The Ancestral Cards contain only one or two generations and thus do not provide a complete lineage to the applicant. When the entry was created from Ancestral Cards the applicant's name is included in the Notes box (captioned DESC:) with his National Number as a point of information. The applicant's name does not show in the Notes box if his name is included in the lineage.
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WHY DON'T SOME OF THE LINEAGE RECORDS HAVE DATES ON THEM? Ancestral Cards only contain dates for the Patriot Ancestor so spouses and children and the spouses of these children do not have any dates in the records. Also many of the early applications were simply lineages with no dates being supplied.
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WHY DON'T SOME OF THE LINEAGE RECORDS HAVE LOCATIONS ON THEM? Just as the Ancestral Cards only contain dates for the Patriot Ancestor so they only contain basic location information for the Patriot Ancestor.
In the case of lineages from applications, location information has been required only since about 1955 - prior to that time only dates were required and prior to about 1910 not even dates were required.
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WHAT INFORMATION CAN I EXPECT TO FIND ON AN APPLICATION? This is a difficult question to answer because different applications have different levels of proof included. Sometimes an application will reference another application for all its proof - for example a son joining based on his father's approved application.
Other than the case of the son joining on his father's application (or uncle's or grandfather's, etc.) or his mother's DAR application, most applications have at least some references as to where the information was obtained (as against citing another application).
Early applications, which required little proof, often have a great deal of information. These applications have a place for a description of the Patriot Ancestor's service and, sometimes, these are quite long and informative. Also some applications will have additional lineage information given in support of the Patriot Ancestor's service.
Later applications will more often cite specific references (books, family records, census listings, etc.).
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WHY DO SOME LINEAGES GO BACK FURTHER THAN THE PATRIOT ANCESTOR? Some members, on their application, supplied generations prior to their Patriot Ancestor. These generations were not checked by the SAR Staff Genealogists - in fact they are usually "marked off." Whether or not these additional generations were included in the Patriot Index was up to the person keying the particular application. In many cases the parent of the Patriot Ancestor has been included in the Patriot Index to facilitate merging of sibling Patriot Ancestors.
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WHY ARE NOT ALL THE CHILDREN OF A PATRIOT ANCESTOR LISTED? The information of the majority of the Patriot Ancestors included in this Patriot Index were obtained from Ancestral Cards
. Many of these cards do not include the "Line Through" child - as a result many of the children of Patriot Ancestors are not included in this index.
The fact that a child is not listed does not mean that there is no application using that child on file.
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WHAT DOES "FUTURE APPLICANTS MUST PROVE LINEAGE" MEAN? This (sometimes abbreviated as "FAMPL") indicates that there is a question on the lineage. Sometimes it is apparent from the material on the CD, such as a child with two different mothers, and sometimes not. In any case care must be used in validating such a lineage.
It should be remembered that this SAR Patriot Index CD is an index to what is on file at SAR Headquarters in Louisville, KY and not intended to be used in any other manner.
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WHAT DOES "FUTURE APPLICANTS MUST PROVE SERVICE" MEAN? This (sometimes abbreviated as "FAMPS") indicates that there is a question on the service of the Patriot Ancestor and future applicants may not cite the service shown on the application as proof.
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IS GEDCOM CAPABILITY AVAILABLE ON THE PATRIOT INDEX CD? There was no GEDCOM capability in the first edition of the Patriot Index CD but in the second edition click on the "File" button and follow on screen directions. Remember that the thrust of this CD is that it is an index to material on file at SAR Headquarters in Louisville, KY and that the data should not be used without further verification.
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WHAT DO THE ENTRIES IN THE NOTES BOX MEAN? The notes contain three different types of information for a Patriot Ancestor.
1) The first line contains the word SERV: followed by the service that particular Patriot Ancestor performed in the cause of freedom. For example, using the Patriot Ancestor Comfort Titus, the entry is "SERV: PS Sgt CT" indicating he performed some generalized Patriotic Service (PS) plus he was a Sergeant in one of the military forces of the American Revolution. These services were performed from the state of Connecticut.
2) Comments about the record. The notes for Comfort Titus are:
"#57518 has date of birth as 23 Oct 1741. #57518 and #138121 has location of birth as Sterling, CT"
In this case application #57518 showed a date of birth different from other applications (23rd of October rather than the 22nd) and applications #57518 and #138121 showed that Comfort Titus was born in Sterling, CT while other applicatio(s) showed birth in Rehoboth, Bristol Co, MA. Notes may or may not show the specific application numbers that gave rise to the note.
Notes such as these may also appear in records other than those of Patriot Ancestors.
3) A listing of the National and State Society SAR numbers that have used this particular person as their Patriot Ancestor. The applicant's name is included here with the caption "DESC:" if the information came from an Ancestral Card. If no "DESC:" is listed it indicates that the member's full lineage as shown on the application is included. Note that the names following "DESC:" are not included in the CD index.
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WHAT DO NUMBERS IN FRONT OF COMMENTS MEAN? When a comment in the Notes box can be linked with a specific application that application's national number preceeds the note. Comments can cover a broad list of subjects - while most reference differences found between applications some Comments are interesting facts copied from the application.
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WHAT IS PATRIOT ANCESTOR'S SERVICE?
On the Patriot Index CD, each Patriot's Family Group record contains a NOTE box which contains the SERVice heading followed the service designation which was used by SAR Members when they obtained their membership followed by the state in which the service was performed.
Click here for a list of
service designations suggested for use by SAR members. The Service Designation used in the SAR Patriot Index is that found on the application and thus may not be included in this suggested list.
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WHAT DOES "PRIVATE" IN A LOCATION OR DATE FIELD MEAN? The word "Private" has been inserted on the screen displays to indicate that the application has information in the field(s) but for privacy reasons it is not included on the CD. If a copy of the application is ordered from SAR this blanked out information will be included.
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WHAT ABOUT THE ACCURACY OF INFORMATION ON THIS CD? The accuracy of the information contained on this CD varies due to many factors. First is that the information contained here was copied from the information submitted by members to determine SAR eligibility. Verification by Staff Genealogists has varied over the past 100 plus years from (early on) cursory to (current) rigorous. Second the information has been transcribed from either the original records or microfilm copies of them by volunteers who, try as they might, have made keying errors. Third the merging operation, which was again done by volunteers, is a difficult process and very error prone.
If you find any transcription errors, please help us correct them.
Transcription error corrections may be mailed to:
NSSAR Patriot Index Committee
1000 South Fourth Street
Louisville, KY 40203
or the information may be e-mailed to
drobinett@nbtx.com
In order for corrections to be handled it is necessary that the Name of the Patriot
Ancestor be inlcuded together with dates and locations of his/her birth and death in order that
the proper record may be located. Always include the information in error so that it may be identified.
The basic concept of this CD is that it is, as its title indicates, an INDEX to material in SAR files. Please use it as such.
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3/11/2005
pi-faq.htm
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