I met with the local DAR chapter president today and I’m so, so excited. I have been working on gathering my necessary documents to prove my lineage and she said I have a big chunk of it already! I’m so happy. This has been a personal goal of mine for a very long time and I’m so close.
Someone asked me why I wanted to belong to the DAR so badly and today I discussed it with her at lunch – if we don’t remember our ancestors and honor them by telling their life stories, however big or small they may be, then who will? History books in the schools already leave out so many important facts and details; if we don’t keep perpetuating our ancestor’s histories, they’ll be lost in time to just vague scholastic blurbs in textbooks. They deserve better than that.
I recently read my one great-grandfather’s obituary (I think I mentioned this before) and I was so struck by the struggle he faced marching from Ohio to the South in the Civil War, eating from the mule’s feed just to survive when food supplies were dire. Details like those that show the hardiness, resourcefulness, character and strength they possessed. Those things you won’t read about in textbooks but should be remembered and retold. I know when I read it, he became more than a name on a family tree slot. I felt pride that I came from someone with that fortitude.
As I ran my fingers over their signatures on the documents I’ve been collecting for these grandparents I’ve never met, I felt a bond growing. The more I learn about them, the stronger it becomes. I never expected that when I began my genealogy journey. It is what fuels me and pushes me backward through time towards them, soaking in every detail of their rich lives. I don’t know if I can ever stop reading or learning about any of them….or searching for more.
And that is why I want to join the DAR – for my daughter, my future grand daughter and her daughter’s daughters to come.