Ethan Allen and Captain de la Place. May 1775. The capture of Fort Ticonderoga, New York. Copy of engraving after Alonzo Chappel. How do you view the history you have learned while researching your families?  I recently read a great line, "History should feel like walking into someone's living room, not like sitting in a classroom." [ 1]   I hope the history I am about to share is comfortable.   Throughout my middle and high school years I always flunked the chapters of history that covered wars.  Thanks to my ancestors, I was able to learn a lot about the Revolutionary War period.   For several of my Stowe ancestors  I found muster roll cards and pay cards; these had enough information for me to search places and dates so I could picture how my ancestor was involved. I learned that, April 26, 1775, one week after Lexington and Concord, Jonah Stowe returned from Alstead, New Hampshire Colony to enlist in the Massachusetts Militia.  He fo...

  To celebrate America 250 (our 250th anniversary of independence),  Washington State Genealogical Society  will be posting articles on Revolutionary War ancestors of our members.  If you have a Revolutionary War ancestor, please send the Word document to Charles Hansen, our blog master.  Our secretary, Jill Scott, has already sent in a very interesting article on her distant grandfather who was a Green Mountain Man, a very famous militia. Please share your story with SKCGS as well.  Here is one of my ancestors--Charles Dyer Captain of Rhode Island militia. Gravestone of Charles Dyer, Shaftsbury, Bennington, Vermont Charles was a descendant of several generations of public and military service in the Rhode Island Colony.  He served throughout the war and then settled in Vermont with other family shortly after the war.  He lived a long life, dying at age 92.  He had never applied for a pension, stating that he was well off and other people nee...

Battle of Lexington and Concord, from a Public domain scan of the vintage historic postcard by Picryl. By the rude bridge that arched the flood,     Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled, Here once the embattled farmers stood,     And fired the shot heard round the world. (1) April 19 is the semiquincentennial, the 250th  Anniversary of the Battle of Lexington and Concord, the beginning of the Revolutionary War . From our grade school history classes, most of us remember about Paul Revere and his midnight ride to warn the colonists that the British were coming. It was at Lexington and Concord that the first skirmishes occurred and the "shot heard round the world" was fired. When you think about events that happened during an ancestor's lifetime, do you wonder if your ancestor was present at that event?  I do. This was during my fourth great-grandfather Jonah Stow's lifetime and through my early research of his military records, I knew that he wasn...

The Daughters of the American Revolution Library contains valuable resources for genealogical research. The Library has books, family histories, genealogies, manuscripts, Bible records, and more. It is free and open to the public. What Resources Does the Library Have ·         Print and Microform Resources ·         The Revolutionary War Ancestor Records ·         The Descendants Database ·         Genealogical Records Committee Collection ·         The Native American Collection ·         The American Women’s History Collection ·         The National Huguenot Society Collection ·         United States Ephemera Collection ·         WPA Collection DAR Print a...

  New Eclectic History of United States, 1890 Mary Elsie Thalheimer Eleanor Carothers Wilson--North Carolina I am very proud to count a woman of singular energy of mind and courage, Eleanor Carothers Wilson of Steele Creek, Mecklenburg Co., North Carolina as my 5th great grandmother. A native of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, she was the wife of Robert “Old Robin” Wilson, and they moved their growing family to North Carolina about 1760. By the time of the American Revolution, this whole family was devoted to securing our liberty, with 7 of their 11 sons serving in various campaigns of the war. Two had earlier been captured at Charleston and later paroled, including my ancestor, Robert, Jr., and later Robert, Sr. and another son, carrying supplies to General Sumter at Camden, South Carolina, were also captured. While they were still in British hands, Cornwallis moved into the Charlotte area to forage and plunder the surrounding farms, taking control of the Wilson’s farm a...