SONS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

History of the NSSAR Patriot Index Project

In the Winter 1994 Issue of The SAR Magazine, then President General Robert Vance, Sr (1912-2002) expanded on the dynamic program for the SAR that he had previously unveiled. The cover of that Issue carried a pyramid outlining New Dimensions For The SAR which had been approved by the Trustees. Included in his New Dimensions was the publication of a Patriot Index that would include genealogical information from Membership Applications. The same issue included an article about Compatriot Russell D Page, a member of the Executive Committee, presenting the Society with a contribution given by Mrs Ruth L Long in memory of her deceased husband, Compatriot Harold O Long. She requested that her gift be used to prepare the Patriot Index.

With funding in place, work started on the detailed planning necessary for the publication of a Patriot Index. The results of this planning were that the Patriot Index would be structured as a Linked Lineage Data Base (LLDB) published on a CD-ROM. The concept of a Linked Lineage Data Base is that each Patriot Ancestor is linked to his/her descendants through to the applicant (and any children/grandchildren included on his application) in standard genealogical format.

Once the publication format had been established the Patriot Index Committee decided that the Patriot Index CD would contain information from three sources: (1) - the Ancestral Cards on file at National Headquarters; (2) - Member Primary and Supplemental Applications from State Archives; (3) - New Primary and Supplemental Applications as they are approved by National Headquarters.

(1) - Ancestral Cards are used by National Headquarters to locate approved applications based on a Patriot Ancestor's name. These cards, which go back to SAR Application #1, contain varying amounts of information. In the early days of the Society they contained only the Patriot Ancestor's name, who made the application and his National and State Numbers. Those currently being added to the file contain, in addition, the Patriot Ancestor's date and location of birth and death, his/her spouse's name and the child of the Patriot Ancestor who starts the descendancy to the applicant as well as that person's spouse.

The information on the cards was keyed into the Master Patriot Index data base by over 50 volunteers using a special program developed for the Project. This keying phase was completed in the fall of 1997. After the information on each card had been keyed, the names were merged to eliminate as many duplicates as possible although in many cases there was not enough information to permit merging. Each Patriot Ancestor's record in the LLDB, keyed from Ancestral Cards, will contain the name of the person making the application together with his National and State Numbers. Typically a Patriot Ancestor will start a lineage "tree" that includes from one to three generations.

(2) - Genealogical information from Member Primary and Supplemental Applications in SAR State Society Archives. The Ancestral Card portion of the Project included only the Patriot Ancestor and, in most cases, his spouse and "Line Through" child/spouse. This second source of information contains the entire line of descent from the Patriot Ancestor to the applicant and, in many cases his children/grandchildren. This genealogical data was keyed on a state by state basis. The lineage trees from this source will contain up to 14 generations.

Applications from State Archives are no longer being used as the basis for inputing data to the Master Patriot Index data base.

(3) - The third source of data is from copies of Primary and Supplemental Applications made as soon as they are approved by National Headquarters. The creation of copies for this purpose was started in the Spring of 1997. Information from these applications are the primary source of data added to the Second and later Editions of the SAR Patriot Index CD.

9/19/2002