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Honoring our Ancestors

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about DAR

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Agenda

Presenter Introductions
National Society Daughters of the American Revolution

Who we are
What we do
Benefits to you

Local DAR chapter information
Do You Have a Patriot Ancestor?
Resources at dar.org

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Founded in 1890 & Still Growing

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All-volunteer nonprofit service organization supporting History, Education, Patriotism

>1 million members 1890-present

185,000 current members

Organized in 3000+ chapters WW

Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Building takes up a full city block:

- Library

- Archives

- Museum

- Constitution Hall

DAR is a non-profit, non-political volunteer women's service organization dedicated to promoting patriotism, preserving American history, and securing America's future through better education for children. – same principles as founding members.

Over 2 million service hours are recorded by members every year.

Founded in 1890 with three objectives: Historical, Educational, and Patriotic. Founders were frustrated at being excluded from men’s organizations so they formed their own!

This picture represents the first DAR Continental Congress held in 1892 – an annual event held in Washington DC in June/July. One interesting fact is that in the early days of the organization, there were 767 actual daughters of American Revolutionary patriots, called “Real Daughters”.

In 2020 DAR surpassed 1 million members who have joined since its founding. Currently there are 185,000 members organized into 3000 chapters throughout the US and overseas.

Headquarters are only steps from the White House – located at 1776 D Street NW in Washington DC. Facilities normally open to the public, but closed now due to Covid19.

The Headquarters building houses:

- DAR library. Founded in 1896. DAR library contains 225,000 books, 40,000 family histories, 10,000 research files ad 1000s of manuscripts. Computers at library allow you to access and download documents in Ancestor’s files.

- Archives – unique collection of 4000+ items related to Colonial America + historical records of DAR

- DAR Museum – open to the public – exhibits, teacher resources, programs (when open)

- Constitution Hall – large event venue; ½ million visitors a year; Presidential Debates, Country Music Awards, Continental Congress

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Signal Hill Chapter

Formed in 1973 – Planning for our 50^th Anniversary!
Based in Barrington
Serving Northwest Suburbs
146 Members in 15 States
175 Ancestor Patriots from 11 original colonies
www.signalhilldar.com

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Going strong on Zoom!

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Signal Hill Service Projects

$11,000 annual cash donations annually to Education, Preservation, Conservation, Patriotism, Native American causes

Additional collections of food, supplies, toys, personal items for VA & women’s shelters, hospitals, foster children & schools

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Prompt Joyce Wright, Regent:

In its almost 5 decades of existence as a chapter, the women of Signal Hill have sponsored the cause of education, patriotism and historic preservation in the northwest suburbs of Chicago.

Participate in Historic Preservation projects - Barrington White House
Support Honor Flights for World War II vets and Operation HerStory – focused on Women Vets
Plant native trees – partnering with BHS Honor Society tree planting in April
Award a deserving high school senior a modest scholarship and the chance for further college funding – Youth Award day
Support for Midwest Veterans Shelter – Operation Stand Down
Support womens’ shelter in Englewood
Donations of gift boxes to military bases overseas

2020-2021: Comer Children’s Hospital Halloween gift baskets, suitcases donated to foster children, multiple conservation projects, school supplies to Sunny Hill School.

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4^th of July

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Wreaths Across America

December 18, 2021

Evergreen Cemetery, Barrington

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The Application Process

Women over 18
Must be able to prove lineal descent from a patriot of the American Revolution
Family members in DAR = fastest way to membership
Chapter Registrar provides research help and guides prospective members through the process

Email Jenny: jenfish4@outlook.com

Or fill in Member Interest form at dar.org

Electronic or fillable pdf printed form

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If you are a woman 18 years or older, regardless of race, religion, or ethnic background, who can prove lineal descent from a patriot of the American Revolution, we hope you’ll join more than 185,000 current daughters in the activities you’ve heard about this evening.

Rigorous process that requires proof of each fact (birth, marriage, death) and each relationship between generations.

Generations 1-3 usually requires copies of birth, marriage and/or death certificate

Generation 4 and beyond (great grandparents) allows for more creativity

Most states required birth or death certificates starting in the late 1800’s, so copies of actual certificates for generations 1-3 are usually required
Starting with generation 4 (great grandparents), vital records may be harder to find but still require proof of facts stated through indices (ie, Social Security death index), wills, pictures of gravestones, land records, census records, bibles, books, church records, published obituaries
Need to show evidence that a thorough search has been conducted, including requests to county clerks, local historical societies, archives, etc for non-digitized records.
Its surprising how many of these offices remained open for requests during the pandemic, even if their buildings were closed to the public.

Fastest way to membership is to identify a family member/ancestor who is or was a member. In some cases joining is simply a matter of providing a birth certificate.
Chapter Registrar is trained to provide genealogical research assistance

Application is done by electronic application, or fillable pdf that is printed and submitted. Processing time depends on complexity of the lineage. Some electronic applications with one or two generations to prove take only a few weeks. Both processes go through Registrar.

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How DAR Defines Patriots

How DAR Defines Patriotic Service:

Service to the Revolution between April 1775 – November 1783
Age 12+
Four primary types of service

Signers of the Declaration of Independence
Military Service: Honorable service in Militia or Continental Army, no minimum time
Civil Service: Town clerks, selectmen, tax assessors, sheriffs, constables, road surveyors, judges, jurors, moderators
Patriotic Service: Patriotic Committees, Oaths of Allegiance, Spying, Furnishing Supplies, Paying supply tax, signing petitions, POW’s, supporting troops: nursing, sewing, feeding, etc

5000+ African American patriots identified
Special databases for Patriots of Color & Native Americans

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Military service: Service in the Militia or Continental Army. No minimum service (one week to years); evidence of service through pay, pension records, muster rolls, etc. Must prove residence that correlates to service location.
Civil Service: Mostly elected or assigned roles that governed colonies during Revolutionary period.
Patriotic service: Broadest category. Evidence of Ancestor participation can be found in logs of town, county and court minutes, minutes of the Continental Congress (online), family papers.

Committees of Correspondence: sometimes seen as early as late 1774; formed prior to organization by colonies. Primary communication source
Committees of Safety: Successor to above committees; served as interim state governments
Revolutionary Committees: elected to enforce adherence to revolutionary principles
Signers of petitions/acts of rebellion
Signers of Oaths of Allegiance: Most states required adult males >16 to swear an oath of allegiance (ie, Commonwealth of Virginia). There are many articles and books that lists signers of these oaths, for example “9000 men who signed oath in Maryland”. Caution – also had oaths to the Crown which don’t count!
Patriotic service also includes Furnishing supplies, aiding troops – this is where we find many women/widows.
Supply tax –a special tax to support the military effort. Anyone on a list of supply tax payers qualifies for Patriotic Service designation. Many widows, mothers of soldiers are listed here.

Special effort has been made to record patriots of color and Native American descent. Will cover these resources later.

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Exploring Free Resources @ dar.org

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Genealogical Research System (GRS)

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Using GRS to Build your Lineage

Search by Ancestor, Descendant or Member #
See which lines are proven
Copies of original application and supporting documents available by download for a fee
Finding an ancestor in Descendant database saves time in the application process
Ancestors in GRS are proven Patriots – there are millions more to find

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Experiment with spelling!

Hughes = Hughs, Hewes, Hews, Huse, Hues, Heughs

The GRS database includes all proven Ancestor patriots, all of their descendants and their spouses and lineages, and all DAR members past and present.

The Ancestor search function allows you to search by Ancestor surname and first name and birth location. Search results provide detail on the Ancestor’s service, name of spouse, names of children that have been proven, and Search for Ancestor and identify the line from that Ancestor to prospective member by identifying which child line comes from.

Or plug in names of grandparents, great grandparents in descendants database to see which Ancestor patriot line they come from.

Or search for member by member #. Registrar can help if you don’t know the member number.

Instructions for each of these functions are in the handout you will receive.

Search provides a snapshot of the member’s original application with lineages listed. May be purchased for a fee.

Also may purchase associated documents if they are in the file.

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GRS – Sample Ancestor Search

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GRS – Sample Descendant Search

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Genealogical Research Committee Index (GRC)

66 Million Records!
Every-name index of resources in the DAR Library
Unique, unavailable information from books, manuscripts, bibles, gravestones
Search by surname & state
Results show all names listed on the same page in the document as the surname searched
Photocopies of pages provided upon request

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GRC - Sample Search

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Revolutionary War Resources

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Patriot Records Project Index:

Millions of names indexed from Revolutionary War records
Fully searchable by name and colony
Includes a link to the actual digitized document

Revolutionary War Pension Index

Compiled manually from 1927-1965
Lists pension file #,
sometimes family names, residence

Patriots of Color

Searchable by name or colony
Some are proven Patriots; some unproven

Forgotten Patriots Research Guide

Two downloadable pdfs - 1000 pages
Names African American, mixed descent, Native Americans

Moving across the tab bar on top to Rev War:

This tab includes a number of databases related to revotionary war service, including all categories (military, civil, patriotic).

Patriot Records Index: ongoing volunteer effort by DAR members to index hand-written papers from the war era. These include military muster rolls, pay accounts, pleas to Congress, committee meeting notes, letters, Oaths of Allegiance, etc. Records are digitized but indexing makes them much easier to use as evidence of service during the war. One example – letter from soldier in Georgia to brigade commander discussing names of other soldiers he met while marching. Benedict Arnold letter to congress complaining of his treatment.

Pension Index: search by surname and state; results show actual pension card with file number which can be photocopied on request.

Ongoing effort to identify patriots of color (African American and mixed descent) – both proven and unproven patriots here. Some by first name only. Searchable by name or colony

Forgotten Patriots Research Guide- two downloadable pdfs totalling 1000+ pages listing names sorted by colony/state with full index.

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Bibles

40,000 digitized records from Bible records in DAR Library
Submitted by DAR chapters
Searchable by name, listed by location
Also searchable in GRC
Provides list of names on same page�

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Resources Tab

Analytical Card Index
WPA books
American Spirit Magazine
List of useful websites

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National Society �Daughters of the American Revolution

Do you have a Patriot Ancestor?

Let us help!

Contact Signal Hill Registrar:

Jenny Fisher

jenfish4@outlook.com

www.signalhilldar.org

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