HOW TO USE THE DAR LIBRARY IN YOUR GENEALOGY RESEARCH

 This is a post taken from my website Preserve Your Tree. check it out for more genealogy articles , tips and ideas.

Preserve Your Tree is in no way affiliated with DAR. This post was made for the express intent of showing research resources, and is not a paid post nor endorsement.

The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR as they are often called) is one of the most well known historical lineage societies in the United States. The DAR is a lineage based service organization for women who are directly descended from a person involved in the American Revolutionary War.

FROM WIKIPEDA "A non-profit group, they promote historic preservation, education, and patriotism. The organization's membership is limited to direct lineal descendants of soldiers or others of the Revolutionary period who aided the cause of independence; applicants must have reached 18 years of age and are reviewed at the chapter level for admission. The DAR has over 185,000 current members in the United States and other countries. 

DAR was founded in 1890 as an offshoot to the Sons of the American Revolution (after the SAR refused womens entry to their society), and since then has had over a million members ! There are currently over 3000 local chapters of DAR, each chapter focusing on charity work and educational causes in line with DAR objectives of historical preservation, education and patriotism.

HOW CAN DAR HELP YOU IN YOUR GENEALOGY RESEARCH?

DAR has access to early American genealogy resources, and their Genealogical Research System (GRS) includes free online databases containing information on Revolutionary patriot ancestors, descendants of those patriots, as well as the vast array of genealogical resources from the DAR Library. The GRS provide access to the materials that DAR has amassed since 1890.

While you can find many of the records online (and more is coming online on a regular basis), most of them are available only at the DAR’s Library, located in Washington D.C. The Library is free to use and open to the general public Monday through Saturday. (AS OF OCT 2020 THE LIBRARY IS CURRENTLY CLOSED DUE TO COVID SHUTDOWNS AND WILL REOPEN IN PHASED ACCORDANCE TO DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA GUIDELINES) What if your ancestors weren't part of the American Revolution? A visit to the library is definitely worth your time thanks to the valuable information from collections and databases it provides to the public.

WHAT TYPE OF RECORDS CAN YOU FIND THROUGH DAR TO HELP IN YOUR RESEARCH?

"The DAR Genealogical Records Committee Reports comprise one of the most unique parts of the DAR Library’s holdings.  This 20,000+ volume set includes a wide variety of content including transcriptions of local probate, court and land records; Bible records; cemetery transcriptions; family genealogies and lineages; Revolutionary War service; and other genealogically significant types of records."

For more information on DAR , their library and databases, visit their website at www.dar.org