By Bonnie Briscoe, DAR Member
In November, Sue Ellen Angle and Vicki Foote, were welcomed into the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) by the local Gila Valley Chapter. This occasion for these members was a highlight to the amount of work involved in successfully proving their direct lineage to patriots during the American Revolution.
The DAR, since its founding in 1890, requires documentation of each generation in a family line with records showing birth, marriage, death and a link from one generation to the next. This process can go easily if the applicant has a mother or grandmother who was a DAR member. However, if the applicant has to prove every generation up to a patriot, it can be a challenging endeavor but possible. Once the documentation is approved by DAR, the applicant becomes an official member of DAR for life and establishes a legacy for future members.
Sue Ellen Angle, after an intense search without results to one patriot, switched to another patriot (Cepheus Kent, Jr of Vermont). By persevering, she discovered the lineage of her great grandparents, who were on the DAR database. She was then successfully able to acquire documents that provided a series of links to her 4thgeneration. The other, older generations in her line were already approved by DAR.
For Vicki Foote, this process required her to document six generations and a link to the son of her patriot; the patriot being Moses Cherry of South Carolina. This could have been a daunting task but Vicki thoroughly enjoyed the challenge. She used a variety of sources to prove her line and met a number of family members along the way.
If you find the efforts of these two new DAR members to be intriguing, then you may want to join this organization. DAR is available to any woman 18 years or older who would like to document the lineage of her family to a patriot in the American Revolution. For further information, contact Bonnie Briscoe at (928) 428-5904 or any member of the Gila Valley Chapter. Online information is available at www.dar.org.
