Thursday, November 19, 2009

DAR Genealogical Research Database


After nearly a decade of scanning, indexing, and other behind-the-scenes work by DAR members and employees, the DAR Genealogical Research System (GRS) is now available on their public website.
Click here to search online.

The GRS is a growing collection of databases that provide access to many materials collected by the DAR over the past 119 years. On the GRS page, several tabs enable searching in the following databases:

--Ancestor (established DAR Revolutionary War Ancestors and basic information about them with listings of the applications submitted by descendants who joined the DAR [updated daily])

--Member (limited access to information on deceased/former DAR members – not current members.)

--Descendants (index of generations in applications between the DAR member and the Revolutionary War ancestor. There is much eighteenth and nineteenth-century information here. [ongoing indexing project])

--GRC (everyname index to 20,000 typescript volumes (some still being indexed) of genealogical records such as cemeteries, Bibles, etc. This index is not limited to the period of the American Revolution at all.)

--Resources (In particular, the digitized DAR Library Revolutionary Pension Extract Card Index and the Analytical Index Cards. Other information sources will be coming in the near future, mostly relating to Revolutionary War service, bibliographies, *Forgotten Patriots* (updates), etc. Read the introductions to these to learn why these are both important genealogical indexes. For example, the Rev. War pension index includes the names of people *mentioned in* those pensions that were abstracted (not just the pensioner or widow)!!!!)

--Library Catalog (Their book, periodical, and manuscript holdings)

Each of these databases has interrelated content, and a description of each is given more fully on the website. You will notice restricted information in many search results. This is the result of a concerted effort to protect the
identity of DAR members while providing historical genealogical information to researchers.

The national numbers of members (without the names of living members) given in the search results are needed to order copies of applications and supplemental applications. They do not lead online researchers to any other information about the member.


(Received from: Eric G. Grundset, Library Director, DAR Library, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, 1776 D Street, N. W., Washington, DC 20006-5303

Contact him at egrundset@dar.org or 202-879-3313)

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