The following excerpt is from an article by Wes Wolfe, posted July 25, 2015 at the Kinston.com website:
A project between the State Archives of North Carolina and State Library of North Carolina seeks to digitize, place online and make searchable more than 35,000 North Carolina pension applications between 1901 and 1946.
According to Ashley Yandle, section head of the State Archives’ digital access branch, the last of the applications should be uploaded next week.
The State Archives explained the process in a post on its “History for All the People” blog when the project began in June 2014.
“For this project, the microfilm copies of the pension applications were scanned by staff in the Collections Management Branch,” according to the post. “There were approximately 80 reels of microfilm that became 80 digital folders with thousands of images in each one. We then exported the description from (Manuscript and Archives Reference System) and automated the creation of 35,000(-plus) digital folders, one for each application.
“The folder titles contain the record group and series indicator, the MARS ID number, and the name and county of the soldier. We are currently in the process of matching the digital images from the microfilm to the correct digital folders. Once we have the images placed into individual folders, we can then easily link the images to the description from MARS and upload it all to our Digital Collections.”…
People can search and view the Confederate pension applications at digital.ncdcr.gov/cdm/home/collections/1901-confederate-pension-applications.
