Example of an old Genealogy Record card before the new online system was made available to the public this week.
The big news that the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) recently released about the Online Research of the DAR Genealogical Research System sure is exciting, to men and women. Randy Seaver posted an explanation recently, http://www.geneamusings.com/2009/11/using-dar-grs-ancestors-and-descendants.html. His article is quite good, so there is no need for me to repeat it.
What I can do, for those who like a little background, is explain how the system used to work. Above is a copy of an original card. A new National Number was typed with the name of the child (Jesse Wright) of whom the new DAR member descended from, going to the patriot, in this case Asher Wright. More than one child's name could be on a card. If there were five children, you are lucky, because of the additional information you could get. Recently, I posted two examples of my very early ancestors who were DAR members, the first name listed in both the old and new systems. Sophia Davis Bishop's with National No. 36,686. See: http://lifefromtheroots.blogspot.com/2009/11/dar-application-1901-and-letter-from.html The old method was rather archaic, and errors were bound to happen, probably more frequently than the new data entry system. In addition, the cards could be filed away in the wrong place, or walked away. The room where the cards were stored, was off limits, but since I worked there, I managed to get copies of a good 10 or so of my ancestors. Now you can see why I am so excited. This is a great site to see if you have a Revolutionary War patriot.
A copy of the same information, from the new online site for Asher Wright is below.
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Image of the new
Note: As yet, I don't know how to make the links smaller. But at least they work.
DAR Online Research site: http://www.dar.org/library/online_research.cfm