Revolutionary War lineage, explained step by step

What you can get done here: work out which records you still need to prove your family line back to a Revolutionary War patriot for a DAR or SAR application, check whether the patriot's service dates fit the official period, and leave with a printed to-do list of records to find and who to contact.

Where to start: open the free family-line worksheet and type in what you already know. New to all this? Read the Roadmap guide first.

Start my family-line worksheet Read the Roadmap guide

Both tools are free, need no account, and keep everything you type in your own browser. They don't search records for you. Every fact on this site links to its official source.

The 10 guides

1. The Patriot Lineage Proof Roadmap: Proving Every Generation for DAR or SAR
   A generation-by-generation plan for documenting descent from a Revolutionary War patriot, with DAR and SAR rules side by side.
2. No Birth Certificate? Substitute Evidence That Can Prove Each Generation
   What to use when a generation has no birth record, era by era, and how lineage societies weigh substitutes.
3. How to Read a Revolutionary War Pension File, Page by Page
   Find a Revolutionary War pension file, decode its envelope, and read declarations, affidavits and widow's papers in the right order.
4. Revolutionary War Records by State: Where Each Kind of Service Was Recorded
   Work out whether an ancestor's service records sit at the National Archives or a state archive, then search the right place.
5. Bounty Land Warrants: What They Prove, and What They Don't
   How federal and state Revolutionary War bounty-land files work as evidence of service, residence and family, and where they mislead.
6. From the 1850 Census Back to 1776: Bridging the Unnamed-Household Gap
   Connect an ancestor named in the 1850 census to a Revolutionary-era household listed only by its head, using age brackets, pension clues and supporting records.
7. Patriotic Service Without a Musket: Proving Supply Taxes, Oaths, Petitions and Civil Office
   How non-military service counts for DAR and SAR, the special date windows, and what evidence to look for.
8. Same Name, Different Man: Separating Soldiers Who Share a Name
   A disambiguation checklist for proving that a Revolutionary War record belongs to your ancestor and not to another man of the same name.
9. Patriot or Loyalist? How to Determine Which Side Your Ancestor Took
   Test your ancestor's loyalty evidence from both sides before you apply, using SAR and DAR rules and Loyalist records.
10. Application Returned? Fixing Common DAR and SAR Proof Problems (Including Supplementals)
    Diagnose why a DAR or SAR application or a patriot's service was questioned, and how to fix it, from the societies' own guidance.

Free tools

• Lineage Evidence Matrix
  Type in the records you have for each generation. Get a to-do list of what's missing, where to look, and a printable plan.
• Service Window & Widow-Act Date Checker
  Type in a patriot's service dates. See whether they fit the official period and what to do next.

Written with AI and checked against quoted official sources at build time. About this site.