Published Jun 23, 2026, 5:01 AM EDT
America250 Project Seeks Help Telling 83K Revolutionary War Veteran Stories
Volunteers are needed to transcribe tens of thousands of pension files, revealing personal accounts of wartime experiences and post-war life.
The National Archives is asking Americans to help keep more than 83,000 Revolutionary War veterans in the national conversation, one handwritten pension file at a time. As the country prepares to mark the 250th anniversary of American independence, the National Archives and the National Park Service are collaborating on a Citizen Archivist project to transcribe Revolutionary War pension and bounty-land warrant files. The records, created from roughly 1800 to 1912, include applications and supporting documents tied to claims for pensions or land based on service in the Revolutionary War. The project arrives at a moment when the country is being reminded how quickly living military memory fades. Fewer than 45,500 of the 16.4 million Americans who served in World War II were still alive as of 2025, according to Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) data compiled by the National WWII Museum. Once a generation of veterans is gone, the letters, claim files, diaries, testimony and family records they leave behind become even more important.
