Applying to Lineage Societies

I've been interested in genealogy since early 2017, working on family trees for both my family and Andy's. I don't know how many hours I've invested in it, but it's well in the hundreds. It's a delightful combination of scavenger hunt and historical drama. I appreciate historical events so much more knowing one of my ancestors was a part of them. I've scoured online records through my Ancestry subscription, searched through cemeteries, hunted in libraries in various regions (including getting back at 1 AM after closing down the campus library in Madison WI after dropping our daughter off for her sophomore year), requested church records, sent letters to complete strangers, collected family DNA samples, searched through old newspapers, and more. I've also really enjoyed the opportunity to start planning some trips to collect more family history information, although the trips we had planned to both Ireland and Sweden this year had to be cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Along the way, I've applied to several lineage societies. Many folks might consider applying a waste of time- you have to complete detailed applications covering all of your ancestors tracking back to the event you want to prove, including birth, marriage and death records of some acceptable type (over the years I've spent at least a couple hundred dollars on vital records for various family members). I like the slight challenge and discipline that the applications pose, and I also like the idea of sustaining the historical preservation mission of these organizations, often run entirely by volunteers on a shoestring.

I was admitted into the Minnesota Territorial Pioneers in May 2018. This society is focused on documenting ancestors who were living in Minnesota prior to statehood on May 11, 1858.  On my mother's side 5 generations ago I was able to prove great-grandparents Clara Tompkins and Peter Brown were living in Minnesota prior to statehood. Minnesota Territorial Pioneers is also the little group responsible for running the log cabin at the MN State Fair. I served as a board member from Aug 2021 to Jul 2023, and have volunteered at the State Fair several times.

State Fair log cabin

I was admitted into the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) in Nov 2019. This was a more complicated application going back 8 generations on my father's side to my ancestor Benjamin Coombs, 1749-1858. Fortunately, I was able to leverage the prior approved application of a great aunt who was an avid life-long genealogist, so I only needed to gather vital record proof going back 4 generations.

I was admitted to the Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War in June 2020. This application went back 6 generations on my father's side, but a slightly different branch of the tree than the DAR application. My ancestor Charles J Ray was in the Civil War, but only for a month in 1862 when he was 35 years old and to protect Cincinnati when it was thought the Confederate Army may attack there, which did not come to pass.

Based on the work of another past genealogist in the family, I believe I could trace back to a pilgrim ancestor (defined as coming to North America prior to 1700) and apply at the National Society of Sons and Daughters of the Pilgrims, but this would be an especially tough application. We'll see if I'm up for it.