Club Digest: Sumter's Home Chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution

Sumter's Home Chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution

May 15, 2024, another very memorable day for Sumter's Home Chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). On this day, one of the chapter's newest members, Jeanne Gillespie Schofield, was presented with an early 1800s family register containing the names and vital statistics of members of the bloodline through which she joined the DAR. What makes this particular family register so significant is its connection to our own history as a nation. The register recording the information is an historic handwritten document on paper with a cloth backing reflecting the earliest birth year as "1761." Recording birth and death information on these paper "Registers," (some were embroidered on cloth) was a common practice in the early households of our fledgling nation. Now they are extremely rare since most have deteriorated or been destroyed for any number of reasons.

In researching Jeanne's lineage for membership in the DAR, Sumter's Home Chapter's Registrar, Susan Hatfield Saunders, happened upon the Register online. She immediately noticed that four generations of Jeanne's early family were named on the document. After contacting the current owner of the historic piece, it was discovered that she had inherited the document from her stepgrandmother, who stated that the names listed on the document were not her blood relatives but were those of her husband's. To Ms. Saunders' surprise, the current owner offered to gift the Register to Ms. Schofield. It seems that the owner had been looking for someone in the "bloodline" documented on the register who would love it as much as she had. This seemed to her like the perfect fit.

So on May 15 at the chapter's end-of-the-year tea, Chapter Regent Beverly Gulledge, along with Chapter Registrar Susan Saunders, presented the historic Register to a tearful Jeanne. It proved to be an emotional time for everyone present, as they were witnesses firsthand to a document penned around the time of our nation's creation. It was indeed a joyous occasion - one that will not soon be forgotten.