The Year Ahead – July 3

In the January/February 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine, they have introduced The Year Ahead, 366 genealogy tips will make 2024 your best research year yet by Lisa A Alzo. Lisa mapped out a day-by-day research plan.

July 3 – See how lineage societies such as the Daughters of the American Revolution www.dar.org can help with your research.

Before I became a member of DAR, I visited their website. It can be quite overwhelming. There is a link titled Genealogy, then in the Genealogy Research (GRS) people can look up Ancestors, Members and Descendants. How I found out I had an approved Patriot (Ancestor) was to look up all my ancestors who were living during the Revolutionary years. I only had a few names to check, my research didn't go back that far on many lines. Then I discovered that my 3^rd great grandmother’s sister’s descendant had joined and all I had to do was prove my lineage up to my 4^th great grandparents. The remaining generations were already proven.

When I became a Registrar for DAR, I used the GRS to look up prospective members ancestors in the Descendant’s Database. I would start creating a tree for this prospective member and then check to see if any of their ancestors where in the Descendant Database. If they were, I would see who the proven Ancestor was and many times, I only had to prove the lineage from the member to their ancestor who was in the Descendant Database.

I could also check the members who joined with common ancestors as the prospective member and see if they had additional lines proven (called supplements). If those additional Patriots were also my prospective member's Ancestor, they too could submit a supplement if they choose to do so.

Be on a look out for Red items under Patriot’s records, some lineages have been proven wrong from later applications and may no longer be a valid option. However, with all the members who joined since DAR began, there is a lot of lineages to review. As with any tree, whether through a lineage society or found elsewhere, a good researcher will verify the genealogy before claiming it as their own.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!