profile

Hi! I'm Denyse Allen, Founder of PA Ancestors

The workbook I wish I'd had when I started Revolutionary War research

Published 3 months ago • 1 min read

PAancestors.com​

New Book: The Revolutionary War Writing Workbook

Hello Reader!

If you've been doing Revolutionary War research in Pennsylvania — or anywhere in the original thirteen colonies — I just published something I've been working on for months.

The Revolutionary War Writing Workbook: Turn Your Research into Your First Family History is now available on Amazon.

This is not another research guide. If you're reading this newsletter, you already know how to find pension files and muster rolls. This workbook is about the next step: turning what you've found into a narrative someone in your family will actually sit down and read.

Seventeen chapters cover every kind of Revolutionary experience. Patriots and militia. Loyalists who lost everything. Women running farms and businesses alone. The unaligned majority. Indentured lives. Enslaved and free Black lives. The morally complicated ancestors most families don't talk about.

There are 19 AI prompt patterns built into the book that help you construct historical context from your own records — daily life, social hierarchy, religious communities, naming conventions — without inventing facts or putting words in anyone's mouth.

I wrote it specifically for genealogists who have the research but haven't started writing. If that's you, this is the bridge.

$19.99 paperback / $9.99 Kindle.

​Buy on Amazon →​

Free download: Revolutionary War Ancestor Research Checklist

I also put together a one-page checklist of every major record type for Revolutionary War research — federal military, state militia, lineage societies, civil and land records, church and community — with exactly where to find each one online and in person.

It's free. Print it, check things off, share it with your research group.

​Download the free checklist →​

One more thing: If you want live help turning your Rev War research into a story, I'm running a 3-Day Starter Sprint, June 2-4. Three days, small group, live coaching. You'll walk out with an opening section written and a plan to finish before July 4. Details and registration at the link below.

​Register for the June Starter Sprint →​

Happy researching!

Denyse Allen

Founder, PA Ancestors

Thank you for reading! I hope you are enjoying these emails about PA Ancestors.

Did someone forward you this to you? Get your own copy​

You can change your name or email

​Unsubscribe ALL PA Ancestors emails (warning: can not be undone)​

PA Ancestors L.L.C. 1167 Berkshire Blvd. #1053 , Wyomissing, PA 19610

​

Hi! I'm Denyse Allen, Founder of PA Ancestors

I help genealogists research their ancestors in Pennsylvania through books, workshops, and a membership community.

Read more from Hi! I'm Denyse Allen, Founder of PA Ancestors

Where was your PA ancestor in 1826? Reader, We just spent the spring on 1776. But your ancestor lived through every American milestone after it — and each one left a different paper trail. Over the next six weeks I’m walking the anniversaries: 1826, 1876, 1926, 1976, and then two posts on what makes Pennsylvania research genuinely its own animal. We start with the hardest one. In 1826, the country turned fifty. On July 4 — the exact half-century mark — John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died...

about 1 month ago • 1 min read

PAancestors.com Free this week: immigration records for your PA ancestors Hello Reader! If you have an immigrant ancestor who landed in Pennsylvania, the arrival record is one of the most useful documents you can find. It often names the ship, the port of departure, the date, an age, sometimes a last residence or a relative waiting in the States — the bridge that carries your research back across the ocean. MyHeritage keeps a number of these collections free to search and view. I went through...

about 2 months ago • 2 min read

PAancestors.com Loyalist Records: The Pennsylvania Ancestors Who Chose the Other Side Hello Reader! When the British evacuated Philadelphia in June 1778, approximately 3,000 Loyalists left with them. Some went to New York, some to Nova Scotia, some to England. Many never came back. Their property was seized, their names published on attainder lists, and their families scattered. If your Pennsylvania ancestor disappears from the records between 1778 and 1785, Loyalist records are worth...

2 months ago • 1 min read