This field contains the name of the colony for which the Patriot served. Sometimes this field lists the name of more than one colony. For instance, Henry Dorton/Dalton was drafted into service for Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland.
Alternate Names
This field contains variant spellings of first and last names, and also alias names. Many soldiers served their military service under one name and used a different name after their service ended. This field may also contain a short description of the Patriot if the first and last names are unknown.
Service Type
Here are listed the various military services, as well as nonmilitary service. Men and women aided American independence in more ways than serving in the military. They also supplied goods, served as scouts and guides, were paid for carpentry and blacksmithing, worked in the lead mines and iron forges, and were servants, waiters, cooks, etc. The drop down box in the search box for the Service Type field shows all the different service descriptions currently found in the database.
Complexion Description
Physical descriptions usually refer to complexion and sometimes life situations, not ethnicity. Examples of complexion descriptions are black, mulatto, colored, or yellow, and a life situation example would be someone referred to as a slave. Occasionally, ethnic descriptions such as Indian, Negro, East Indian, African, etc. appear in the records. The drop down menu in the search box for the Complexion field shows all the different complexion descriptions currently found in the database.
Pension Application State
This field contains information if the Patriot applied for a state pension. Since this project rarely had access to a state pension application file, this field contains the word "maybe" when the pensioner could not be verified as the Patriot of interest.
Verified
A verified Patriot is one for whom service and complexion were established with confidence based on an original record or a transcription of an original record. An unverified Patriot is one for whom either service or complexion could not be established with confidence from an original record or a transcription of an original record. Names may be unverified for a number of reasons, including differing complexion identifications by different researchers or confusion between Patriots with the same names (one of color, the other white) in published works.
