90 million military records: Free through June 6

Ancestry.com has just posted some 90 million military records, spanning more than four centuries of American history from the 1600s through Vietnam. Access is free through June 6 if you click here.

The collection includes all major wars and conflicts from American history, including the Revolutionary War, Civil War, World War I, World War II, Korean and Vietnam conflicts, the Spanish-American War and the War of 1812.

While doing a basic search for COHEN, I found an interesting bit in Revolutionary War Bounty and Land Grants: Virginia Captain Jacob Cohen received 4,000 acres on 13 March 1838.

And in a section about Massachusetts soldiers and sailors in the 17-volume War of the Revolution, there's a listing for: Cohen, Nathaniel. Corporal, Col. William R. Lee's regt.; enlisted Sept. 10, 1777; reported deserted May 1, 1778.

Previously in my family research, I located draft registration cards for most of the New Jersey, Massachusetts, Delaware, and Pennsylvania branches of our TALALAY-TOLLIN-TALLIN family for World War I and II.

For a video interview with Ancestry CEO Tim Sullivan and genealogist Craig Scott speaking about the new database collection, click here. Look on the right side of the page for "Web Site Provides Millions of Military Records;" click for the video.

Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings has compiled a list of useful links for new Ancestry databases. Sometimes it can be a bit confusing to find the new databases, so he has listed the following:

The Ancestry.com Card Catalog shows what new databases have been added recently. Search by name, location or key word.

For the specific list of new and updated databases, click here

And for all databases, more than 24,000 at this point, click here. The order is determined by the number of names in each record group, and free (for non-subscribers) databases are so marked.

Happy Hunting!