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Thursday, March 9, 2017

Researching Your Revolutionary War Ancestors -- Part Five


One of the benefits of doing careful, documented research about ancestors who lived in America during the Revolutionary War Era is the possibility of joining a heritage society such as the Daughters of the American Revolution. I have previously mentioned the broad and very detailed list of acceptable service during the War years.

One of my own examples is my 5th Great-grandfather, Francis Tanner, b. 1708, d. 1777 in Hopkinton, Washington, Rhode Island. Here is a copy of the page showing his DAR Number and the information they have about him.

His son, my 4th Great-grandfather also participated in the War. He is shown on the Ancestry.com. U.S., Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2007 as serving in the War as a Sergeant. 


He was also the subject of a Sons of the American Revolution Application available on Ancestry.com.

For some of the categories of service listed by the DAR the evidence of service will not be so direct and the research will not be easily done. The crucial detail will be a document of some kind linking the ancestor to the specific category during the War Era. There is never enough that should be said about the need to do careful fully documented research.

Here are the previous posts on this topic.

http://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2017/03/researching-your-revolutionary-war_7.html
http://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2017/02/researching-your-revolutionary-war.html


1 comment:

  1. I have many ancestors that have SAR applications listed as references. My experience is that they are notoriously riddled with errors. I think many men wanted to be in a genealogy society so badly that they just made up stuff! Or at least family hearsay and stories were the norm. The DAR seems to have been more diligent. Their library is a treasure trove. Although my great-great Aunts application deliberately left off my great grandfather as he was "divorced". Horrors, back then!

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