I've written before about my desire to join the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). I'm not really someone to participate in clubs but I really wanted to honor my patriot 5x great grandfather, Ashbel Waller. I've written about him several times - here's a sample. HERE'S MY TICKET.
Earlier this week my blogging friend, Wendy, posted on her blog related to this prompt and stated that she might close down her blog. I LOVE her blog so I was very sorry to hear this but completely understood because she is the registrar for her DAR chapter and I know that keeps her very busy. You can read her blog post HERE. I commented about how much I enjoy her blog and casually said in my comment If you ever feel the need to get involved in one more thing, you can always help me (and my patriot) get admitted to DAR.
And then things started moving very, very quickly. Within one hour Wendy replied Debi, I found a patriot for you. You can thank your grandfather Earle Martin for his lineage. Most of your ancestors arrived after the Revolution.
WHAT? My track to Ashbel Waller is through my maternal grandmother and Earle Martin was my maternal grandfather. Just like that she found another Revolutionary War patriot?
Turns out that this new (to me) patriot is Archibald McDaniel, my 4x great grandfather. I really don't know much about Archibald other than a name and some dates that I have on my tree. He was already verified through DAR so my path would be relatively easy but......I wanted to honor Ashbel Waller which Wendy said I could still do and she would help me.
And just like that, she sent me a draft of my application and had nearly all of the information I would need. I'd contacted a local chapter in 2010 and after some frustrating e-mails back and forth, I put Ashbel on the back burner and told myself "I'll get back to it". And as you might suspect, I told myself that for the next 11 years. Yes, 11 years. And then yesterday arrived and I'm so close to sending in my application - hang on, Ashbel, I'm coming for you!
I can't thank Wendy enough for guiding me through this. Okay, let's be real - she's doing more than guiding! And because of her, my FUTURE just might involve being an official DAR.
Here's how I descend from Ashbel - Clara Fitzgerald was my maternal grandmother.
