Resources and more

While reading through Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the War of the Revolution (MS&S, a 17-volume compilation authorized in 1891 - see below for on-line access to all volumes), I was struck by several things. For one, how can we thank those who put together this wonderful resource? The page count is above 17,000 which represents the effort to identify the patriots in one area (Massachusetts). For instance, New Hampshire's patriots are not included, though Maine is well-represented.

Too, the Gardner listing (Volume 6) starts on page 258 with Aaron and ends with William on page 282 (not counting other spellings, such as Gardiner). Then, one has to wonder which of these are descendants of Thomas and Margaret (finding out can be put on the task list; the thing would be to start with those that Dr. Frank identified).

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I got to MS&S as I was looking for patriots who were identified in a tree but did not appear in the D.A.R. database (see below). D.A.R. adds patriots when a new application proves the pedigree and provides the service record. D.A.R. suggests that people who were born between 1710 and 1765, as a rule, might be eligible as patriots if they meet the requirements.

Given someone born mid-1900, that would be 8 to 9 generations back. Given that women can be patriots, too, there could be 256+ people on that person's tree who are possible D.A.R. patriots. Of course, various factors reduce that number to something like 30, or so, for the max (assuming that you can prove the lineage and afford the genealogical fees). The number is large enough to keep one busy for awhile (lifetime?). 

The D.A.R. effort at a database is nice in that it will provide proven lines and allow future researchers to do tree matches to fill in holes. The DB is available for search by the public at the following link.

      http://services.dar.org/public/dar_research/search/?Tab_ID=1

Searching with "Gardner" for 'Ancestor Last Name' brings up 162 hits. That's a good number as there are about 7 or so people per page, for 24 pages. Does that indicate that the Gardner descendants have been fairly active in applying to D.A.R., as a whole?

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Index to on-line volumes (thanks to archive.org - seventeen volumes)

       Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the War of the Revolution

       v1 (A - Ber), v2 (Bes - Byx), v3 (C - Cor), v4 (Cos - Dry), v5 (Du - Foy),
       v6 (Fr - Gy), v7 (Ha - Hix), v8 (Hm - Jy), v9 (Ka - Lsu), v10 (Lua - Mop),
       v11 (Mor - Paz), v12 (Pea - Raz), v13 (Rea - Sey), v14 (Sha - Sth),
       v15 (Sti - Toz), v16 (Tra - Whe), v17 (Whi - Z)

Remarks:

06/05/2018 -- Referenced in Gardner's Beacon, Vol. VIII, No. 1 (June 2018).  

01/20/2021 -- Of late, we are appreciating D.A.R. as of the middle. That is, we're 250 years from the rebellion; we are 400 years from the early entry which goes back a little further. We are interested in establishing family threads from 1775 both ways. By family, we are talking the whole of the colonial experience, north and south. Of late, Ann performed the duties of Registrar for a DAR Chapter, while being Treasurer, too. It was a learning experience with regard to process, time required to do it right, possible modes of computational support, and more. John's suggestions with regard to a common database, which was held in the framework of the Hereditary Society Community's discussion, pertained to proving once for future reference. The Societies don't seem to like that idea. But, we will get back to this discussion soon, as 2020 did get everyone's attention about cloud'd work and its need (as well, as it's lack of maturity). Too, taking DAR as an example, if each generation of applicants proved the first four of their heritage, it would not be long before a substantial amount of applicants would only need to do a generation or two. At the other end, the Thomas Gardner Society is interested in increasing the coverage of the Patriots with respect to the number in MS&S who have no DAR reference. 

Modified: 01/20/2021