Union Civil War widows' pension case files are the first in a large swath of court, military, land and other records to be digitized as part of a partnership between FamilySearch <www.familysearch.org> and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) <archives.gov>.

The project is part of a long-term partnership in which FamilySearch staff will camp out at NARA — and eventually, at its regional facilities — with high-speed digitization cameras. Ultimately, you'll get ready access, through FamilySearch and Family History Centers, to court, military, land, and other government records dating as early as 1754. Record images will be free at Family History Centers and NARA facilities, with indexes free on the FamilySearch Web site. Depending on the arrangements for a particular record set, images also may be available for a fee on a commercial Web site.