DAR

Comment

Comment by Barbara McCusker on October 19, 2009 at 10:58am

Thoughts from personal experience -
a) Is there a family bible (a primary source) anywhere ? Ask to either borrow it, highly unlikely, or ask the person to make you a copy of the pages you need. Offer to pay for the postage. You need a copy of the bible cover page as well as your page, or a letter from whom they received it stating that it was from their bible, notorized.

b) Do you have a family member who has been doing the family tree?

c) If your ancestor is mentioned in a bible or a book, be sure that you copy the title page and the page on which the publishing house and date published are shown, as well as the page where your ancestor is listed.

d) Death records always show the date of birth also, which would save you a step.

e) Don’t forget the funeral home. They can probably supply you with a copy of the death certificate, or at least direct you to the place where they are stored.

f) If you know the church where your ancestor was buried, contact them. Unless there was a fire, flood, or laziness, they have records. The office of the burial ground can also give you that information. Always offer to pay! Usually they tell you that there is no fee, but make the offer.

g) Check with the local history section of the public library in the community. Many libraries are very cooperative and often have built up expertise in local name changes, shifting boundaries, and re-interments.

h) Depending on where and when your ancestor lived, records are stored in different locations. Some states passed a law in (say) 1850 that all birth, marriage and death records be sent to a central location. Before that date the records are probably at the courthouse of the county in which your ancestor lived on that date. County lines shifted a lot in the early days of our country being settled, so you must first find out what county it was at that time. If all other inquiries fail, call the state Division of Vital Records who will be able to tell you.

i) When you locate the correct county, call the courthouse and ask for Vital Records. When you speak to them ask if they have records for your date, and how much they charge. If all goes well, get their address, send them a check, and enclose a SASE. It shouldn’t take more than a few weeks before your record arrives.

j) Although I thought that it was silly when I was researching, another DAR member told me to mention that I was looking for a record for my DAR application. That bumps you up to the top of the list, especially in the original colonies. There must be a lot of DAR members in their state records division.

Comment by Lynette Winegarner on October 3, 2009 at 10:58am

Betty Jo - I have had some luck locating old records/books online using Google Books (books.google.com), Internet Archive (archive.org), and Heritage Quest (I access this via my public library's website using my library card). FamilySearch.org is also starting to put some records out online; personally, I haven't had much luck there yet, but it might be worth a look. Did Phidelia say where she was born on that census? That could tell you where to look for a marriage/birth record. I've found that back then, couples tended to marry where the wife was from.

Comment by Betty Jo Blevins on October 2, 2009 at 6:53pm

Met with a couple of ladies last night who is going to help three us start the process of finding our documentation to go with our application. My problem when looking of for volunteers who will look for records I get the message back they cannot help if if their request said they did those counties. Any suggestions DAR members? I cannot travel to CT or MA and when our library is open I am at my parents fixing meals, cleaning, etc. Thank you.
Lynette, I found one census on line, listing Phidelia living with her daughter and son-in-law after Philip died but so far have had no luck in tracking down a will or land records.

Comment by Lynette Winegarner on September 22, 2009 at 9:01pm

I'm putting my supplementals for Edward Carter and William Fauntleroy in the mail to National tomorrow. Yea!!

Comment by Lynette Winegarner on September 20, 2009 at 12:26am

Betty Jo - Did Phidelia outlive live Philip? If so, look for a copy of a will or probate record for Philip. If he named his wife, you can use either to prove the marriage.

Land records are another potential source. Quite often they will state the family relationship if the parties are related.

Was Phildelia alive in 1840? If so, look for her on the census. One of the questions that year is where were you born. Perhaps her family was visiting relatives or otherwise living elsewhere when she was born. I've forgetten what years they ask where your parents were born, but some of them do.

Court records are a potential source. I have a copy of a civil case from 1814 that involved my 6-great grandfather; it names his wife, his sons, and his father-in-law and states the relationships. I found it in a law book on Google Books.

I hope I haven't overwhelmed you and that you find at least some of this information useful.

--Lynette

Comment by Betty Jo Blevins on September 19, 2009 at 5:28pm

I am currently trying to collect all the documents needed for my application for DAR but my problem is I cannot find a birth record, marriage record for Phidelia Parsons who married Philip Dayton Green. All I have is a picture of their tombstone. Also trying to find documents for Calvin Hawley Parsons (birth, marriage, death and name of cemetery) who married Sophronia Merrill. The link I am trying to connect to is Aaron Parsons who was born 10 Nov 1758 in Durham, CT and died 1 May 1812 in Durham, CT. He was married to Lucy Hawley. The only thing I have on Aaron is what I found on Ancestry.com which lists Connecticut Town Birth Records, pre-1870 (Barbour Collection).
Phildelia Parsons Green is my brick wall to start my process for joining this wonderful organization.
Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Comment by Ellen Zarnick on September 9, 2009 at 9:46am

the Federal government will provide a gravestone for a Civil War Veteran. I have managed to do that for two ancestors who were both Civil War veterans. The government does provide the headstones free of charge. You may want to see if there is a cemetery association where your ancestor is buried and they may help. My two were both in Civil War veterans plots, and the headstones were also installed at no charge to the family. This was in Cleveland, Ohio, so it may be different where you are.

Comment by Lynette Winegarner on September 8, 2009 at 9:09pm

Judy - That is really good question. And I do not know the answer to that one. I'm not very well versed in the services offered by the VA.

Comment by Judy Kinney on September 8, 2009 at 3:19pm

I have a question, since the individual was a war veteran will the Federal Government VA provide the marker? I wanted to mark the grave of a civil war ancestor and I did have to prove his service, but the VA did provide the stone which I paid to have installed.

Comment by Lynette Winegarner on September 8, 2009 at 1:52pm

Ellen -- You should contact the local DAR chapter. If anybody's planning on marking the graves, it would probably be done through them. Here's a link to the list of Ohio chapters http://www.dar.org/natsociety/chapters.cfm?State=OH I don't believe there is a fee per se, but not all chapters have money available for grave marking. I hope this helps. -- Lynette

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