Pa. field holds secrets of 1780s British POW camp

AP ^ | 4-6-13 | MARK SCOLFORO

[Pharmboy]

Associated Press/Mark Scolforo - In this photo made on Tuesday, March 26, 2013, Carol Tanzola, president of Friends of Camp Security, points out the property on a 47-acre parcel, located about four miles east of York, Pa. It includes the spot where a 1979 archaeological study found numerous artifacts that confirmed local lore that the area had once served as Camp Security, a prison for the English, Scottish and Canadian soldiers who were captured after defeats in the battles of Saratoga and Yorktown. (AP Photo/Mark Scolforo)

(AP) — The mud of a south-central Pennsylvania cornfield may soon produce answers about the fate of British prisoners of war — and the newly independent Americans who guarded them — during the waning years of the American Revolution. A few miles east of York, the city that briefly served as the fledgling nation's capital after the Continental Congress fled Philadelphia, more than a thousand English, Scottish and Canadian soldiers were imprisoned at what was then known as Camp Security. The fight to preserve the plot where those soldiers and their captors worked and lived has lasted almost twice as long as the Revolutionary War itself. And the end is in sight — if its backers can raise the last few hundred thousand dollars needed to pay for it.

[ottbmare]

You don’t need “smarts” or any special know-how to research your family.

1. Go to ancestry.com and plug your family names into the search engines there.
2. Join some of the rootsweb groups for your family names and watch the discussion for awhile.
3. Just use Google to chase down the names. Google is putting a lot of old books and records online free of charge.
4. The Mormons have tremendous resources for genealogy that are free. They’re very helpful. It’s not just for Mormons.

Good luck! It’s really fascinating and involving. You will probably end up finding lovely people who are your distant cousins, people you never knew existed but who share common blood. Very cool experience. Have fun with it.