If your Ancestor Fought at the Battle of King’s Mountain…

Or, was a Tennessee Long-Hunter, the Draper Papers may be your best chance to document and prove Revolutionary War Service and to determine where his family resided during the War years.

Among his papers Dr. Lyman Draper recorded exact and detailed accounts of who fought, who died, and where they fell.  Often the exact place of burial is mapped by correspondents who were there and/or dug the grave!  Dr. Draper interviewed, personally, numerous persons to record the knowledge they knew.

You don’t hear much about the Draper Manuscripts any more.  They are microfilmed and the films are often nearby in the Family History Library or a university or research library.  Although there are guides to the contents of almost 400 reels of film–there is no full index of any film nor the entire body of papers.

You cannot gauge the  importance of these sources for your research, however, by how accessible they are to you or how easy it is to search them.  Dr. Draper was at work while Revolutionary War soldiers were still alive.  And he talked to and corresponded with all the men he could.

And I can almost guarantee, that once you spend time with these incredible sources, your research efforts will never be the same.  Your favorite Tennessee genealogist, Arlene Eakle  http://arleneeakle.com

PS  Check with libraries nearby your home to see which has these microfilms with their accompanying guides.  Don’t by-pass them.

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