All patriots should be identified and recognized

The end of June I joined thousands of women as they descend on the Daughters of the American Revolution headquarters in Washington, D.C.  It was time for the annual conference and as a local (well sort of if you consider the 1 ½ hour commute on I-95 and public transportation) I couldn’t miss the event. 

This year the Daughters were treated to an amazing, as always, presentation by D. Joshua Taylor at Friday night’s Celebrate America event.  The public was regaled with stories about his genealogy journey and his loving grandmother who helped him get to where he is today.  We learned about his connection to the DAR through his grandmother.  For those in the room who admired him already hearing about his DAR lineage made them swell with pride even more.

I interviewed Josh for the Congress
Online Committee

Josh is a fervent supporter of the DAR mission and its endeavors.  In fact, he wrote an incredible piece for the Huffington Post about us and our preservation accomplishments after the event.  You can read it here.

To be honest it is times like these that I am reminded why I love being a Daughter.  It is more than the hats, gloves, and ribbons.  The commitment to preservation, and as a genealogist, the commitment to quality research makes me swell with pride. 

I served as a Page for
the Conference

At the event the President General, Lynn Forney Young, told us all about what the organization was up to.  Did you know that the DAR has proved 144, 839 patriots?  Or how about that on average each month we verify 75 new ones?  There are still thousands of men, women, and children waiting to be verified and recognized as patriots of the American Revolution.  This 5-minute video was shown at the event describing our research into ALL who aided the American cause.

The DAR databases are wonderful already, but a new project was unveiled at the event which will add to the information you will be able to access.  With the aid of Daughter volunteers The Patriot Records Project will index names of patriots from a variety of sources starting with documents within the DAR and then going outside it to other repositories who cannot afford to do it on their own.

From the website:

“The Patriot Records Project begun in the fall of 2014 will make finding and identifying Revolutionary War patriots in hard to search collections easier than ever.  The project will bring the exploits of the American patriots, who sacrificed so much, to life.  The project begins with the Continental Loan Books of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and New York.  The Continental Loan Books contain the names of men, women and businesses who helped to finance the War for Independence. Other collections scheduled to be indexed include the South Carolina Audited Accounts, New Jersey Revolutionary War Miscellaneous Records, North Carolina Audited Records and many, many more collections.

The Patriot Records Project index will be available as part of the DAR Genealogy Research System.  It is hoped this index will provide not only genealogists but also history students, researchers, scholars and teachers with a tool to assist in their study of the Revolutionary War period. The records span over 75 years, starting at the very beginning of the Revolutionary War through the last petitions for remuneration.”

I have already signed up to help index.  Yeah, I sure did.  I am confident that I can find a couple hours a week to help.  Even if that means I don’t sleep.