As the war for independence is being waged in Iraq and attempts are being made to form a new government, we are reminded of our own countries early struggles during, and following the Revolutionary War

The Family Historian

Mary Alice Dell

Honoring our Country’s Nation Builders

As the war for independence is being waged in Iraq and attempts are being made to form a new government, we are reminded of our own countries early struggles during, and following the American Revolution which ended in 1781. During and after the war there were bitter feelings, property destruction, and bloodshed between two factions, the Tories who believed the revolutionist were wrong, and those rebels who were striving for freedom from the English rule.

There were heated arguments and strife for the next six years between the elected leaders of the citizens of our new country before a Constitution was adopted in 1787 and ratified by all the States in 1788. During many of those years, those who had remained loyal to the king were persecuted and their land (and in some case lives) lost.

The outcome of this war and nation building years of confusion and strife that followed it resulted in a new nation whose government changed the history of the world. We honor those early patriots today in many ways.

If you are able to trace your family back to the early 1800’s in this country, it is probable that you had a least one ancestor actively involved in the Revolutionary War. If you are over the age of 50, you will be probably looking at your 7^th, 8^th or 9^th generation. If all the lines of your family came that early to this country, it would mean you could have as many as 256 names to check for a Revolutionary Patriot, as that is the number of different surnames in your 9^th generation. Since not many of us had all our ancestors here prior to the American Revolution, it more likely you will have a smaller number. But even if you have traced one line back to the Revolutionary period and have just traced the ancestors of the new maiden name introduced each generation to that initial surname, you will have at least ten men or women related to you who could have been a Patriot.

What is a Revolutionary War Patriot?

A Revolutionary Patriot, by definition of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Sons of the American Revolution, is a person who made a contribution either by military or other service to the cause. This can be providing food, blankets, or other supplies to the army, or caring for the wounded. Any one who held office in or took an oath of allegiance to the new county, state or Continental government had to reject the King. That was treason and made the person subject to hanging if the English defeated the colonists. To serve on a jury or hold any kind of position in the new government meant taking the oath. In some states, you had to take the oath to record a document.

Records exist of those who held these early American offices from the Continental Congress down to the man appointed to repair the local roads. After the war, those who had donated supplies and money were allowed to apply for compensation, and thousands did, leaving a paper trail for us to follow to establish our family patriots. Members of the local DAR and SAR chapters in Kendall County are willing to help prospective members trace their family line to a patriot and prove his service.

Local Library Books May Name Your Ancestor

GSKC has added many books to its collection to assist in this project. Among them are a three-volume set listing thousands of DAR patriots whose service has already been proven by its more than 800,000 members. Copies of their applications with the family lines of these members are available through the national office. Contact Sharon Wolff

at 830-324-6691 for more information about this.

Other books include extracts of pension applications, lists of soldiers serving in the militia of various states, bounty land recipients, payments made for aid after the war, and oaths of allegiance taken in several states. Bounty land was awarded to soldiers after the war. To find out what information is available for a state in which you are interested, use the Library online catalog Advance Search engine. Input the word Revolutionary on one line and GEN on another to see what books are in the History/Genealogy Room of the Library. (Using the regular one word search will give you all the books in the entire Library with revolutionary as a subject.)

If you think you know the name of a Revolutionary War military ancestor, you will want to look at the Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Application file on the Heritage Quest website. That is the free site you can access at home through TexShare. To do that you need to get instruction and the password from the Library. Ancestry.com, the subscription site that is free at the Library, has several Revolutionary War data bases.

Although this years Independence Day celebration is past, it is not too late to honor your patriot by proving your line to him or her and registering it with DAR or SAR.

Published in the Boerne Star & Recorder Jul 24, 2007 and reprinted here with their permission.