Don’t think about popping into a Daughters of the American Revolution meeting and casually becoming a member.
It’s a group with specific membership requirements, staunchly patriotic, with the paperwork to prove it. Prospective members must research their family tree and document a connection to a Revolutionary war patriot.
For instance, Rose Mitcham of Lynnwood, chapter regent and state lineage chairwoman, researched several lineages of Revolutionary War soldiers in her family, including Timothy Barnes II, who fought in the Battle of Lexington; Nathan Durkee of Fort Edward, New York; and Silas Richmond, who supported troops.
“I have Mayflower lineage,” Mitcham said. “I have Washington pioneers including Chauncey Monroe Messenger, who was a Civil War soldier and served in the Indian Wars in the Oregon Territories, and Ephraim Palmer, whose lineage goes back to a great-great-grandfather who served with Miles Standish.”
Club members follow DAR goals to promote historic preservation, education and patriotism.
The organization was founded Oct. 11, 1890, and incorporated in 1896 by an Act of Congress. There are 165,000 members in 3,000 chapters around the country.
Everett registrar Cheryl Healey researched her roots, including taking trips to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.
She found a swashbuckling pirate and ancestors from Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia.
A cousin suggested she join DAR using lineage from her father’s side, with relatives who served in the Revolution.
“I produced a 3-pound application a year later,” Healey said. “I was as proud of my first approved patriot as I am of the dozen more that I have already proved or continue working on.”
She traced her lineage back to John Cessna, who served in the Revolutionary War. Healey loves helping potential members do genealogical research.
She recently received boxes and boxes stuffed with Marcus Whitman information found in an Everett basement, with papers from 1911 to the 1940s. DAR was organized in Everett in 1911 by Allie Belle Hood Hager with 23 members.
The group meets at 10 a.m. the second Saturday of each month at the Snohomish Public Library’s multipurpose room, 311 Maple Ave., Snohomish.
There are chapters in Edmonds, Langley and Oak Harbor.
“While DAR supports a strong national defense, it is not a political organization, nor does it lobby,” Healey said. “Its membership includes women from all political parties, races and ethnic backgrounds, from age 18 and older.”
The group has marked historical locations in the area. The Marcus Whitman Chapter sponsored markers and monuments at Grand Avenue Park in Everett (about Capt. George Vancouver’s entry into Port Susan), the Point Elliott Treaty Monument at Rose Hill Community Center in Mukilteo and a plaque that marks the Ebey Blockhouse near Coupeville.
For more information, visit www.dar.org.
Get lineage paperwork done in time for the 2011 centennial of the Snohomish County chapter.
Columnist Kristi O’Harran: 425-339-3451 or oharran@heraldnet.com.
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