If eligible would you join the DAR?

DAR = Daughters of the American Revolution


First off I am not the eligible one, I am 100% Eastern and Southern European peasant stock.

But...my MIL told me that through her family my daughter is eligible to join the DAR. Now she never chose to do so for herself as far as I know but she mentioned it to me a while ago and I have mulled it over.

Personally I just don't give a hoot, but my own mother told me that she hears there are scholarships and stuff like that which would be available to my daughter should I sign up my little gal.

I have a hard time getting over the DAR's past racist behavior but don't know if they are still up to the same old tricks...and don't want my kid associated with that...

So what would you do?

and having an ancestor who was involved is certainly nothing to be ashamed of. The Democratic Party itself has a racist past in the south, and Lord knows it has been reformed. I have Revolutionary War soldiers in my family tree, but as far as I know none of my female relatives have joined the Daughters, but if they wanted to I'd be happy for them.

....DAR actually stood for "Daughters of the American Ravioli" (like it did in the movie All I Wanna Do, with Gaby Hoffman and Kirsten Dunst)! :9

and was very disappointed that I wanted nothing to do with it. The scholarship angle is worth considering though, I suppose. :shrug:

I used to live in a small midwestern town where most of the women over 50 were pretty evenly divided among DAR, the Order of the Eastern Star, PEO (what does that stand for? It's supposed to be some sort of big secret. :shrug: ), the VFW Auxiliary and the Eagles' Auxiliary. There were more women's organizations in that town than churches or bars. I'm not much of a joiner.

out what they did though..

Once, when I was a young newspaper reporter, I had to go up to one of their meetings, just above the Oddfellows' meeting hall, to shoot a "grip-and-grin" photo of the ladies presenting a check for something. I made the egregious error of entering their meeting without first knocking. :scared: You would have thought I'd committed an unpardonable sin, like voting Democrat or something. :scared: Heck, I was 22. I didn't even know the secret handshake. :shrug:

My mother's sister did our family tree and she did manage to trace us to a patriot (I'd have to get out the info, it's been so long since I looked at it),

But the DAR is a very strange institution. I once even applied for a was offered a job there when I first moved to DC, but the overly strict hierarchy was a bit much for me.

to sing before them at Constitution Hall... when they realized that the beautiful voice came from an African American woman.

Elanor Roosevelt countered by inviting Ms. Anderson to sing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

Like you - I am in no way qualified - but knowing their elitist history, I would have no more interest in joining than I would in joining the Junior League.

Here are some resources for researching African-American genealogy at the DAR library. Freedmen fought in the Revolution. And some African-Americans are, of course, descended from members of the finest old Southern families.

www.dar.org/forms/library/LG-1003.pdf

I'm ineligible, myself. But if I were, I might look into the local chapter.

there isn't much point in my opinion. It's pretty much a club of little blue haired women with nothing better to do, IMO.

but would never consider joining.


on edit - see salin's post - there are many reasons why that organization does not appeal to me.

aren't as honorable as we would wish. My parents both had ancestors who fought in the revolutionary war. My mother is a DAR. She has tried for years to get me to join- with her side and my dads. I wouldn't do it but I do know that even with the snotty old ladies they do many good things and are keepers of history in a way. It is not a shameful organization by a long shot.

Heidi FYI - Eastern Star are the female side of the freemasons. I don't know what PEO is though.

Even though they are eligible. Not even my grandmother,and she is the one who started the geneology research.

my relatives were 'regents' and all that kind of crap-
i told them i wouldn't join any group that wanted only to glorify their ancestors without excepting the guilt as well- this was back in the 70's- AND i would never join any group of bigots who would refuse people admission because of the color of their skin.

but i was a messed up fkd up kid- who ran away from home at 17-
Getting dressed up, wearing white gloves, carying a pocketbook and going anywhere without being high would have been impossible, and likely they would have really had to stretch themselves to allow me to actually participate.

my sister joined- she was and still is the embodyment of "Betty Crocker"- and while i love her- we don't like each other much.

The scholarships SHOULD be available regardless of her eleigiblity to be a dar-ling. They are in my little NE town- They aren't 'big' scholarships- our local womens club and grange offer similar ones-

I'd let your daughter make the call- she's the one who has to live with herself.

I keep thinking of that episode of 'The Golden Girls' where Blanche tries desperately to get into a DAR-like Southern women's elitist club, then decides to tell them all to go to hell (it comes out in the end that her family were really Yankees, and she is ostracized).

I am proud of my ancestor, Joseph Warren, who was killed at the Battle of Bunker Hill. But no more proud that I am of Mother Jones. And hundreds of other American heroes. I am also proud to be descended from the Cherokee.

I see no need for a special group of genetically-elitist Anglo folks. There are already plenty of those.

I'm also descended from George Mason. No, I've never joined DAR and I never would. I don't like the history nor the idea of an exclusive club based upon heritage.

The museum is DC is great for kids, though.

Glad to meet you, cousin! What state do you reside in? My branch came to Texas in the 1830s from eastern Tennesse, and my great-great-great-grandfather founded the first Methodist congregation in Texas! woo-hoo! His brother was a doctor, like his ancestor Joseph! I think it's all very fascinating, but, now that I am an adult and really think about things for myself, I wouldn't want to join the DAR.

Now, my question for you is: are we related to Mercy Otis Warren? :)

I agree with your statement re: 'exclusive club based on heritage'. Let's have a club based on making sure that the principles our ancestors who fought in the Revolution believed in are STILL relevant today, and expanded. Like the Democratic Party.

Daughters of the Confederacy but I'm not interested.

As a genealogist, I'd enjoy talking with other folks, but I don't think we quite have the same mindset. I like the mystery of genealogy, not the "honor." There are as many bastards in my history as saints. I'm intrigued by both.

So I guess that means I would be too. But she said that this wasn't an organization that she'd consider joining. But I don't think that you have to belong to be eligible for awards or scholarships. My friend in high school won one, and I know that he wasn't a member...:shrug:

I am leaning towards no...but I am looking forward to getting a record of the genealogy that my MIL has...

Her mother is a member and my friend says that the members are snobby.

...my dad's side came over in the 1650s, apparently. (Indentured Irish) We've got a couple of people who were in the Revolutionary War. But I've never joined, never saw any reason.

Besides, I'm ALSO a first-generation American on my mother's side, and bi-ethnic at that. Don't know how that would go over. Don't care.

I'm a history buff and interested in geneology, sure. Elitism, racism, and xenophobia, not so much.

Somehow, I don't think my family would qualify :)

They were landholders and loyalists in Maine throughout the revolution. According to family lore, when people started agitating for independence in the 1770's, my ancestors raised a pole in front of their home and flew the British flag from it proudly. It stayed there until 1775 when the British attacked and burned Portland. Soon after that, their home was surrounded by "patriots" who told ordered them to take down the flag and swear loyalty, or watch their homes be burned and be run out. They pulled down the flag, but refused to swear loyalty until after the war was ended. The militia decided not to burn his house down, but he was forced to move to another part of the state when locals refused to work for him any longer.

The DAR would not be happy to know my lineage, but most estimates slaim that 30-40% of colonialists were loyal to Britain during the revolution. There's a lot of us :)

Several of my aunts are DAR members, so I could join whenever I'd like, but it is not for me.

First, I'm under 60. Most of the chapters have an older membership. Second, I work, so I couldn't attend those afternoon teas. Third, I could never afford the anyone-who-is-anyone-will-be-there charity events.

I'm just not comfortable in elitist groups. Why does the fact that my ancestors fought with George Washington make me special?

;-)

not my type of thing...it is all I can do to be a poster on here

Not for any moral reasons particularly since I have no idea what the climate of the organization is like now - I'm just not into clubs particularly the type that seem to find some sort of significance in the accident of birth.

I find my ancestors interesting - some of them did some fascinating stuff and some of them were pretty prominent - but it's something THEY did and has no bearing on what kind of person I am. Interesting info for my own family but not something I see a need to join a special group and crow about.