One of the many aspects of genealogy is organizations which are based on a person's lineage. The most widely known of these groups is the Daughters of the American Revolution, or DAR. It shouldn't have surprised me that there is also a group called the Sons of the American Revolution, or SAR. There are also organizations dedicated to lineage from the Mayflower, from the Civil War, and who knows how many others.
As I worked backward in my family tree, I found a couple of ancestors who had fought in the American Revolution. If you think about it, this isn't really remarkable since the number of potential ancestors grows exponentially as you travel back in time. My fourth great grandfather, Andrew Rish, was the person I used to prove my lineage for the SAR. In a typical family tree, you would expect to have 32 fourth great grandparents, 64 fifth great grandparents, and 128 sixth great grandparents. These three generations, having a total potential of 224 ancestors, are the pool that you might have to work from, since we are about six to eight generations removed from the Revolutionary War.
To put this into perspective, I realized that Andrew Rish was the great-grandfather of my great-grandmother, Nancy Huffman. Although I never met her (she died in 1940, six years before I was born), I do have many pictures of her and feel as though I knew her. By looking at my family tree in this manner, it tended to personalize my ancestors. This picture of her with a calf was taken in 1935.
A bit about Andrew Rish - He was born in South Carolina in 1756, twenty years before the Declaration of Independence was signed by our forefathers. He fought in the war as a part of the South Carolina militia, somewhat akin to our National Guard today. He died in 1818 at the age of 61, still living in South Carolina. Many of his descendants wound up in Mississippi where they became members of the DAR and SAR through his participation in the Revolution. I don't know the exact number of DAR and SAR members who used him as their patriot ancestor but it is substantial.
It is an old adage that you never get finished with genealogy. I'm now working on additional SAR lineage through the Pierce family and I'm about ready to submit it. We are also working on Louise's DAR membership through her mother's side, an ancestor named Darby Shawhan. He is an interesting study and might be the subject of a future blog. Many of his descendants became famous whiskey makers. Louise's application has been submitted and is waiting approval.
I should point out that both the DAR and SAR have extensive genealogy libraries and are more than happy to help you complete a membership application even if you are not into genealogy. Both are great organizations and I'm looking forward to more activities with them.
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