it doesn't mean he was mentally ill. The men were "arranged"or commissioned and served in their appointed commissioned offices. Towards the end of the war there were too many officers for the number of soldiers. Some regiments were about the size of a full company due to death, injury, sickness, and desertion. When this happened, the regiments were combined and officers were then "deranged".

Spelling was not always consistent and often words were spelled as they sounded to the writer. For instance stayed was written staid, hymn was him, immediate was emmediate, ammediate, or immediate. Names had many different spellings, and words were used differently. Then there is the problem of the letter s written as ſ or as some say, a backwards f. Time has faded many of the documents and the photo copy has also faded, some almost past reading and others have poor handwriting that is nearly unreadable.

A great many of the soldiers didn't file for a pension, nor did their widows, nor did their qualifying children. For instance, not a single Klock filed for a pension, absolutely none! In many cases, we tried to use other source material. Probably there are about 4,000 NY pension applications plus those from other states who served in NY which is a small fraction of those who saw military service in the Revolutionary War. Just because your ancestor isn't on this site, it doesn't mean he didn't serve.

There are new pensions being posted nearly every day, so keep checking! We will be working on this project for YEARS! AND last, there is NO committee working on the pensions, just Jim Morrison (proof reading and end notes) and AJ Berry (transcribing and web posting).