SWORN INTO DAR
Last night I was sworn into the DAR. If you had ask me 10 years ago if I would have actually joined the DAR, I would have said no (I don't have time for the rich old ladies drinking tea thing). I had all the documentation and could have joined but was content to continue searching for my own family history and volunteering for Find A Grave.
However, over the course of 2017, I was invited to a DAR meeting and realized that my perception of the DAR is not current. Yes, there are still the rich old ladies drinking their tea, but at least the chapter I joined is all about historical preservation and helping in their own community. They are very patriotic and it feels good to sing the National Anthem and say the pledge of allegiance to our great country.
So I decided to go the easy route for my initial ancestor and do Johann "John" Roessler/Ressler. Why was he easy?? Because all I had to do was add the information from grandma Garner, mom, and myself to what the DAR already had on file. Back in the 1960's grandma helped her distant cousin Nina B. with getting the documentation together so Nina could join (she is descended through Christian Ressler who was a descendant of John Ressler), and grandma had copies of all the paperwork from that. I have had all this stuff for years and found it fascinating but just filed it away with the information on each person.
These DAR applications can sometimes be found on Ancestry or Family Search. However, I would suggest if you are looking for a Rev War vet in your family tree to go to the DAR web page (https://www.dar.org/ ), go to the genealogy tab, and look thru the lists of names. Copies of documentation they have used for past member applications can be ordered for a reasonable cost. What you will actually get depends on the accepted documents in the file, but the one I ordered I got about 25 pages of photocopies of family Bible notes, the military record, gravestones, a will, and a letter. Pretty exciting stuff in genealogy terms.
However, over the course of 2017, I was invited to a DAR meeting and realized that my perception of the DAR is not current. Yes, there are still the rich old ladies drinking their tea, but at least the chapter I joined is all about historical preservation and helping in their own community. They are very patriotic and it feels good to sing the National Anthem and say the pledge of allegiance to our great country.
So I decided to go the easy route for my initial ancestor and do Johann "John" Roessler/Ressler. Why was he easy?? Because all I had to do was add the information from grandma Garner, mom, and myself to what the DAR already had on file. Back in the 1960's grandma helped her distant cousin Nina B. with getting the documentation together so Nina could join (she is descended through Christian Ressler who was a descendant of John Ressler), and grandma had copies of all the paperwork from that. I have had all this stuff for years and found it fascinating but just filed it away with the information on each person.
These DAR applications can sometimes be found on Ancestry or Family Search. However, I would suggest if you are looking for a Rev War vet in your family tree to go to the DAR web page (https://www.dar.org/ ), go to the genealogy tab, and look thru the lists of names. Copies of documentation they have used for past member applications can be ordered for a reasonable cost. What you will actually get depends on the accepted documents in the file, but the one I ordered I got about 25 pages of photocopies of family Bible notes, the military record, gravestones, a will, and a letter. Pretty exciting stuff in genealogy terms.
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