 We're here at the National Archives Innovation Hub for this year's scan-a-thon where African-American Buffalo Soldiers pension files will be scanned for digital records. My name is Catherine Branson. I am the Innovation Hub Coordinator here at the National Archives and today we are scanning pension files based on service of soldiers during the later Indian Wars. So about 1866 to 1892. So we're focusing on Buffalo Soldiers or African-American Soldiers. At that time the Army was segregated so we know which units would have had African-Americans in them and so we are working on pulling the pension files of those soldiers and scanning them so we can get them online and make them more accessible to everybody. Well first of all I'm excited to be here. When I heard about the scan-a-thon I said I must sign up. Right now I'm working on the Buffalo Soldiers Civil War Pension Records and so what have I found? I've found depositions, I've found information about the soldier, I've found family members and friends and neighbors that have come to testify on his behalf. And so that's what it's all about. These documents are here, they're historic and they're just giving the story about this soldier and what he did throughout the country. Well the great thing about scanning here at the event is I feel like I'm touching the ancestors of Buffalo Soldiers even learning that the time that they spent in the military back in the 1800s as African-American Soldiers is just fascinating to me so it's kind of touching history, learning history, learning a little bit of what they went through in order to even get their pensions. In a sense to me kind of touching and feeling the spirit of the ancestors especially the first one that I did he actually hand wrote the letter and so that was fascinating to see. It really thrilled me to have my hands and my eyes to look at the real legitimate records of people who lived, served and possibly died, served in this country. The files that we've been working on today represent a small part of this Buffalo Soldiers project. We've got at least 300 more files that need to be scanned so folks are welcome to drop in the Innovation Hub at any time that we are open Monday to Friday 9 to 4.30 and all you need is a researcher card and we would be happy to set you up and help us digitize our holdings. For more information regarding the Buffalo Soldiers visit archives.gov and follow us on the U.S. National Archives YouTube channel. This is Kyra Wilkins reporting for National Archives News.