10 Step Guide to Finding and Proving a Revolutionary War Patriot
Download the DAR Worksheet from
www.dar.org. Start filling in your family tree(s) by working back from yourself towards a supposed Patriot, not from a Patriot down.
Use the Census records from 1930 to 1850 to find your grandparents and great grandparents etc. These can be searched free at Sutro Library, 480 Winston Dr., Stonestown with their computer access to ancestry.com. Every generation doubles itself for the lines to be researched. You have 4 grandparents and 8 great grandparents and so on with a potential 48 Patriots.
Go back as far as you can on lines that seem promising to research, in other words, persons seen to be living in America in 1850 and who stated in which state they were born. The 1880 Census tells where each person's parents were born. The 1900 Census gives same, plus birth month and year and number of years married.
Use the DAR
Genealogy Research System. There you will see tabs pop up. One is for "Ancestors" (Patriots); one is for "Descendants"; and one is for "Members". By writing in an early ancestor's name from your tree in the Descendants box you may find that ancestor already proven under a Patriot. Then you only need prove the generations’ links back to where you share this common generation. Click on the weight scales icon to view the linage sheets.
Use the free
www.familysearch.org to see if your ancestors are there and show more information regarding birth, death, marriage, spouse, children and locations. Click on "Pilot Study" where many vital records are being added with source cited which is acceptable to DAR. Use the free
www.findagrave.com site where millions of tombstone transcriptions are posted as well as photos. Use
www.usgenweb.com, a free site. Click on your State and County of research. Google in a State name, add "state archives", links come up, often online records available. Use the free
www.cyndislist.com/freestuff.htm.
Try Googling in an early ancestor or suspected Patriot. Often times a link is provided to a site where that family has posted their family tree; from there look for the proofs.
When a family tree with Patriot has been established it is needed to prove the blood link of each generation back to the Patriot. Birth and/or death certificates prove parentage for later generations. Early birth, deaths and parentage links can be proven by a number of sources such as Obituaries, Wills, Deeds, Probate Records, Estate Settlements, Church Records, Cemetery Records, Bible Records, old letters, family genealogies, County history books, New England states Town Records.
Sutro Library has all the census, many County history books, Cemetery books, family books, early Town Records, early County marriages and Wills, Rev. War Pension Abstracts as well as free access to ancestry.com.
Contact the local County Public Libraries, Historical and Genealogical Societies and Court Houses in your County of research. Googling in the name of the County with any of the above often brings up the link. You can inquire regarding obituaries on file, County Cemetery books available for a look up by the Librarian or Volunteer, Wills on file, family histories, marriages. Many have a direct e-mail link such as "Ask the Librarian".
Web hyperlinks to non-DAR sites are not the responsibility of the NSDAR, the state organizations, or individual DAR chapters.
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Documenting Recent Generations
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