Finding Your Revolutionary War Ancestor
Editor’s Note: In preparation for the 250th Anniversary of the American Revolution, the Four Rivers Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR) Member William Sanders is sharing messages of the impact of the war on today’s society.
Some of us know more about where we came from than others. I knew very little about my family, before I started looking around 1993. My grandparents lived nearby, and I knew where one of my greatgrandparents was buried; that was it. So, how do you get from knowing nothing to finding your Revolutionary War Ancestor?
My process was very slow. There were very few if any genealogy websites in the early 1990's. My search began not with a website, but with several names and dates written on a piece of paper in my mother's Bible, and a trip to the courthouse in Butler, Alabama. With that trip, I confirmed the names of my great-greatgrandmother, my greatgrandfather, and his brother. Before you could say Jack Robinson (whoever he is), I jumped from 1993 to 1870. The sound of Jack Robinson's name had hardly cleared the air, and I was stuck again. While the 1870 census records revealed my great-great grandmother was from South Carolina, that's all it revealed. There was no husband listed with her. What happened to him? Were they divorced? In 2026? Yes. In 1870? No.
After much pondering, I asked myself if he had died during the Civil War. The youngest son my greatgreat-grandfather was age 7 on this census, which would have put his birth year at 1863. In 2002, we moved to North Alabama with my job. One day I heard that Wallace State University near us had a collection of Confederate Widow Pension Applications on microfiche. If you do not know what microfiche is, you might be young. I went down and spent part of the day looking through them. After much labor, I came across the name of a lady, that although she didn't sign the document as Amelia, the town matched perfectly. No offense to people of Mount Sterling, Alabama, there could only be one person with the same last name as mine that fought in the Civil War, because of its small size. I took the information off the microfiche, and filled out the application to get my greatgreat grandfather's service record from Montgomery. I checked the mail excitedly for weeks waiting for its return. On the day it came, I opened the envelope nervously expecting it would tell me that he had died in some great battle like Gettysburg. Instead, I found out his unit had guarded Mobile at the beginning of the war, and he had died of disease. Anyway, I got his name, and that he was from South Carolina also.
More years passed by, with more dead ends. Slowly more and more genealogy websites came into being. I have used just about all of them, and some are better than others.
The one I have used the most, with the best results is free. I don't know if putting a plug in for the site in this column is kosher, so I won't, but I will give you enough clues that you can figure it out on your own. Ithinkoneofthe best sites is run by the Mormon Church, although I am not Mormon (I am REDNECK). Their churches in larger towns even have genealogy libraries with genealogists that will help you for free. This site is easy to use and absolutely free. You set up your account with a username and password. To start with, you just need your mama and daddy's names and birthdays. Your grandparents' names and birthdays would help too. The thing that is so great about this website is it is being updated all the time, and people that are kin to you are researching at the same time you are. They might be 3rd or 4th cousins, and when you put your information in, it links your stuff to theirs, and you can jump from 2026 back a hundred years before you know. This site helped me find my Revolutionary War ancestors. I say ancestors because I have more than one.
You may ask, “When I find this Revolutionary War Ancestor what do I do with them?” I am glad you asked that. This July we will be celebrating the 250th Anniversary of the American Revolution, and what better way than to know the name of your ancestor and honor him or her. You can also honor them by becoming a member of one of two organizations. SAR (Sons of the American Revolution) if you're a man, or DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) if you're a lady. The SAR meets on the third Thursday evening of every month in the conference room of Chatters in Lyons at 6:30 p.m. to eat, followed at 7:00 p.m. with a historical presentation. You can come even if you're not a member, and if you don't want to find your ancestor on your own, we have genealogists that will help you. Sorry ladies, I don't know when the DAR meets, but we will find out if you're interested. Good hunting, and hope this column has inspired you to find your ancestor in the next 3 months.
