GIVING INTERNET ARCHIVE A TRY : THE DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION COLLECTION

INTERNET ARCHIVES : DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION SEARCH brings up lots of DAR Magazines, some lineage books, annual conference books, and much more.  Worth a look!

INTERNET ARCHIVE : LINK TO DAR INDEX ROLLS OF HONOR from 1916  Go to the index and see the names of men who served in the American Revolution...

TRY A SEARCH such as Daughters of the American Revolution + a state

DAR HIGH SCHOOL ESSAY CONTEST TOPIC FOR 2023-2024 WRITE ABOUT A HISTORIC CHARACTER

 Celebrate Stars and Stripes Forever

If you are in the 9th to 12th grade you're invited to participate in the 

PATRIOTS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION  DAR HIGH SCHOOL ESSAY CONTEST

Select a figure from the era of the America Revolution ( 1773-1783).  Discuss how he or she influenced the course of the American Revolution, who he or she was and the contribution that historic character made to the founding of a new nation.  Your figure must have been an actual person- one who is well known or an everyday man, woman, or child, who supported the American Revolution in ways large or small.

OPEN TO GRADES 9-12 Length between 800-1200 words.  Deadline October 10/21/23

CONTACT YOUR CLOSEST DAR CHAPTER.

This flyer came to me from Diana Starr, Point Vicente Chapter in Los Angeles, California.

Here is more detailed information from the Cupertino chapter

DAR 2023 ESSAY CONTEST DETAILS

NOT INTERESTED IN JOINING SONS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION or DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION ? COLONIAL AMERICAN RESEARCH!

Although heredity societies such as DAR or SAR are not of interest to everyone, if you're doing research on your very early American roots in Colonial times, you may still want to see what information that DAR or SAR holds that may be applicable to your search. You may be surprised. Both have libraries of their own. Some of their membership and past applications can be found on certain databases. If you're starting to loose a trail. I would certainly look to see who may have applied for membership and the lineage they are reporting.

Talking to someone the other day about PEDIGREE COLLAPSE and how interrelated humans are, I suggested that DNA results would probably lead to an affirmation that a person is genetically linked to dozens of ancestors in a small town in Europe. 

Basically, as we go back in time there were less people on earth than there are now.  And people died younger. And remarried quickly. So while today there are blended families because of divorce, not so long ago the death of a spouse a - until the mid 1800's in Colonial America - common for people to marry a cousin. Not a first cousin but someone related. In Europe concerns and understandings about land ownership and inheritance also encouraged interrelated and local marriages. It was not until massive immigration, travel and transportation ease, and the move from country to cities that people started having an opportunity to meet people who would otherwise be strangers to them, and to choose their own partners, really mixing up that DNA.  So, be it a royal family or you and me, we are likely to discover that some of the same people appear on our charts in more than one of our lines. What might appear as a fan chart -that looks like an inverted pyramid may just collapse.

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MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION : WOMEN VOTED FOR THE REVOLUTION - THEN LOST THE VOTE!

MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION   Explore how women VOTED for the American Revolution, then lost the vote... 

TERRIFIC INTERACTIVES on this and many other subjects, so you can learn more about the historyu of the United States!

FAKE GENEALOGY IS ALL TOO COMMON

Recently I was reminded that fake genealogy is all too common.

In a few books about the Bouvier sisters - Jacqueline - who was to become Jackie Kennedy Onassis, and her sister Lee - who was to marry a few times but is best known as Lee Radizwill, it is reported that Jackie's own father presented a mythological genealogy to the daughters that both believed, elevating a French immigrant cabinetmaker - a very good one by the way - into nobility.  Then Lee herself falsely claimed to have the Lee family of early Virginia as ancestors.  Apparently she even had a big genealogy on a wall that she could point to. As I read it, apparently Lee was so good at reporting the historical accuracies of this family, though her connection to them was not, that she was still accepted as a kind of honorary member of the family.

Ah well, what reminded me was that someone I'm related to by marriage, told me not to bother doing the genealogy for her family as cousin So and So had already done it, all the way to "Queen Antoinette."  She meant Marie Antoinette, a German brought to France, who had four children, none who lived long enough to reproduce, meaning that Marie Antoinette left no direct descendants.  Could this "Italian" family actually have German and French nobility in it's chart?

I don't normally do someone's genealogy who doesn't want it done, but because the children of this marriage are related to me, I put a little time into following the surnames of their grandparents, and discovered that very likely they started out as Sephardic Jews who left Portugal, went to Salonica, Greece, and then to Calabrese Italy.  Could Marie Antoinette be covering up all that?

Though there are those who fabricate illustrious connections because they are snobs,  there is probably more fake genealogy out there due to ignorance on how to conduct genealogical research.  I once met a woman, a member of a Santa Barbara, California genealogy club who told me that she traced the wrong family for a decade out of ignorance.  She had made a leap very early on, not documenting properly, and so it went.

So there are three things I want to express to my readers here.

First, if you are new to genealogy and a do-it-yourselfer, it's a good idea to document every way you can, and remain skeptical of what the family oral history is until you find those documents.

Secondly, if you have been away from your genealogy for some time, go over everything once again, making the connections where they are, questioning yourself. 

For instance, I had great difficulty finding an oath of allegiance to the U.S. in New Jersey for an immigrant because the New Jersey swearing in did not require a lot of information, the surname was common, the witnesses must have been friends, not family members who already had their citizenship, and the place of birth was within the county left behind but not the same as what it said on the ship documents.  Through a process of elimination I was able to be about 95% certain that the swearing in I found was correct.  However, there is no mention of all the other family members who also got their citizenship that day along with "dad," and I suspected one of the children got his in another state, because he immigrated separately and lived separately.  I have looked through records from multiple counties and states and records held at the National Archives and cannot find any evidence for this person being naturalized, and so I assume - but am skeptical - that he was included in on his dad's.

It does not matter though in terms of proofing his lineage.

The problem is finding that dad's lineage in another country where again I have search numerous church records and for which nothing is coming up.  I'm doing everything right.  The information simply may not have been preserved.  The problem?  He was born during an uprising.

Third, it's a good idea to have a professional go over all your research looking for information that can proof.  If you can't afford the pro, team up with someone else you trust and go over each other's work.

A person who worked to help people into the Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution once told me that some members had been asked to leave because information that had been provided long ago was now considered questionable.  You don't want that to happen to you.


C  2018 Ancestry Worship Genealogy  Blogspot

USING DAR LIBRARIES WHEN YOU'RE NOT IN DAR

Got to library.dar.org
Look up top for the GRC button and click on it
YOU WILL GET TO A SEARCH THROUGH GENEALOGY RECORDS THAT MEMBERS OF DAR TRANSCRIBED FROM BOOKS.  They scanned the books and indexed.
EXCERPT: The DAR Genealogical Research System (GRS) is a free resource provided by the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution   (DAR) to aid general genealogical research and to assist with the DAR membership process. The GRS is a collection of databases that provide access to the many materials amassed by the DAR since its founding in 1890.


But nobody is saying you have to join DAR or that the information won't be valuable to you.


EXCERPT:

GRC

The DAR’s Genealogical Records Committee Reports began in 1913 and continue to arrive every year. The information in these 20,000 typescript volumes is predominately Bible record and cemetery record transcriptions along with many other types of transcribed or abstracted genealogical sources. The Genealogical Records Committee has sponsored a project since the late 1990s to index all names in every one of the GRC Reports in the DAR Library. The GRC tab provides a direct link to the “GRC National Index” and to the page explaining this project in more detail.
The GRC Reports themselves are digitized. Researchers may view the digital images at the DAR Library’s Seimes Technology Center. The images are not available at the present time online outside of DAR headquarters. The original typescript volumes have been retired and placed in off-site storage, so researchers must now use the digital images.

GENEALOGY BLOCK BEFORE THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION : SHOULD SHE TRUST THE DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION MEMBERSHIP

Daughters of the American Revolution as well as Sons of the American Revolution are two membership groups that honor those who can prove ancestry to a Patriot, that's to say someone who helped the United States in its war of independence from The British. (But we are just so interested in Pippa Middleton's wedding aren't we?) Let me say that I've met some "experts" who live to help people prove their connection, and sometimes the Patriot gave a soldier a cup of water from the well, under, of course, threat of being harmed or killed for doing so, but never saw military action.  One expert told me some years ago that DAR was questioning some of the memberships that had been granted and were politely informing some people they were no longer members. The reason was that the references that had been used were no longer considered authoritative. I believed him.


One of the best things to do before you submit is use the resources a DAR or SAR library or their books of members at public libraries.  If you can prove you're related to someone who is already a member, that's certainly helpful.


That's why recently I advised someone that though they were "in" due to their deceased brother's research, they should double check all his research before going any further.  This is a situation in which genealogy myopia can easily set in and that's why having another person who is professional or holds themselves to professional standards look at the work can be a good idea.  It wasn't that I suspected her brother of any wrong doing.  In fact I suspected that she would find his research was worthy of DAR.  But I strongly believe that when you inherit someone else's research (or their warm and fuzzy family memory book) that you familiarize yourself with that work, check it, add to it, and be sure you really aren't tracing a wrong family.  It happens.  Especially when the surnames are more common.


This researcher wanted to go back past her brother's work to Great Britain, from the surname I suspected Scotland or Scottish roots.  She had found the 1790 and 1800 census not too helpful.  Here are some suggestions I made to her that may be helpful to you.


1) Just because his name appears to be James, does not mean he never went by a nickname or that James wasn't his middle name.  Become familiar with the many nicknames besides Jim that a James could be called.  Be aware that sometimes a Jacob got called James.


2) Run general searches on databases to see if the name is particular to a country or a town. That's not to say that there won't be any Scots in say, France, but if you find that name has an important cluster in say, Sterling, that may be the place to go to work from there forward.  (i.e. records of who left there and came to American where and when.)


3) Do not depend on any electronic databases to provide you all the information you need.  The "old fashioned" methods still work and may be the best way to go.


4) Call the local historical societies and libraries where the family name appears on the 1790 and or 1800.  The smaller the town the better chance you have of encountering a librarian who will roll some microfilm only they hold or check an obituary for you, or that you will connect with some local person who is very proud to know who was who.


5) Don't assume that tombstone projects have counted all the people in the cemetery.  In some cemeteries more than half of the people under ground never had a tombstone in the first place.  They were too expensive.  Also consider that some families, especially who owned farm land, set aside land for a family cemetery.  Contact locals to find out who has those old cemetery records.


6) Look at old maps, such as Platt maps, land grant maps, and so on, to see if the surname features as a place name or road name. (Some of these old maps will show family cemeteries.)  I know someone whose big break came when she noticed a tiny dot that had the family surname and the word berries.


7) A whole lot of archives, courthouses, lawyers offices, and so on have gone up on fire!
Actually, records burned up in a fire accidently or on purpose is a reason or excuse I and so many others have encountered it really makes you wonder.  Ask again anyway.  Just incase the last time you asked a clerk was buried under work and had no time to really look. (And by the way that includes more recent Military Records.  Check out the NARA site for more information. You may get a letter with a government stamp stating that the person's service has been "recreated from other sources.")


8) Using databases that allow you to use wild card or phonetic searches and play around with spelling or letters in a name can sometimes make all the difference or be a crazy waste of time and you may not know till you try.  Consider that there is PENMANSHIP and then there is HANDWRITING.  Penmanship was stressed in the old days, and imagine one was dipping that quill back into the ink every few words!  Here are some quick suggestions.


a) Add an S to the end of the surname.  That's because people refer to Smith as Smiths if there is more than one of them and that's likely.  It's probably the most frequent "misspelling" you can find.
b) Consider that D, P, and sometimes T can look alike.  So can a T and a Z. That's the capitals.  When it comes to the vowels, so very many e's and i's not doted can be confused, and o's and a's.
c) It's possible that the surname has really been screwed up by someone imputing into a database with multiple errors, so try a search for everyone named Jim, then look closely for names that might be close.  I still think reading handwriting off microfilm can solve these mysteries.


9) DNA: ask experts which company is the best one for the type of test you want. Remember that there are currently no samples of Abraham Lincoln's DNA and they are not going to dig him up to get some.  You may want to gift some samples to your children and other relatives before you die, even if you aren't into this aspect of genealogy.  Possibly you will be connected by the company to those who have also submitted samples and they will have the information you need.


10) Was the person by any chance a member of the Masons or other Lodge or Secret Society?  Is there a family tradition of membership? Some have records fairly far back.


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DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION - link here! RELAUNCHED AMERICAN SPIRIT MAGAZINE

DAR OFFICIAL WEBSITE  You can subscribe to the magazine on this link.

I've met people who researched for years hoping to prove that they belong in DAR (daughters) or SAR (sons) and one of the families I researched for just missed because their ancestor stayed on a boat to pay off the voyage for the rest of the family, who became Patriots, and whose lineages are in DAR and SAR.  That ancestor also missed out on applying for free land and so it went.

At worst, some feel DAR and SAR are really snobby groups.  At best you become a member of a group that is very patriotic and that truly loves this United States of America.

I personally cannot become a member simply because my ancestors came to the United States after the American Revolution as did millions of others.  That doesn't bother me at all.  I still consider myself a patriot.  (There are an increasing number of African Americans applying for DAR and SAR by the way!)

Anyway, my library has become a subscriber to their WONDERFUL AMERICAN SPIRIT Magazine, and I do mean WONDERFUL!

In the January - February 2013 issue is an article I especially loved called RESURRECTING HISTORIC CEMETERIES by Courtney Peter.   It begins; "Filled with blocks of stone attesting to lives once lived, historic cemeteries are like outdoor history museums that hold not only some of our countries earliest stone carvings and written history, but also clues about familial relationships, settlement patterns, and attitudes toward women."

If you love Colonial History this is a great magazine which may inform your research!

THE BOOK OF LIVES : THE BIBLE : AMERICAN SPIRIT MAGAZINE

Linking here to the magazine that The Daughters of the American Revolution put out, called AMERICAN SPIRIT. It's put out every other month, and the July/August Magazine has an article by Bill Hudgins called The Book of Lives.

"Plain or Fancy the Family Bible Has Long Preserved Genealogical Treasures"

The magazine doesn't have this article on line, but this is a good magazine to subscribe to if you're interested in DAR or Americana or genealogy research. And here is a wonderful excerpt from the article.

"The first Bible printed in the Colonies was a translation in a dialect of Algonquian produced 1660-1661 by John Eliot, a Presbyterian minister in Massachusetts according to A Light to the Nations: American's Earliest Bibles 1532-1864, By Diana Lupas.
The next domestic Bible was printed in German in 1743 by Christoph Saur in Germantown, Pennsylvania. His Son, also named Christoph, took over the printing business and republished the German Bible in 1763 and 1776. In 1778, the Continental Army confiscated Saur's property, including printed sheets for about 1000 Bibles. Another printer bought them at auction, then sold them to be used in making cartridges for bullets, according to A Light to Nations.