[Magdalen] Political stance

[James Oppenheimer-Crawford]

To become a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the
applicant must document a clear line of descent from a Patriot.

http://www.dar.org/national-society/become-member/how-join

A Patriot (informal definition -- see the DAR website for the straight
scoop) is a person who was a member of the Army of the Revolution or of
some State militia, or a person who is documented to have given material
aid to the Revolution.

http://www.dar.org/national-society/acceptable-service

At each link in the line of descent, it must be shown that the child was
legitimate. Usually that is not difficult if you find the people, since
numerous documents will show that the couple was married, even if you
cannot locate the record of the marriage itself.
The DAR is somewhat concerned that not nearly all of the patriots are
known, and their lines of descent, consequently, have not been researched
for DAR purposes.  As you can imagine, the longer you wait, the colder the
trail gets.  My wife is getting involved in a project to create an index of
all known patriots. Obviously to do this literally is an impossible task,
but they are trying to create an index so that if anyone wants to research
their ancestors, they can tell readily if a person was a patriot.

There is an amusing case of a man who was drafted from his home in Hesse,
and came to America as a Hessian.  He was captured, and shortly thereafter
he was paroled after signing a document promising not to aid the Brits.  He
became a successful farmer and provided material to the Army.  As a result
of his help, he is formally recognized as a Patriot, and at least one
member of the DAR has him as her patriot.  I love that story!

A totally different matter would be the descendants of the Mayflower.
These folks are all descendants of someone who actually came over on the
Mayflower.  That is a discrete list; their names are known, and their
descendants are also pretty well known. By today, descendants of the
Mayflower probably constitute a very significant percentage of WASPs today.
They are estimated to number in the tens of millions.

https://www.themayflowersociety.org/

The Colonial Dames are a little different:

The NSCDA Constitution, Article III, sets forth the eligibility of members
as follows: *MEMBERSHIP. The Corporate Societies shall be composed entirely
of women who are descended in their own right from some ancestor of worthy
life who, residing in an American colony, rendered efficient service to his
country during the Colonial period, either in the founding of a State or
Commonwealth, or of an institution which has survived and developed into
importance, or who shall have held an important position in a Colonial
government, or who by distinguished services, shall have contributed to the
founding of our nation.*

*DATE OF ANCESTOR’S SERVICES. All services which constitute a claim to
membership must have been rendered before July 5, 1776, but this date shall
be held to include all signers of the Declaration of Independence.*

Article V,  Section 4, further explains the Corporate Societies role: *The
members of the Corporate Societies of The National Society of The Colonial
Dames of America at the date of the certificate of incorporation of the
Corporate Society shall be elected members of the corporation at the first
meeting of the said Society subsequent to the incorporation, and thereafter
no person shall be a candidate for admission unless invited and proposed by
one member and seconded by another member of the Society, to both of whom
the candidate must be well known, and by whom she shall be recommended. The
Board of Managers of each Corporate Society may decide whether to accept a
candidate proposed by a member of another Corporate Society.*
My source for this:
http://nscda.org/about-us/how-to-join/

There are, by the way, other similar societies such as the Sons of the
American Revolution, which has essentially similar eligibility requirements
as DAR.  My understanding is that SAR is dying out for lack of interest.
Membership in all of these groups is declining.
A fascinating different one would be the Society of the Cinncinatti, which
is as close as we came to an hereditary nobility. It is such a peculiar
thing that I think it best that the reader go to the website and read for
oneself.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_of_the_Cincinnati



James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
*“A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved,
except in memory. LLAP**”  -- *Leonard Nimoy

On Mon, Aug 3, 2015 at 6:04 PM, Grace Cangialosi <gracecan at gmail.com> wrote:

> Are all DAR members Mayflower descendants, or just descendants of someone
> who fought in the Revolutionary War?  And what's the difference between
> them and the Colonial Dames? (Sounds like a woman's soccer team)
>
> > On Aug 3, 2015, at 2:22 PM, "Charles Wohlers" <
> charles.wohlers at verizon.net> wrote:
> >
> > Hey! My wife is a Mayflower descendant! Maybe they're related?    ;-)
> >
> > Chad Wohlers
> > just back from picking a pint of wild red raspberries in
> > Woodbury, VT USA
> > chadwohl at satucket.com
> >
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message----- From: ME Michaud Sent: Monday, August 03,
> 2015 2:01 PM To: magdalen at herberthouse.org Subject: Re: [Magdalen]
> Political stance
> > I read somewhere recently that Sara Palin is a
> > Mayflower descendent.
> > -M
>