Membership

 About the SAR

  Membership Requirements

About the SAR

The SAR was organized on April 30, l889 -- the l00th anniversary of the inauguration of George Washington as our nation's first President. The Sons of the American Revolution have used the acronym SAR to identify ourselves for over l00 years. The SAR was conceived as a fraternal and civic society composed of lineal descendants of the men who wintered at Valley forge, signed the Declaration of Independence, fought in the battles of the American Revolution, served in the Continental Congress, or otherwise supported the cause of American Independence. The National Society was chartered by an Act of the United States Congress on June 6, l906. The charter was signed by President Theodore Roosevelt, who was a member of the SAR. The charter authorizes the granting of charters to societies of the various states and territories and authorizes the state societies to charter chapters within their borders. The SAR currently has over 26,000 members in over 470 chapters throughout the world.

Membership Requirements

Membership is open to any man who is over eighteen years of age, a citizen of good repute, and a direct descendant of any man or woman who served or supported the cause for independence. Acceptable service would include those with military service, those who served in government offices which supported the effort for independence, and those who performed actual service by overt acts of resistance to the authority of Great Britain.

Lineage Requirements

Applicants must show their direct descent from a qualifying ancestor. Some acceptable documents for proof of lineage would be birth, marriage, and death documentation, or wills, deeds, and probate records.

Lineage documentation can be abbreviated if you have an ancestor who is/was a member of the Sons of the American Revolution or the Daughters of the American Revolution. Say your grandmother was a member of the DAR. If you are applying using the same ancestor, while you must show your descent from the patriot ancestor, you only have to document proof of descent from your grandmother as the line from her to the revolutionary ancestor has already been proven [some older lines are now requiring further documentation to verify reliability].

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