Gone for Soldiers: Abraham Heath (About 1740 - 1807), Soldier (Part I)

We've known since at least 2011 that my paternal fifth great grandfather Abraham Heath served as a private in the 6th Virginia Regiment during the American Revolution but until a few days ago we didn't realize what his service entailed.

However the research Christine and I did about his great great grandfather William Heath caused us to take a closer look at the intervening generations and she discovered that our ancestor served not in a local militia as we'd thought but in the Continental Army and spent several months at Valley Forge.

This amazing project is a volunteer effort by the Friends of Valley Forge Park and is offered to the public free of charge.

"The Valley Forge Muster Roll Project is dedicated to the memory of those who encamped at Valley Forge from December 19, 1777 to June 19, 1778. The original purpose of keeping muster rolls was to allow the Continental Army to track the army’s strength. The idea of putting information gathered from these 18th century muster rolls and making it available electronically was spearheaded in 1992 by Tom McNichol and the late Frank Resavy. They desired to create a list of the Continental soldiers who were at Valley Forge for at least one day. This core criterion remains applicable today."

Now that I know this about Abraham Heath, I'll be posting more about what we can learn about his service soon.



© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.