It's finally completed and I have to say, as a genealogy nut, I'm probably hooked for life! I should explain. Back in 1987 Mom had been doing genealogy for about 15 years and realized for quite some time that my sister and I were qualified to join the Daughters of the American Revolution, if she got busy and put that application together for each of us. I was working full time and trying to run a business and doing too much travel and my sister was going to graduate school so neither of us had the time or energy to do it for ourselves.
I recalled this time and Mom's efforts on our behalf recently when I was at my DAR chapter luncheon and meeting. The member sitting next to me was putting the final touches on the applications for her two daughters. She said that they weren't yet interested and I replied that it was a wonderful gift she was giving them and they'll be thanking her later, just as I thanked Mom!
A while back I thought it would be nice to turn the tables and fill out an application for Mom, and I have written about that here recently, and you can find those posts here, here and here. The application Mom put together for me used one of Dad's Revolutionary War ancestors. At the time Mom might have joined but had no qualifying ancestor, the main requirement for membership. Recently, one of Mom's ancestors was verified so now Mom is good to go!
The weeks passed and I worked hard on it, finding proof documents, ordering birth and death certificates, checking the census records, examining probate documents. There was a mad chase while looking for Granny Whetstone's death certificate that turned out to be an object lesson all unto itself about the spelling of a name throughout a lifetime! It was a ton of work and I loved every moment of it.
I don't know how this will turn out and if my hard work will be deemed worthy by the powers that be and the genealogists who review applications at the NSDAR headquarters in Washington, D.C. Be that as it may. All I know is that I loved it. Loved the rigorousness with which documents needed to be examined and mined for little tid-bits of information. The precision demanded when it came to the simple yet confoundedly frustrating task of copying a date and repeating it in at least three places! Why should that be so hard for me? Is it because I am a tad dyslexic around the edges? Yeah. My brain tends to transpose numbers. Can you imagine how frustrating that little quirk of my brain can be when filling out a form with plenty of dates? Yet I loved it.
I can see how DAR daughters get hooked on this. The entire process is seductive and addicting if you love this work. Proof! That's the name of the game. Proof: it taxed me sorely. At the heart of it was proving the most simple things about an ancestor. For the male is was date and location of birth, date and location of death. Then for the female it was the same date and location of birth, date and location of death. And a record of the marriage. Last, for the line leading to the patriot, a connection to the next generation. Proof. Never have I felt so close to understanding the meaning of that word.
And here's the cool thing. If it got done right and is passed on and verified, Mom earns admission to the DAR and the right to a pin with the ancestor's name on it. How cool is that? I must confess here, I want those pins with the ancestor's name on it. I want a lot of them. Is that bad? I don't think so!!
I need to include a disclaimer here. I don't speak for the DAR, and really, that should be pretty obvious. But they like it when you let the world know that it's just you speaking and not them. And I do want you to know that the DAR is way more than genealogy. They're all about serving and volunteering in the community and helping out where they can. If you're interested, check out the main web site and click on through to register your interest. Or let me know and I'll help you find a chapter near you. Or you can use the web site to find out if your ancestor is already listed as one of their patriots. Here are some links, in case you want them:)
The main DAR web site: http://www.dar.org/
How to join: http://www.dar.org/national-society/become-member/how-join
Chapter locator: http://www.dar.org/national-society/become-member/chapter-locations
Membership interest form: http://www.dar.org/national-society/become-member/membership-interest-form
Just interested in the genealogy? Click on this: http://www.dar.org/national-society/genealogy
The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2014/10/just-finished-moms-dar-application-and.html
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