I can't help you with specifics because I've never bothered to go through the application process. My 3x Great Grandfather was at Valley Forge with Washington and fought with the 6th Virginia Battalion. I have located copies of the Muster Rolls showing the various places where he fought. I have found several aunts and uncles on the DAR and SAR membership roles which would make my application relatively simple. You can also search their database for your ancestor to see if he is listed. You have to prove your direct lineage to that ancestor.

At one time you needed a sponsor but I'm not sure if that's still required. Do you have a local chapter? It is a service organization and the chapter in my area is fairly active and they require members to volunteer..

The DAR web site is the first place to start.

I am somewhat hesitant to answer. However I will. I am eligible to join the DAR. My grandmother was a member but resigned following the 1939 Marian Anderson incident - as did thousands of others. The DAR contacted me when I was in my late teens to try to get me to join. I told them to never contact me again. I have done a bit of research about them in the past few years and, despite their now claim of inclusivity, they are not the type of organization that I ever want to be associated with.

I second what rosestink says and what she found in her research about the organization. I saw much of it second hand.

Nope, although my ancestors were there in Philadelphia for it. My great+ grandfathers back then were all Quaker ministers. From what I’ve read, Quakers would take no sides in that war. But, also being related to Abraham Lincoln though Mary Todd Lincoln, I. I guess my family did a turn-around somewhere along the line! I wonder if there’s a Daughters of the Civil War (LOL)?

Rosesstink, I could have written your post. Even Eleanor Roosevelt resigned when they refused to let Marian Anderson sing in their hall here in DC and she arranged for Anderson to sing at the Lincoln Memorial instead. Despite having my family here in Virginia since the 1620s, I have no interest in joining that group. I wonder if women descended from slaves brought here before the Revolution are welcomed. I don't know.

I also agree with rosestink. I'm from a very old New England family with many direct connections to the American Revolution and beyond. I remember my grandmother telling me that although my sister and I could join the DAR, she hoped we wouldn't because they were a bunch of "snobs". That's all she said about it. I wasn't aware of the history of the DAR until I read a few of Eleanor Roosevelt's biographies. She resigned when the DAR banned Marian Anderson performing at their Constitution Hall in DC.

Happily, no.

Thanks everyone...

LynnM -- there is indeed -- Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War (for the North) -- a 20 year member here as my great grandfather fought for the Union and there is also the United Daughters of the Confederacy (for the south). Look up the DUVCW website and it will tell you if there is a tent near you. the DUVCW is a lineal organization while the UDC allows uncles as well as grandfathers.

Thank you, Martha. I had no idea there was anything like that!

Is there no difference between the DAR of our grandparents generation and the DAR of today?

Penny - The research I mentioned in my post was about the DAR of today. My conclusion was that there are not any fundamental differences between now and 1939. Looked at superficially, you might think they've changed. I do not believe that they have. The worst part is the racism. Another part of that fundamental is that they think they are special because they descended from Revolutionary War soldiers (teeda's grandmother's "snobs"). Nonsense. I am no better an American than my husband, whose forefathers arrived here during the Irish potato famine, or my friends whose parents emigrated from Mexico in the twentieth century. Your daughters will have to do their own research and decide for themselves, of course.

Kind of sounds like the English nobility found a way to be better than everyone even in the good ole USA.

Sorry arcy I don't understand that...can you explain? Were the founders British?

The majority of those that fought to get rid of England in the American Revolution were mostly of British origin. They came from a society that back in the day had a horrid cast/social system where by it was near impossible to better your lot in life. This is where the ideal of the "American Dream" came from. This is why America rejected the royal leaders concept. I am speculating the formers of the DAR were nobility wanna-bees and wanted to say "we are better than you because" and some how extract some social status from that. Other wise why organize something that from the start excludes?

LynnM -- there is a "Daughters" of almost anything including a new group -- Daughters of American Farmers!

arcy-gw -- Not ALL patriots were British. Mine were Swiss -- arriving in the 1600s.

The DAR was founded in 1889 -- 100 years AFTER! At that time it was the start of the old haves and the new haves and I was always told that the old haves founded the DAR to be "elite" and to keep out the new haves. I've also been told that the documentation for some of those early members may be considered "suspect" and not all that accurate for it was to keep the new haves out of the organization and if you were an old have, it was almost automatic -- they figured it out somehow.

On my father's side I am a direct decedent of the Chambers' of Chambersburg who fought in the Revolutionary War. I know that several of my female ancestors were members of the DAR. My grandmother was anti-DAR and either quit or never joined for philosophical reasons.

An acquaintance of mine is a member and I can assure you she is very liberal and would not be a member if it were still exclusionary. Our local chapter maintains The Block House at the point in Pgh.

I have not looked into the DAR in depth but it is possible that they have evolved and having new young blood join may help them evolve further.

And it may be some chapters are exclusionary. Not all chapters are necessarily the same.

My daughter, through her father’s side is eligible, but couldn’t care less. As a Christmas gift, I did a genealogy project for my husband’s father a number of years ago. He had some information but couldn’t fill it all in. I ended up getting back to the generation prior to the first that emigrated to the USA in the mid 1700s. The one weird, positive outcome was that we discovered his GG grandparents are actually buried just up the road from where we lived. His original family settled in Virginia, but the graveyard is in north Georgia. Such a weird coincidence that my husband and I ended up moving here. The graveyard is part of a historical landmark, but as a result of my research we ended up being allowed to buy 2 plots for his parents.

It’s a crazy place made up of ramshackle cabins, they call tents and a big center tent for the yearly revival(which is coincidentally going on this week.

Revival!

On my side, my daughter is eligible to be a member of the DBE, Daughters of the British Empire. I just thought it would be funny for her to join both, but she failed to see the humor in it lol.

My mother and I both were once DBE members. Our group was tiny and ineffective and just pitiful. We joined primarily because we both have a shared love of England, have traceable English ancestry, and wished to meet some British women in our community. We attempted several projects that would've had at least a small impact on charitable organizations, but the stodginess and the "well, we've never done it this way BEFORE" attitude in the group compelled both my mother and I to leave the group and give up our memberships. That particular chapter disbanded shortly thereafter, so we joke that we "Americans" put an end to them once and for all. ;-)

By definition, the DAR is exclusionary.

A NY Times article from seven years ago,

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/04/nyregion/for-daughters-of-the-american-revolution-more-black-members.html

Holy cow! I'm a new member of a very small chapter in rural Missouri and had no idea of the problems re: Marian Anderson. This is all news to me. (The area in which I live is 99% Caucasian so I guess you could say that we are far removed from racial issues, simply because of where we live.) You all are making me have second thoughts.

I do know that the DAR is very particular about proof of lineage. Our chapter's clerk/membership chair did a great deal of work to establish mine to a Massachusetts Quaker - who obviously did not fight but supported the Revolution in other ways.

I am 64 and the youngest in our chapter. Our primary focus is support of active military overseas.

If anyone is looking for a great, women's service organization that is no longer exclusive (aside of men,) the Junior League is pretty great. Service and camaraderie, especially nice for younger women.

Interesting reading, I have always wondered about this group but never did any research on it. My maternal ancestors came over from England in 1652 and settled in Massachusetts. My grandmother always said to remember that we were "Darn Yankees". (putting it nicely for Houzz) LOL!

I can date branches of my family to Martin's Hundred, 1622-3. Many ancestors fought against the British in the Revolutionary Way. My grandmother, who died in 1937 long before I was born, was Poet Laureate of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. I have no desire to affiliate with either DAR or UDC.

An acquaintance of mine tells me her daughter is eligible to be a Colonial Dame, though my acquaintance is not . . . and the mother-in-law makes sure my acquaintance knows it. I’d never heard of the Colonial Dames before.