Getting to be a mismash

Started by Private User on Thursday, February 14, 2013
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There's no reason that we couldn't have an alphabetical index where when you click on the letter (or group of letters) it takes you to a linked project. So the top level project would in essence be an umbrella project. What do you think Private User?

Correct me if I am wrong but it makes sense to me to have a project or perhaps projects with (1) the patriot and (2) confirmed descendant DAR members. The reason is that some people might know their great grandmother but not know their patriot ancestor.

Faustine Darsey on partial hiatus helped me find my great grandmother's DAR application, which was very exciting. It was in her own handwriting and told of her various revolutionary ancestors. In my case I know my patriot ancestor, but some people might want to see that their X great grandmother (or father) was a DAR (SAR) and then they would find the application and the patriot.

Hatte - yes, you better articulated my thought about "great grandmother's who were DAR members."

I think we all know how difficult it can be to find artifacts and records for our ancestresses. Well, here's a major opportunity.

Erica Howton currently only store the display name in my database. I would need to store first, last, and gender to sort based on those factors and I don't have the space in the free database I'm using.

I am so excited about the ideas being bounced around. I also downloaded my husband's grandmother's DAR application, in her own handwriting. There was a $10.00 charge & it was sent to my email & we could print it out in a matter of minutes. We thought it was well worth the money.
Many of the surnames have more than one spelling. Also, the Patriots are listed in DAR by the state(s) for which they served. There are lots of possibilities for indexing.
I went into the DAR database to see how many Patriots they have. Rather than 300,000, the number is 209,180. This number is growing as new Patriots are proven by their descendants. I also checked to see how many ladies have become DAR members. The last number I could find was 916,173. That number is growing quickly. For privacy reasons, the applications turned in recently don't show the latest 4 generations. The 500,000 number I mentioned earlier is the approximated number of Public applications, probably submitted before 1970. Gradually, as time goes by, more are released. Many more applications are being submitted to DAR since they made their database available & it is easier today to do research.

About the "my great grandmother was a DAR member" situation.

We can help this person by explaining what is available and what they should do next.

1. Tell them in this DAR project about "record copies" - i.e. the applications they can buy.

2. Get them to the DAR database right away so they can search for their great grandmother themselves.

3. We don't need to duplicate what the DAR does, just make it easy for people to go there.

I found out that I was DAR eligible because I saw something in a profile I merged into about the DAR. That is why I started with the graphics to make it more obvious to the newbie Geni user.

Love the graphic! I search Findagrave - often there are DAR markers.

Private User You are missing a point. If you know the patriot is your ancestor, you would see this project listed in projects on the profile. If you do not know that the patriot is your ancestor, you will not find this project.

If your great grandmother is in a project for DAR -- it could be a sub-project to this -- she will have the project listed in her projects and thus you would be directed to somewhere which would tell you how to find your great grandmother's information and her ancestry.

Those of us who work with a lot of new members and people who don't know much about their family encounter this situation all the time. They don't know where to begin and they certainly would NOT come to a DAR project, but they would search and find the name of their great grandmother.

So, Hatte, do you agree that the BEST place for the DAR information is in the profile with a direct link to the DAR database ? I do.

So what is the value of this DAR project ?

To help people find their ancestry and to learn more about their ancestry.

That is the purpose of Geni.

I am glad we are thinking through this. There are two possibilities for new people.

1. No one has done any DAR research on the grandmother, but the descendent thinks grandma was a DAR. So the descendant wants to to find DAR info.

2. Someone HAS done research, and put the link into the profile.

Right ?

Well that's not my case.

1. I built my tree. An ancestor had the "right" dates to have served in the revolution. I found him in the DAR database.

2. From there I cross referenced his descendants and found my great great grandmother in the listing.

3. She may or may not have been a DAR member, but another of her descendants (therefore, my cousin) was, and cited her name in the application chain.

So the DAR member would be that deceased cousin in my tree.

I always put a link to the DAR database into the profile overview. I've even used the descendant listing as a source document to cite facts for a group of profiles. It's a great way to build a tree.

Ok, so I know I probably have 8-10 ancestors in my family tree that are revolutionary war patriots. I got started on Geneology because my Grandmother gave me a list of names that I was told were part of her research to become a member of DAR. I have been told she is NOT a DAR member. SO, my question is how do I become a member, and how do I find out for sure that Grandma was NOT a member?

Dea Lowry Go to your local DAR chapter. They will give you everything you need. Be prepared to furnish birth certificates from you back to whatever ancestor you find in their database.

@ Eldon OK, how do I find a DAR chapter? Where do I get the Birth certificates...Do I need them for ALL of the Patriots and connecting decendants! That could be over 100 birth certificates!!!

Dea,

Here is a link to the Chapters in Oregon,

http://www.dar.org/natsociety/chapters.cfm?State=OR

I would be thrilled to help you. Faustine

Dea Lowry Looks like you have a helper :-) No you just need a line to one patriot. Hope you have better luck than my wife had. Getting birth certificates from Missouri is almost impossible especially when you are not sure where someone died.

Thanks Faustine. There is one right here in my town!

Great. I was able to go into DAR just proving myself & my parents generation. You want to find the closest cousin, aunt, etc that is in DAR. You only have to connect to closest of kin w/ a good application.

So Dea, did you come to this project hoping to find some useful information ? Did you find it, or did you only find the information by asking questions ?

I am trying to make this project Useful, not just big.

Would a better title for the project be "thinking of joining the DAR" or "are you DAR eligible?" And then put in an FAQ ?

@Faustine so will DAR be able to tell me if family members are DAR members?

@ Annelise I came to the DAR project looking for information. Faustine and others have helped me after I asked questions. As the project stands now, I PERSONALLY am not really able to use it. If the Ancestors were listed alphabetically or searchable in some other way it would help. If there was a Sub-list of people that were recognised decendants (also searchable) that would also be helpfull. I was working my way through the profiles one at a time and making note of direct ancestors that were listed...then suddenly there were a bunch of decendants and i lost track of where I was in the list of Ancestors. I personally would like to see the lists of Ancestor profiles seperate from the Decendant profiles, although BOTH are very helpfull. SEARCHABLE is the key I think. Thanks for all the work you and others do to make this project usefull!

May I suggest a master DAR project as an overview of the DAR itself and sub projects for the persons listed as patriots, DAR members on Geni and those who want to join. The members could then help those who want to join.

All of the issues discussed here are valid for most (if not all) projects in GENI. The issue is being able to sort and search. But, I do think the DAR project has been of great benefit, because it flags all these profiles as DAR. This is very helpful to those who come along later doing research through GENI.

@Eldon, Yes, I like that
@ Jessica, True. I know some of my ancestors have been flagged. So far, only the Patriot has a flag. Is there a way we could flag decendants that are DAR listed with a different flag?

Dea Lowry Right now the only way to flag anyone is the profile picture or possibly a note in the About. Someone could make a variation of the patriot flag but would you want to replace an actual photo of the person or gravestone with that?

@ Eldon, No, I was refering to the DAR flag that is posted in the "about me" section

Dea

You mean a link into the DAR database for DAR Society members (who are also descendants) to facilitate more research?

If someone goes ahead and sets up a DAR Society project I'll move over those profiles.

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