Uncovering Your Revolutionary War Ancestor

This carte de visite of Daniel Frederick Bakeman commemorates his status as the last living Revolutionary War soldier in 1868. Bakeman died the following year. This image was widely available in the 19th century and Bakeman is generally accepted as the last living Revolutionary War soldier, but there is one problem: Other lesser-known men outlived him and were photographed. One such man was John Kitts of Baltimore, who died in September 1870.

Photographs of other members of the Revolutionary War generation exist in public, private and family collections. While I’ve collected 70 images of men, women and children who lived during the war, I know that additional images are still undiscovered. I’m hoping that by studying your family photograph collections that you’ll find images that meet the following criteria:

• Men who lived during the war and who were alive after 1839 when photography was introduced in the United States would be at least 80 years of age. These individuals could be patriots, soldiers, loyalists or non-participants in the war.

• Women may be wives or widows. Locating pictures of these women means looking at pictures taken anywhere from the advent of photography to the early 1900s. The last Revolutionary War widow died in 1906, according to this New York Times article.

Please contact me if you think you’ve located a picture of a Revolutionary War ancestor.

If you’re interested in seeing my first collection of images, they appear in my new book, The Last Muster: Images of the Revolutionary War Generation (Kent State University Press, $45)

Revolutionary War research resources from Family Tree Magazine and Family Tree Shop:

• Online Military Records: Document Your Family’s Service webinar recording
• Family Tree University Military Records class (next session starts July 19)
• November 2008 Family Tree Magazine with online military records article