By Grace Dumelle, Newberry Library
If you’ve been doing family history for any length of time, you know how hard it is to find information on female ancestors. What if you could tap into a source that would take you all the way back to the 1700s for a given woman? What if that source was also a shortcut to membership in a prestigious heritage organization?
That source is the application papers of members of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). In order to join, members have to prove their descent from an ancestor who aided the American cause in the Revolutionary War (see “Who’s A Patriot?” below for fuller explanation). If one of your relatives achieved membership, you can piggyback on her application. By showing how you are related to her, you can demonstrate your relation to the patriot she descended from.
The application papers are also useful sources of biographical information for women to whom you’re not related. Many prominent women have been members – Mamie Eisenhower, Clare Booth Luce, and Bertha Palmer to cite some examples. If you see a reference to a woman being a DAR member in an obituary, you should be able to get her application papers – the files of deceased members are open for research.
What’s on the Application Papers
The DAR was founded in 1890. Early papers supply the applicant’s maiden name, husband’s name, applicant’s birthplace (but no birth date), parents’ names, chain of ancestors and their spouses leading back to the Revolutionary War, and discussion of patriot’s service and sources for his/her service. Note that the chain of ancestors is only from parent to child and does not show all children born to parents.
Later papers give much more information. In the chain of ancestors: birth, marriage, and death dates and places. In the applicant’s section: birth date and birthplace, marriage date, spouse’s information (name, birth date, birthplace, date of death or divorce). Space for multiple spouses is provided. The applicant must also supply data on the patriot’s marriages, children, and children’s spouses. I’m not sure when the “new style” papers came into use.
Use With Care
Keep in mind that early standards of genealogy were far looser than they are today. Even as late as 1958, applicants did not have to submit proof of their parents’ and grandparents’ vital statistics. In that period, there were few facilities with genealogical materials, which is one reason why the DAR started its own library. Many colonial records remained in courthouses and federal government bureaus. The difficulty of obtaining these records spurred the DAR to collect and publish primary source material in its magazine and in bound volumes.
Especially when working with 19th century application papers, be careful to verify both the patriot’s service and the chain of ancestors. Look for corrections to the DAR’s Patriot Index, a listing of the people through whom membership has been approved. For example, this note was posted in a 1987 issue of the DAR Magazine concerning one Jacob Diefenbaugh: “All lineages through this man are in error. He died unmarried and without issue.”
You should also ask about supporting documentation filed with the application papers. It may or may not be on file at the DAR library. If applicants submitted original Bible records, for example, the DAR returned them. It wasn’t until 1984 that everything the applicant sent was kept.
How to Access Application Papers
The papers are filed according to the national membership number of the DAR member. A request form can be printed from the DAR website. The cost as of May 2006 is $10 and it takes 4-6 weeks.
So how do you get the membership number? Look for state and/or chapter directories, histories, rosters, and yearbooks. All of these sources list members’ names and numbers, but some are easier to use than others. The Newberry holds a large collection of these sources, primarily found in the card or online catalogs. Use “Daughters of the American Revolution” as a subject heading.
Directories: These are statewide listings of chapters by city. Members are listed alphabetically within the chapters with husbands’ names and address. To use these, you have to know where the member was living, or go through all the chapter listings to find her. An example is Directory of the DAR in Kansas 1925-1930, call no. F8324.152.
Histories: A book such as Historical Record of the Michigan DAR (1930) offers one alphabetical listing of members. The history also includes biographical sketches of state officers. Call no. F8324.157.
Rosters: These can use the master index approach or the chapter listing approach. Rosters are typically created for major anniversaries of the DAR in a state. They often include extensive information on members’ ancestors. For instance, the Arkansas Society, DAR published a roster of all active and inactive members from 1893 to 1968 as a diamond jubilee project. This is a sample listing:
| Natl. No. | Member | Status | Ancest. No | | 138143 | GIBB, Isabella Emerson (Mrs. E.W.) | ? (deceased) | 2104 | | Anc. No. | Ancestor and Family | | 2104 | HIBBARD, John (Pvt CT) (1763-1851) m 1749 Elizabeth Pearl & Children: James b 1753 m Susan Sheppard &; Desc: Isabella Emerson Gibb |
From A Roster of The Arkansas Society Daughters of the American Revolution 1893-1968 and Register of Ancestors. Call no. E69083.2.
Yearbooks: You’ll find much detail on one chapter. Members are listed by their married name, and their maiden name is also given. Life members are listed, and deceased members are noted from the founding of the chapter (with either partial or full date of death).
Here is a example of yearbook entries, from the yearbook of the Chicago Chapter of the DAR, 1903-1904. (Call no. F8324.128):
Hints On Searching
Start with a source covering the place of residence as a married woman. It’s also possible a woman could have been a member prior to her marriage (the minimum age for membership has always been 18). To check out that possibility, look in the city and state where she was born or raised.
You can search the Newberry catalog for sources. If you cannot find a source, contact our genealogy reference department.
Our reference service can also check pages from a source and make photocopies if you are unable to come in person.. There’s a small charge for photocopies, and we ask for donations to cover the lookup. Come to the Newberry and find that DAR member!
A Note About Lineage Books
Ancestry.com has created a database of nearly 2.4 million names from DAR lineage books. These books were published from 1891-1921, giving summaries of each member’s genealogy. As of May 2006, Ancestry has entered information from 152 of 166 volumes. You can search the database by the member’s first and last name, or by the ancestor’s name in the keyword box. This may be a shortcut to your search for a member. However, I searched for a woman I knew was in Vol. 11 and could not find her under her maiden name, husband’s name or patriot’s name. If you’d like to try searching, select “All Databases” in Ancestry’s home page, then go to “D” and “Dau” and scroll to Daughters of the American Revolution Lineage Books (152 vols.).
The Newberry holds volumes 1-166 of the lineage books on the open shelves, call no. Local History Ref. E202.5.A15 (2nd floor open shelf). There are three important things to know about these books. One, there is no index to members, only to patriots. Members are listed in membership number order. That is why you need the membership number from a roster or other source to use the books. Two, members’ birthplaces are given, but not their birth dates. Ancestor dates are also spotty. Three, lineage books “definitely fall into the category of questionable sources,” states Eric Grundset, director of the DAR library in his 1997 book American Genealogical Research at the DAR Washington, DC. Think of them as giving clues only, verifying each piece of information before accepting it as fact. Grundset’s book, call no. Local History Ref. CS16.G68 1997 (2nd floor open shelf), gives an insider’s view of each department of the DAR and the sources available to someone desiring to prove a Revolutionary War connection.
Who’s A Patriot?
The DAR defines a patriot as “one who provided service or direct assistance in achieving America’s independence.” Most often these are soldiers or sailors, because their service is well documented, but they can be people who reported on British troop movements, supplied food or horses to the American army, gave money to the cause, defied British orders as a civil official, or helped in similar ways. The patriot can be female, as in Molly Pitcher or Deborah Sampson. As long as she can prove the patriot’s service, any woman regardless of ethnic background, race or religion can be become a member of the DAR.
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