Historical Artifact
Addendum:
It was interesting to say the least.
It was really amazing how someone famous appears to have gotten into the Daughters/Sons of the American Revolution with seemingly little effort and expense.
For my own case, I had tried to get the application in and all the birth certificates, death certificates, marriage records and multitude of demands (rudely and mostly acting like I was a COMPLETE and total moron) that not only were extremely expensive to procure and very difficult to come by unless I actually WENT to the locations (HELLO, think a minute, in this economy? OMG) to find the records. At one point, I had to send to CA for a death record, went online where I was told to go and there was no record there. It was then implied that I must be a moron because I didn't know where to go. THIS is a person who is supposed to know where to go. I went, I spent the money ($50-$100.00) and wasted it because I couldn't get a refund after being told the records weren't there.
This person that I was required to talk to not only told me I WAS RUDE when I expressed frustration for the just "one more item" and essentially, "We have to have the records to get the people who aren't good enough." "It is apparent that there are definite questions in your family's past and you need to find someone who knows about them."
The only person I could ask was my Mom and she didn't know anything about the question this person from DAR wanted answered. SO we are not able to answer this question. It was almost like this DAR person WANTED to find stuff that would be seen as negative so she could go back and say, "Look at the riff raff that DARED to apply to our saintly group."
Please.
It is a group with distinctly declining membership. In our case there were paths that had been followed and there were records that indicated that the path was what it was. There are records that have been found and used for this process. In fact, I had a line that had been researched fully by death records and when I submitted that I was told that the research that had been done wasn't good enough. Although a member of the community where my family was from did a thorough research job (indicated by the line information he had sent to me) the DAR person told me "YOU MUST have the actual records, anyone can make up this line record." Wow. Why would anyone BOTHER to make that stuff up? What a terrific waste of time.
So while watching the program last night I was struck by how EASY Rob had it. Naturally a famous actor should have it easy after all they are important people (whatever, my son didn't even know who he was- the boy wants to see Paula Deen). The actual showing of the applications, that there are time constraints and that there is a huge financial burden in procuring a lot of this proof is apparently irrelevant. Besides, look at how easy it is....when someone else does all the work for you.
Must be nice.
Yes, I am still frustrated by this experience. I have spent all this time and money on this project with nothing to show for it except proof that my family is my family, which, when thinking about it is probably the most important thing anyway but as a history person I really wanted to get this all in a row.
AND do not contact me and tell me that you will help me for X dollars. I am not stupid or desperate, just broke.
While helping the boy review for a history final I ran across something I had FORGOTTEN. Marion Anderson was not allowed to sing at the DAR reception in 1939 becuase of her RACE. Eleanor Roosevelt resigned from the DAR effective immidately and arranged for Marion to sing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
Talk about perspective.....and I was annoyed the DAR was giving me the run around. Who would want to be in a group like that after what they did to lovely Marion Anderson. __________________________________________________________________________________
Last night we watched the Rob Lowe episode of Who do you think you are?It was interesting to say the least.
It was really amazing how someone famous appears to have gotten into the Daughters/Sons of the American Revolution with seemingly little effort and expense.
For my own case, I had tried to get the application in and all the birth certificates, death certificates, marriage records and multitude of demands (rudely and mostly acting like I was a COMPLETE and total moron) that not only were extremely expensive to procure and very difficult to come by unless I actually WENT to the locations (HELLO, think a minute, in this economy? OMG) to find the records. At one point, I had to send to CA for a death record, went online where I was told to go and there was no record there. It was then implied that I must be a moron because I didn't know where to go. THIS is a person who is supposed to know where to go. I went, I spent the money ($50-$100.00) and wasted it because I couldn't get a refund after being told the records weren't there.
This person that I was required to talk to not only told me I WAS RUDE when I expressed frustration for the just "one more item" and essentially, "We have to have the records to get the people who aren't good enough." "It is apparent that there are definite questions in your family's past and you need to find someone who knows about them."
The only person I could ask was my Mom and she didn't know anything about the question this person from DAR wanted answered. SO we are not able to answer this question. It was almost like this DAR person WANTED to find stuff that would be seen as negative so she could go back and say, "Look at the riff raff that DARED to apply to our saintly group."
Please.
It is a group with distinctly declining membership. In our case there were paths that had been followed and there were records that indicated that the path was what it was. There are records that have been found and used for this process. In fact, I had a line that had been researched fully by death records and when I submitted that I was told that the research that had been done wasn't good enough. Although a member of the community where my family was from did a thorough research job (indicated by the line information he had sent to me) the DAR person told me "YOU MUST have the actual records, anyone can make up this line record." Wow. Why would anyone BOTHER to make that stuff up? What a terrific waste of time.
So while watching the program last night I was struck by how EASY Rob had it. Naturally a famous actor should have it easy after all they are important people (whatever, my son didn't even know who he was- the boy wants to see Paula Deen). The actual showing of the applications, that there are time constraints and that there is a huge financial burden in procuring a lot of this proof is apparently irrelevant. Besides, look at how easy it is....when someone else does all the work for you.
Must be nice.
Yes, I am still frustrated by this experience. I have spent all this time and money on this project with nothing to show for it except proof that my family is my family, which, when thinking about it is probably the most important thing anyway but as a history person I really wanted to get this all in a row.
AND do not contact me and tell me that you will help me for X dollars. I am not stupid or desperate, just broke.
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