A few weeks ago now – how time flies! – I got an email notifying me that my application for NSDAC was verified. National Society Daughters of American Colonists, or DAC for short, “…members are descendants of a man or woman who rendered patriotic or civil service to the American Colonies prior to 4 July 1776,” says their website. They are differentiated from Colonial Dames (CDXVIIC) in that in the latter society, you have to trace back prior to 1701, so DAC is theoretically easier to join, as many DAR patriots had service (as listed here: http://nsdac.org/membership-2/become-a-member/membership-eligibility/) prior to the Revolution. I will be officially admitted later this month.
After May, when my term as Chapter Regent is complete, I’ll send in a couple of supplemental lineages for both DAC and Dames to clean them up. I’ll toy with Daughters of Indian Wars and of Colonial Wars (both of whom I can use Evan Watkins the patriot for, or maybe even John Pringle, as both served in Lord Dunmore’s War), and maybe the Colonial and Antebellum Planters because one of my earlier William Jenningses is on their ancestor list. I’ll send a bunch of new lineages to First Families of Kentucky, too.
Jamestowne will forever be on my list because I have connection problems in generations 5-7, but that also means that Magna Carta and all of those ancient royal western European-based lineage societies are probably a pipe dream because my gateway ancestor goes through the same line as my Jamestowne people. First Families of Maryland is problematic because I can’t officially connect my Watkinses with the Beckwiths. And so on.
Sigh. Talk about first world problems…!
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But there comes a point where one has to consider drawing the line, as it’s impossible to be active in all of them. And, unless you’re really flush, you generally can’t afford to be a member of all of them at the same time. I do know several people that have invested a LOT of time and money to collect fifty pounds of mini insignia to wear, whether as a bracelet or on a branch bar. You can hear them jingle as they walk around from a mile off.
That’s not my aim. Like many genealogy buffs, for me it’s a matter of leaving a documentation trail for others in the future, as well as having decades of work preserved. There’s also the challenge of proving the work up to the genealogical proof standard. The most bling I do for my collateral societies is a “mini” – I’m not doing the main pins and ancestor bars for anything other than DAR at this point.
There is a lineage society for almost everything now; several new ones have popped up in the last few years. National Society Descendants of American Farmers is one of the newest, and that one is actually quite clever – the number of people in this country that had farmer ancestors no later than 4 Jul 1914 is almost endless. I used that to document and honor my mother’s family, all of whom came here just before and just after the Civil War (which means they aren’t eligible for anything, generally), and to use my namesake pioneer ancestor.
It does get a little silly, though. I can buy off on Bench and Bar (Jennings again), and Flagon and Trencher (Evan the Ferryman), but they’re run by the same guy who also runs about five others, and the response time is slow and the backlog is crazy. I can spend money on other things, methinks.
As you start scrolling through on this page (http://www.hereditary.us/list_a.htm#), it starts getting nuts. There is a railroad workers lineage society starting up. I could do it – my grandfather was a dispatcher for the Illinois Central – but I just… can’t. I have other things demanding my time right now.
I guess my own goal right now is to aim for the big-gun societies and deal with the others at my leisure.
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Earlier this week, Mrs Van Buren, President General of DAR, announced that Continental Congress will be virtual again this year. It’s regrettable, but nothing to be done about it. I am completely unsurprised, especially when DC still holds fast to the 25% workforce capacity directive and continues to ban large gatherings.
On the upside, it’s another chance for more members that will likely never be able to go in person to have access to CC events and workshops – going to CC is EX-PEN-SIVE and so it’s a chance to have at least the partial exposure to the National level activities and scope. To me, that’s the silver lining of Covid.
But maybe that means I can take a solo research trip…? hmmmmmm….
Bluebonnet Chronicles 