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Consisting of six authoritative works, this Family Archive CD identifies approximately 225,000 New Yorkers who fought in the colonial wars, the Revolutionary War, and the War of 1812. First among these books, in point of time, is the two-volume work originally published by the State Historian's Office called New York Colonial Muster Rolls, 1664-1775. Incorporating a variety of records, including pay rolls, size rolls, petitions, minutes of meetings and official proceedings, journals, correspondence, and various field reports, this official record of New York's colonial militia lists members of militia companies which were raised to quell mutinies, insurrections, and uprisings, or to do battle with the French and Indians and to protect New York's borders--usually from French and Iroquois incursions or threatened hostilities from Connecticut. At a minimum, each militiaman is noted in connection with his date of enlistment, his company, his rank, and his place of residence, with additional information giving his place of birth, age, occupation, height, and physical description.

Of equal, if not greater, importance is New York in the Revolution as Colony and State, by James A. Roberts and Frederick G. Mather. Second only to Massachusetts in furnishing troops for the Revolutionary War, New York put at least 43,000 men in the field, all of whom are identified in this work from original muster rolls and pay rolls in the State Comptroller's Office. Several other works had identified New York soldiers of the Revolution, but this is the only one to be based on original papers and documents, and is therefore the single indisputable authority on its subject. In a supplementary volume, also included on this CD, an additional 8,000 soldiers are identified from Land Bounty Papers which were later found in the Comptroller's Office. The purpose of the supplementary volume was to supply a complete resume of the records in the Comptroller's Office and to furnish a documentary history of the war as it was conducted in New York, which was by far the most active theater of operations in the entire Revolutionary War.

Based on records ranging from diaries to orderly books, from recruitment lists to war claims, and from biographies to histories, the other books included on this CD are:

*The Refugees of 1776 from Long Island to Connecticut
*Muster and Pay Rolls of the Revolution [New-York Historical Society]
*Orderly Books of the Three Battalions of Loyalists
*Index of Awards on Claims of the Soldiers of the War of 1812

System Requirements: You must have a CD-ROM drive, and in order to read the CD you must use either the Family Archive Viewer (version 4.0 or higher), which is available as a free download at http://www.genealogical.com/content/dlfav6.html, or Family Tree Maker for Windows, version 4.0 or higher (Family Tree Maker software can be ordered from www.FamilyTreeMaker.com).

To access information on our Family Archive CDs using the Family Archive Viewer:

1. Install the Family Archive Viewer CD or download it from http://www.genealogy.com/dlfav6.html.
2. Start the Viewer if it is not already running
3. Insert the CD you wish to view into the CD-ROM drive. If you have 2 or more CD-ROM drives, the CD must be placed in the first one.
4. The CD should open automatically, but users of later versions of the Family Archive Viewer must click the CD/magnifying glass icon in the top toolbar (above the template in some versions) to read the CD.
5. When the screen entitled “About this Family Archive�? appears, click OK where prompted.

To access information on our Family Archive CDs using Family Tree Maker:

1. Start your Family Tree Maker and open a Family File. (If the program is already running, skip to Step 2.)
2. Insert the CD in your computer's CD-ROM drive. (If you have 2 or more CD-ROM drives, the CD must be placed in the first one.)
3. From the View menu, select Family Finder, or select the Family Finder icon from the toolbar.
4. For FTM 2005, FTM 2006, or Version 16 or later: From the View menu, select Data CD, then View CD.

To search the CD for names, select the Search Expert button in the top right of your screen, then select "Search this archive for someone NOT from your Family File." You can also search for names by using the Index.

Note: If a window opens that contains a list of files on the CD, simply close it.