1. Website. Go to the National Society SAR website at: www.sar.org, click on "Membership" and explore all the links. Under "For Members/Forms" read, print, or download the pamphlets "Preparation of Application Requirements" (Form 0912) and "General Information and Application Requirements" (Form 0910)
2. Documentation. You will need to provide a copy of your birth certificate and at least one document to connect each generation to the previous generation, all the way back to your patriot ancestor. Keep your originals and send only copies. You do not need the more expensive notarized copies. Some of the documents that will prove the connections are birth, death, marriage, land, probate or other court records, pension applications, printouts from census microfilms (not extracts or transcriptions), baptismal records, and Bible records. If you try but cannot find records for the earliest generations, the national registrar may accept copies of published records, such as family, town, or state histories. For published records, including family Bibles, copy the relevant pages plus the title page that shows the author, title, and date of publication. For handwritten documents that are difficult to read, include a transcription of the relevant parts. For census entries, submit a printout of the handwritten original. If you use a partial census image (to get a magnification that permits reading the relevant information) be sure to include one or more (overlapping) printouts that show the page identifiers, e.g. year, state, county, township, enumeration district, sheet, and page.
3. Discussion of Documents. In many cases it is helpful to write and include a discussion of how you have used several documents to support a parent-child relationship. For example, a father's will may mention two sons and leave out a third (the one in your lineage) who died before the father's will was written. You may have an obituary of one of the named brothers that notes this third brother, and together the documents show that the third brother was the child of the father. A discussion is also helpful when you have a county history (which may not be acceptable by itself) that makes a more coherent story than census and probate records that are acceptable documents but do not show the relationship so clearly.
4. Preparation of Documents. On each document, note exactly where it came from, e.g. "Page 187, Book K, Clinton County, NY Marriage Records." Write on the top, right margin of the top page of each document the generation to which it pertains, e.g. "Gen. #5." In each document, use a red ball point pen (not a highlighter or felt-tip) and a ruler to underline the names of your ancestors (and yourself on your own documents). Use a pencil to write on the back top center of each document: Your surname, your patriot ancestor's surname, and "Vermont" in the format "Doaks / Smith / Vermont." Orient all your documents so they are about 8-1/2" inches wide across the top and with the length no more than about 14". Fold larger documents so they are approximately that size. Use a large paper or binder clip to hold your entire submission together but do not put it in a cover or binder.
5. Proof of Patriotic Service. You need to prove your patriot ancestor's service. An approved SAR or DAR application may be used to do that. (See Item #6 below.) Oddly, the SAR and DAR Patriot Indexes are not acceptable proof ofservice. You should obtain a copy of your patriot's pension and bounty land warrant application. Go to the National
Archives challenging website at: http://www.archives.gov/ and try to find "Federal Military Pension Applications - Complete File." You should order the complete file for $37. Not every patriot applied for a pension. There are also books that publish lists of those who served and lists of Revolutionary War pensioners, including the widows and minor children. If there is more than one patriot with the same name in the same unit or area, you will have to prove which one is your ancestor.
6. SAR or DAR Member Ancestors. If one of your lineal ancestors is, or was, a member of the SAR or DAR you may only need to document your descent from that member. If an uncle, aunt, or cousin is, or was, a member of the SAR or DAR then you may only need to document your descent from the ancestor you had in common with that member. You need to provide the national number of the SAR member or, for a DAR member, a record copy of their application from DAR national headquarters. (See the addresses below. Contact them for the current charge.) Include that application with your documents and use the information on it to complete your own application worksheet. For current or past SAR members, we may be able to provide their national SAR umber from the SAR Patriot Index CD, which should define the person whose application you want copied. Unfortunately, some old SAR and DAR applications do not meet today's standards so you may need to provide additional documents.
SECTION II: PREPARING YOUR APPLICATION
1. With a Computer. You will need to complete an application worksheet. If you have a computer it is much easier to use the interactive version. You can download it from the SAR web site at www.sar.org. Under "Membership / Application Forms" select "SAR Application Template (Bristor)" then select "Bristor Application SAR Application
Template." Download both the "brisinst.doc" instructions (read them) and "bristmpl.dot," the application template. If you have trouble with that, we can send it to you as an email attachment or on a disk. Unfortunately, it is in 8-1/2 x 14" format. We can send you 8-1/2 x 14 paper. Better yet, you can submit it as an email attachment without printing it. When the registrar accepts the draft application, send him two copies of your documents. After checking it, the registrar will print out two copies of your application on special watermarked archival paper and send them to you for signature. Sign, in black ink, and return both completed final copies.
2. With a Typewriter. You will need to complete an application worksheet. If you do not use a computer, we will send you a printed form to be completed by typewriter or by hand-printing. Return your completed worksheet to the registrar with two copies of your documents. After it is approved, he will send you two blank copies of the same form on special, watermarked archival paper. The final application must be typed. Sign, in black ink, and return both completed final copies.
SECTION III. PROCESSING YOUR APPLICATION
1. Sponsors. If you know Vermont Society SAR members who can sign as your sponsor or co-sponsor, please ask them to do so before returning your final application. Otherwise, we will find two members to sponsor you.
2. Dues and Fees. Send two checks with the two final copies of your application: One for $85 (for the national dues and application fee) payable to "National Society, SAR" and the other for $25 (for the state dues & total postage & handling - $15 + $10) payable to "Vermont Society, SAR." Do not staple your check, or anything else, to the application forms.
2.1 Dual Members - Send $15 with application from available from the National Site
3. Processing. The registrar and the secretary of the Vermont Society of the SAR will sign your completed application, obtain sponsors' signatures, and send it, with your documents, to NSSAR headquarters. The Vermont Society will keep the second copy of your final application. At that time we will place you on our mailing list for all society meetings and events. Approval takes a month or more after NSSAR receives your application. If the NSSAR headquarters contacts you directly for additional documentation for your application, please inform the society registrar. You can check on the status of your application at: http://www.sar.org/hq/application/. Click on
"Vermont."
4. Acceptance. NSSAR headquarters will notify you of acceptance by a form that they will send to you and to our society secretary/treasurer. They keep your application form and documents.
5. Registrar. The current registrar is:
Robert H. Rodgers
2284 South Street
New Haven, VT 05472
Robert.Rodgers@uvm.edu
Contact him with any questions.
SECTION IV: SOME SOURCES AND RESEARCH FACILITIES
The Revolutionary War pension and bounty land warrant records can be an excellent source of family history information. This is because the veteran or his widow needed to apply for and justify a pension. The veteran usually told what unit he joined, when and where, listed his officers, his rank, outlined his service, and sometimes described the battles in which he participated. In addition, these files may give the veteran's date and place of birth, and those of his spouse and children, plus marriage and death dates on family members. Some applications were accompanied by discharge papers, marriage certificates, and pages from family Bibles. When financial need was a requirement to qualify for a pension a list of property may be included. If he moved after the war, the pension records may show his successive locations.
Pension records start with an application for a pension and end with the death of the last beneficiary, which could be the veteran, his widow, or a dependent child. So they can contain information on all of those family members. Not all veterans qualified for a pension before they died. Initially, pensions went only to widows and veterans disabled in the war. But as the years passed and the veterans aged and became infirm, and as attrition reduced the number of veterans left to pay, the requirements were gradually relaxed. Those who died before they qualified and applied will not have a pension file. However, a pension file may exist even if the application of a veteran, widow, or dependent child was rejected.
Also see the 1790 and later U.S. Census, state censuses, tax rolls, probate and land records and both government and church records of births, deaths, and marriages. At www.glorecords.blm.gov search Bureau of Land Management land patents by warrantee (veteran) to see if a Revolutionary War bounty land warrant was exchanged
for land or sold. Some states also gave bounty lands.
Vermont Historical Society Library, 60 Washington Street, Barre, VT 05641-4209. 802-479-8500. www.vermonthistory.org/library. Call for hours. Has a large library of genealogy books and, for members, access to
Heritage Quest Online. The Vermont state law library next to the State House has the entire US census for VT on
microfilm.
Family History Center, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints,
Hershey Road, Barre, VT 05641. 802-229-0482. Call for hours. The entire
catalog of the main library in Salt Lake City is available online at www.familysearch.org. They do not lend their books but the local center can
order microfilms of books--or any of their microfilm reels--for a small fee.
National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, 1000 South Fourth Street, Louisville, KY 40203-3292. 202
589-1776. www.sar.org.
Daughters of the American Revolution, 1776 D Street NW, Washington, DC 20008. www.dar.org. Library: 202
879-3229. One of the best genealogy libraries. Take SAR membership card for free use, otherwise there is a small
charge.
The National Archives, http://www.archives.gov/. Contains a treasure trove of genealogical information--if you can
find it. Their extremely complex website changes frequently. You may need to call them at 1-866-272-6272.
(1/2006)
