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DAR Library's National Index on-line 

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Online GRC Index

NATIONAL INDEX
GENEALOGICAL RECORDS COMMITTEE
REPORTS, DAR LIBRARY


The DAR's Genealogical Records Committee and Preservation of Historic Records

From its foundation in 1890, the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution has had as one of its primary purposes the preservation of historic sites and resources. The collection of genealogical records and their preservation for future generations of Americans has always been in the forefront of the DAR's efforts.

Beginning in the 1910s, the DAR made a concerted effort to have members transcribe previously unpublished records of genealogical value to assist both the staff genealogists, potential members and the public. In 1913, the DAR established the Genealogical Research Committee (subsequently renamed the Genealogical Records Committee) to coordinate this nation-wide attempt to save historical records. The result has been nearly 17,000 typescripts of records from across the country. These volumes are referred to collectively as the Genealogical Records Committee Reports, for the DAR's national committee responsible for their production. They represent one of the most important and unique segments of the collection of the DAR Library in Washington, D.C., where the entire "national" collection is located. State sets of these reports may be found in various libraries within each respective state. A portion of these volumes was microfilmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah in 1970-1972, but over half of the present collection has not been microfilmed.

These typescripts contain a tremendous amount of unique genealogical material, much of it gleaned from gravestones, family Bibles, and personal collections. Members gather together information accessible to them where they live, through family connections, or in their own genealogical papers. When a member has material she wishes to submit, she presents it to her chapter chairman, who in turn sends it on to the state chairman. The latter is responsible for assembling the report for that state each year incorporating materials which have come from the membership and chapters. Many states submit more than one volume each year. In the course of a year, approximately 300 new reports arrive at the GRC office of the DAR Library for addition to the collection.



INDEXING THE GRC REPORTS

Many of these individual volumes contain an internal index at the end of the book. This has not always been the case, however, and having an index in each book, while very important, only provides access to the information contained therein when someone picks up the particular book and looks at it. Another factor complicating the use of these reports is the fact that materials from members often come from records that members have which relate to historical families from elsewhere in the country. For example, a member in Montana might have a Bible record from Vermont that has been in her family for generations. Or, a member from Arkansas may have genealogical information on her ancestors who moved west from Virginia. In each case the submission of records would appear in the Montana and Arkansas volumes from the current year. Short of going through all 17,000 volumes of GRC Reports, one would have a very difficult time locating these sources.

To remedy this situation, a grassroots project began a few years ago to start creating state-wide indexes for each state's set of GRC Reports. The work began in Virginia, and then in Maryland and West Virginia, with a few members volunteering their time and using SkyIndex software to create these extremely valuable finding aids. The member who indexed Maryland, moved home to Oregon and has since completed an index for that state's set. Washington State started a project to index its set and is nearly finished. The Virginia member, who spearheaded the indexing of the Old Dominion's set, completed Kentucky next and moved on to Delaware. Others have joined in around the country.

In 2001, the President General, Linda Tinker Watkins, incorporated the indexing of the GRC Reports into her larger "President General's Project" to create databases, indexes and finding aids for many DAR materials. Presently, in the summer of 2002, dozens of members across the country are working to index the reports for their states under the direction of the National Chairman, Genealogical Records Committee, and in conjunction with the staffs of the DAR Library and the Information Systems Department. Portions of Florida, Iowa, New York and Nebraska have already arrived. Many other states' sets are being indexed. All indexers are volunteers utilizing specific guidelines and the same indexing software. Upon receipt of new indexes, DAR staff merge them into the evolving national index.

The result of this enormous effort is the creation of the first version of the DAR Library's "National Index to the Genealogical Records Committee Reports." Initially, only the indexes for a few states will encompass this index, but it is a wonderful start. As new indexes arrive in electronic form, the staff at DAR works to incorporate them into the national index. Images of the actual text of these volumes are not available, however; emphasis is presently on creation of this national index, a project which will take a few years to accomplish.



TREATMENT OF THE GRC SETS IN OTHER LIBRARIES

The state societies and organizations within the DAR have often placed copies of their GRC Reports in libraries in their own state. Some of these state collections are complete, while others are fragmentary or scattered in several places. The DAR Library does not have an inventory of these state materials nor an awareness of where these sets are all located.

In some cases, the recipient library has classified the individual volumes of their state DAR's GRC Reports as individual volumes and placed them throughout the collection in the appropriate subject category. In others, the library has kept them together and assigned each book volume numbers. If the DAR Library learned that the latter had taken place, it tried to obtain a list of those volume numbers and assigned them to the set in Washington, DC. Most sets, however, did not have consistant volume numbers.

The DAR Library considers the GRC Reports as a serial and strongly urges other libraries with these materials to do the same. From year to year, each new volume or volumes receive(s) the next volume number in the sequence. Retention of these volume numbers will facilitate use of these books in state sets in conjunction with the DAR Library's National Index on-line. Disruption of the sets will make the location of information more difficult for patrons.

USING THE NATIONAL INDEX

The search screen for the index is straightforward.

State: You may search "All States" or limit the search to a specific one in the drop down menu. Remember, however, that limiting the search in this way may result in information a relative living in another state submitted on your family being missed in the search.

Surname: Surnames have been entered into the index as they appeared in the report being indexed. Be creative with surname spellings which you wish to search. You may wish to search with just the "Surname" field filled in to view all references to individuals in the index.

First Name: First names have been entered into the index as they appeared in the report being indexed. Be creative with first name spellings which you wish to search.

Series: You may search by series number within the state sets, although this will limit your results.

Volume: You may search by volume number to narrow a search so it focuses on other names which appear in the same volume.

Sort by: You may have the results sorted by: "Last name," "First Name," "State," "Series," "Volume," or "Page." Each of these selections may be used to help refine your search and arrange the results in a more helpful order.

A section from the index appears below. The information provides the state from which the GRC Report with the information came; the name of the person in the report; the reference to the series number, volume and page [s1 v25 72].
VA Glover, Elizabeth s1 v25 72
VA Glover, Elizabeth s1 v149 25
MD Glover, Elizabeth s1 v21 73
MD Glover, Elizabeth Chenler s1 v128 8
OR Glover, Ellen s1 v221 165
OR Glover, Ellen s2 v19 54
OR Glover, Emily Pearl s1 v27 20

Series numbers: Beginning with volumes for 1989, the DAR Library required all states whose sets were not properly numbered to begin a Series 2 to impose order on the GRC Reports. All volumes up to and including 1988 are part of Series 1; all from 1989 forward are part of Series 2. A few states which already had consistant volume numbering for their sets, such as New York, were exempt from this policy. A few states have created many sub-sets within their collection, and the result is multiple series numbers.

Volume numbers: The volume numbers referenced in this index will likely only apply to GRC Reports located in the DAR Library in Washington because of the Library's rearrangement of these reports in recent years to facilitate indexing by volume number. Originally, most of the state sets did not have consistent volume numbering. The DAR Library's cataloging staff has taken all of the volumes received for each state, placed them in chronological order (with minor exceptions), and assigned volume numbers. In some cases, state sets with a numbering system were used as the guide for numbering the DAR Library's set. In a few other instances, state DAR sets were rearranged to match the numbering system of the DAR Library.

Older volume numbers in other libraries will likely not work for this index because of this wholesale reorganization of the national set at the DAR Library. Similarly, the volumes microfilmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah and available at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City or through loan to a Family History Center, do not have the volume numbers used by the DAR for this index because the numbers were assigned long after the microfilming was done.


WHAT STATES ARE COVERED BY THE INDEX?

The National Index is an every-name index of the GRC Reports for the states listed below. This list will continue to change as new indexes arrive.

The GRC Reports for the following states are included:
Alabama AL (69,188)
Alaska AK (327)
Arizona AZ (213,954)
Arkansas AR (3,802)
California CA (22,917)
Colorado CO (282,123)
Connecticut CT (225,104)
Delaware DE (150,890)
District of Columbia DC (89,191)
Florida FL (388,791)
Georgia GA (82,290)
Hawaii HI (3,257)
Illinois IL (380,880)
Indiana IN (44,489)
Iowa IA (132,986)
Kansas KS (107,256)
Kentucky KY (1,089,700)
Louisiana LA (415,604)
Maine ME (8,372)
Maryland MD (302,333)
Massachusetts MA (154,995)
Michigan MI (126,073)
Missouri MO (242,646)
Nebraska NE (42,692)
Nevada NV (24,115)
New Hampshire NH (63,269)
New Jersey NJ (80,422)
New Mexico NM (63,271)
New York NY (368,013)
North Carolina NC (325,854)
North Dakota ND (3,983)
Ohio OH (710,283)
Oklahoma OK (327,308)
Oregon OR (582,416)
Pennsylvania PA (539,903)
Rhode Island RI (43,525)
South Carolina SC (134,321)
South Dakota SD (5,453)
Tennessee TN (1,040,469)
Texas TX (1,044,727)
Utah UT (126,374)
Vermont VT (143,091)
Virginia VA (628,330)
Washington WA (7,584)
West Virgina WV (24,663)
Wisconsin WI (9,517)
Wyoming WY (4,643)

(10,881,394 - Total Names)



ORDERING COPIES OF PAGES REFERRED TO IN THE INDEX

All copies must be ordered through the DAR Library's Search Service. Visitors to the DAR Library may make copies from the reports themselves.

When ordering copies, please be sure to include the entire entry for which you want a copy. This would include the name in the index, the state, series number, volume number and page for the specific book in which that name appears.

Should you have any additional questions about this index or the DAR Library, please contact us at library@dar.org or call at 202-879-3229.

Special Collections (Daughters of the American Revolution)

http://www.dar.org/library/speccol.cfm#record

American Indian Collection

The DAR has long had an interest in Native Americans, and its American Indians Committee, established in 1936, "provides financial assistance and educational aid to native American youth" through support of several schools and with a scholarship program. With this activity as background, the DAR Library established a special collection in 1987 designed to assist with Native American research using existing holdings and newly donated materials. It has continued to expand since its inception. Now numbering some 2,000 volumes, the American Indian Collection provides historical and genealogical information on first peoples across the United States.

While the focus of this collection is general history and culture, genealogical studies and guidebooks are becoming more numerous. Researchers will find histories of specific Native American nations, state studies, and materials on interactions with European and African settlers. There are six shelves concerning the Cherokee alone. In addition to the special collection itself, much information on Native Amerians can be found throughout the collection under the states and their counties.

The American Indian Collection supplements another nearby gathering of materials on Native Americans, the Natural Resources Library at the Department of the Interior. This library is open to the public but does not circulate books. Its holdings on American Indians are quite extensive and contain many valuable materials for genealogical research.
American Women's History Collection

As a major women's organization, the DAR has collected women's history materials for many years. In the late 1980s the Library began to develop an organized women's history collection using existing holdings and new publications. The assembled materials focus on the role played by women in the development of the United States, the women's rights movement of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and histories of women in the various states. Records relating to women in American history are found throughout the DAR collections. A natural focus of the American Women's History Collection is women's experience during the period of the American Revolution. Other books examine legal, cultural, and family ties in broad social context.
DAR Library File Collection

The DAR Library's file collection is a mixture of materials which have come with DAR membership applications, subsequent donations by DAR members, and items given by the public. Innumerable Bible records, family studies, pamphlets, and research notes are included. Numbering an estimated 300,000 folders, the richness and variety of the collection covers the entire United States and concentrates on the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries, with significant colonial records as well.

There are no published or in-house guides to the files, which grow by several boxes each month, but the simple arrangement in one alphabet within each division of the files by the names of Revolutionary War ancestors or family surnames makes for relatively easy retrieval.
Genealogical Records Committee Collection

Numbering some 15,000 typescript volumes, the Genealogical Records Committee Reports, as they are collectively called, comprise one of the most important and unique parts of the DAR Library's holdings. DAR members have gathered and submitted these unpublished compilations of Bible, cemetery, family, vital, county, town, church, and military records since the late 1910s. The pre-1972 books were microfilmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah on nearly 3,000 microfilm rolls, but a greater number have arrived since this filming. Because the work of the Genealogical Records Committee is ongoing, users of the Library should expect to find new material throughout the year.

State DAR societies may also place copies of their reports in a library or libraries in that state. Frequently, these will be the state library, historical society, or a major public library. Sometimes there is a small State DAR library.

The DAR Library in Washington is the only research center owning nearly all of the Genealogical Records Committee Reports comprising the national set. Approximately 400-500 new books arrive each year. In-house indexes provide access to the contents of these volumes. A current project within the DAR Library seeks to enter the contents page of each Report into the cataloging record for that volume which appears in the Library's on-line catalog. These contents notes are searchable.
Manuscript Collection

A growing manuscript library of identifiable collections of genealogical research materials is one of the lesser known components of the DAR Library. Frequently, boxes and folders of notes, documents, unpublished genealogies, and indexes arrive. Examples include the Anne Waller Reddy Collection of Virginia family research performed by a Richmond genealogist in the mid-twentieth century; a two-drawer card file containing data on the Oysterbank family of New England; a largely complete run of The Hartford Times (Connecticut) genealogical queries column, 1934-1964; and Lyman Chalkley's original annotated typescript for his three-volume publication Chronicles of the Scotch-Irish Settlement in Virginia, first published by the DAR in 1912.

An extensive collection within the Manuscript Collection is the supporting files and some documentation for Frederick A. Virkus' (editor) Abridged Compendium of American Genealogy which was collected by the Institute of American Genealogy in Chicago and published in seven volumes between 1925 and 1942. This material was once housed in the Peabody Library, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland. Subsequent transfers lead to its arrival at the DAR Library.

Access to the manuscript collection is through the on-line catalog. The National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC) set directs researchers to additional manuscript sources beyond DAR holdings.

The Library often receives requests from individuals for information on a relative's research materials which "were given to the DAR." Very rarely does the staff find such a collection, but sometimes the search is successful. In the past no register of such manuscript donations was maintained, unfortunately, to help clarify such questions. A possible solution may be that the relative gave it to the local DAR chapter or state organization. They in turn may have donated it to a local genealogical or historical society. They may have kept the material for their own files. Such materials are unlikely to appear in indices to manuscript collections such as NUCMC. Researchers should exhaust all possible leads regarding such donations.

Some research notes and materials from individuals do exist on the shelves of the Library. In decades past, the staff apparently took such loose papers, bound them together, and added them to the collection as a volume. These materials appear in the catalog now as books.

With a functioning manuscript collection and proper donation procedures in place, the Library welcomes donations of research material. When such collections arrive, they are given a collection name (usually the name of the donor or compiler), accessioned, cataloged with subject tracings, and added to the Manuscript Collection for use.
Presidents' Collection

A gathering of books on the men who have served as President and Vice President of the United States and on the First Ladies is available to researchers. In 1999, the lineage society Presidential Families of the America deposited their lineage papers with the DAR Library. These materials are housed in the Librarian General's office and are open to researchers.

United States Ephemera Collection

Since the beginnings of the DAR Library in the 1890s, members and the public have donated small pamphlets, booklets, newspaper clippings, typescripts, and manuscripts. The diversity of this material covers all areas of the United States, many American families, and untold numbers of subject areas. The DAR Library staff began a project in June 2000 to catalog and arrange this material for the first time into the United States Ephemera Collection. "Ephemera," in library terms, may be defined to cover the vast array of "odds and ends" of information sources which defy easy placement on a bookshelf, in a microfilm drawer, or in an existing manuscript collection. The items in this collection appear in the main on-line catalog and should be requested at the reference desk.
W.P.A. Collection

The DAR Library owns about 1,000 volumes of the publications of the Historical Records Survey of the Works Progress Administration (later the Work Projects Administration). Because of the DAR's involvement at the local level in supporting the work of the W.P.A. during its lifetime from 1935 to 1942, the W.P.A. donated many of its publications to the DAR Library because of the work of DAR members in supporting the activities of the W.P.A.

The majority of the published volumes is in the series "Inventory of the County Archives." These inventories of county records list local records found in courthouses in the states at the time the survey was completed. Not all counties in every state have a published inventory. Even if a county of interest is not available, researchers may wish to review an inventory for another county as a representative example of the types of records which should be in any county in that state. Many of the publications have useful introductions and discussions of records and record-keeping practices.

Portions of other W.P.A series are available in the Library's special "W.P.A. Collection." These include inventories of federal records in the states, calendars of manuscript collections, guides to the records of religious bodies, and indices to a few newspapers. All are of potential value to genealogists and should not be overlooked.