Most of you are aware that the http://www.revwarapps.org/ website has transcriptions of thousands of pension declarations made in response to the Revolutionary War Claim Act of 7 June 1832. Since I have an ancestor and three of his brothers who were involved in various phases of that war, I have spent dozens of hours searching for declarations of their militia comrades to learn more details of their service. Thus I offer some suggestions for using the website’s Google search function which specifically searches only this website.
Obviously, when one knows a veteran’s name, it may be found in the alphabetical listing at the bottom of the page. But as the site clearly states: “You need to use the Search feature to access the power of this database”. For example, I was able to find a family member who was not known to have served in any capacity during the Revolutionary War. Indeed, he died in 1780 so he personally had not filed a pension declaration. However, no less than five Revolutionary War pension declarations from comrades in Captain Charles Gwatkin's Bedford County militia company mentioned a Lieutenant John Milam as an officer at Boonesborough in Kentucky County, Virginia.
I found these 5 declarations by using the Google search function: https://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:http://revwarapps.org
I first searched for my family’s last name, “Milam” , which yielded 25 results of which 3 mentioned a Lieutenant John Milam – not in the title but in the descriptive sentences below the title. When I realized that I was on to something, I then searched for “John + Milam”. Each time he was associated with Captain Charles Gwatkins and Ensign David Crews on a mission to protect the settlers at Boonesborough from Shawnee Indian raids. It turns out that 20 settlers and militiamen under Colonel Daniel Boone were captured at Blue Licks while collecting salt, taken to Ohio and even to Detroit where they were held until of the peace treaty of 1783. Then by searching for “Blue Licks”, I was able to find nine veterans who survived to record the details of their captivity or escapes in declarations. Those make fascinating reading and add detail and color to a family member’s life. You may see how their story unfolded here:
http://www.milaminvirginia.com/Links/John%20MILAM/John_milam_history.html
Another use of this Google function is to learn more details about a veteran’s service experience. I found this useful for my ancestor, Rush Milam, who was drafted from the Bedford County militia three times during the final turbulent year of the Revolutionary War, 1781. His pension declaration didn’t provide much detail of the events, just locations to which he was marched. Since he was at the battle of Point of Fork at the junction of the Rivanna and James Rivers, I could search for “Point of Fork” to find colleagues’ declarations which provided more detail. And since he was a member of Captain Alexander Cummins’ company, I could Google “Alexander Cummins” to find the declarations of comrades who mentioned Cummins name and served at the same time. On another tour, he was with Colonel Thomas Meriwether and Major Christian De Klauman. So I Googled: “Christian De Klauman” .
In general, the results will be more specific if one Googles the name of a lower ranking officer, preferably the company’s captain. Likewise, the search results are more pertinent if one Googles a small battle, like Point of Fork or Blue Licks, rather than a large one like Guilford Court House or Yorktown. And it helps to have an uncommon name like “Milam”.
William Milam, MD
<http://www.milaminvirginia.com> www.milaminvirginia.com
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